Review: When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You #1) by Jenny Carroll

Title: When Lightning Strikes

Series: 1-800-Where-R-You #1

Author: Meg Cabot (as Jenny Carroll)

Genre: YA, paranormal, mystery

Publication date: February 2001

Published by: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Source: Borrowed from library

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Synopsis:

Jess Mastriani has never been what you'd call a typical Midwestern teenager—her extracurricular activities, instead of cheerleading or 4-H, include fist-fights with the football team and month-long stints in detention. A part of Jess would like to be the prom queen her mother has always envisioned her being, but another part is secretly counting the days until she's saved up enough money to buy her own Harley.

Then something happens that guarantees Jess will be one of the in-crowd... at least until her newfound talent ends up getting her dead.

My rating: ★★★★☆
It's a typical day at school for Jess--beating up guys bigger than her, going to detention, that sort of thing. But on her typical walk home from school, things take a weird turn... Jess gets struck by lightning! Shocking, I know. (see what I did there? Eh? Ehhh? Oh, I give up...) Anyway, Jess wasn't majorly hurt or anything, so that's great! Until she wakes up the next morning knowing where a missing kid is... Turns out the lightning strike gave her the weird ability to find people who are missing. Useful, but it could also put her in danger under the right (or wrong) circumstances.

The concept of the book is what initially caught my attention, and I just thought it was a very interesting and cool power to have! I loved it! Moreover, I loved Jess!! She is so tough and fun and oh-so sassy! I really loved the voice of the book and being inside Jess's head. It was never a dull moment :) (which is always a good thing!)

About halfway through the book, I actually put it down, thinking the pace of the book would slow with the change of scenery that I wasn't really looking forward to. But boy, was I wrong! It was still as good as the first half! I should've known better, especially with the rebel, sassmaster that is Jess, lol.

When Lightning Strikes had some awesome action scenes, an interesting concept, very likable characters... Overall, I thought it was a great start to the series. I'm very interested to see where Jess's powers will take her next. Oh, I also found out that there was a show based on this series... What?! Intriguing.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)