Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by Martina McAtee

Book Description:
17 year old Ember Denning has made an art of isolating herself. She prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life is a lie. Standing in the cemetery that’s been her sanctuary, she’s threatened by the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen and rescued by two people who claim to be her family. They say she’s special, that she has a supernatural gift like them…they just don’t know exactly what it is. 

They take her to a small Florida town, where Ember’s life takes a turn for the weird. She’s living with her reaper cousins, an orphaned werewolf pack, a faery and a human genius. Ember’s powers are growing stronger, morphing into something bigger than anything anybody anticipated. Ember has questions but nobody has answers. Nobody knows what she is. They only know her mysterious magical gift is trying to kill them and that beautiful dangerous boy from the cemetery may be the only thing standing between her and death. 

As Ember’s talents are revealed so are the secrets her father hid and those in power who would seek to destroy her. What’s worse, saving Ember has put her cousins in danger and turned her friend’s lives upside down. Ember must learn to embrace her magic or risk losing the family she’s pieced together.

My Thoughts:
Wow.  Ember spends her days with the dead instead of the living.  She avoids her father, but everything changes when he dies.  She meets a whole new set of people and her life is turned upside-down! Her family that finds her is only a small portion of the secrets her father was keeping from her.  They know she has a power but no one really knows anything about it. Her power grows and she is a danger to everyone!
Ok, this book has a LOT of supernaturals and that made me oh so happy.  The author does a great job with a steady pace throughout.  It is obvious that this is going to be a good series of books because the overall concept is explained and some questions answered, but there are still so many more to be answered.  I liked Ember.  She handles her transitions pretty well.  I liked the dialogue and the alternating POVs of the story.  It made each of the characters seem more 'real' and I liked seeing it from different angles.  I'm wondering how the author is going to 'fix' some of the things that were left open and cannot wait to see how it is all resolved.
This was a 4/5 for me and I can't wait for book 2 to come out!

Thank you tot he author/publisher for the review copy of this book (via PUYB).  I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.