Night Shift (Night Shift Series #1) Review

** Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an ARC of the book in return for an honest review. 3 stars!!! When I started this book, I thought the premise was pretty interesting. However, once I progressed through the story, I found that some parts captured my attention while others were severely lacking or dry. The initial plot for the book revolves around our MC Daniel who has dropped out of high school after the loss of his parents. He undertakes the job of a night guard at the glamorous Willard's department store in New York City. He quickly realises that nothing is quite as it seems and learns that the place holds a lot of secrets than just the rumored ghost stories. I found the overall worldbuilding and descriptions of Willard's to be one of the aspects of the book that I really enjoyed. The author's writing and narrative style is pretty fluid and as a reader it is quite easy to visualise the world that is created. I found the chapter sizes to be also easily palatable and there wasn't a whole lot of info dumping. The bite size chapters made for a quick read and the plot pace is quite brisk. Unnecessary details were just edited out and the essential elements were left in for the reader to enjoy. With regards to character development, I thought Daniel as a MC was pretty well rounded. He was easily relatable and likeable as well. I found his backstory with regards to his loss to be exceptionally heart wrenching. I liked how the author delved into his grief and his journey of acceptance. With each chapter, I found that his character grew. Unfortunately, this didn't transfer to the minor characters. I feel with the author being so concentrated on the MC, the others just turned into props. I couldn't connect with any of them. This was especially the case with Mary. I get that the author wanted to give the audience a bit of romance. But I felt the story would have been better without it. The paranormal angle of the story made it also just too weird. Plus, it felt very contrived and clunky. It was as though the romance was done for just the sake of it. There's no real connection, it doesn't have the feels. It was also all insta-romance. And did I mention there's some kind of love-triange? That's so cliched. In addition to this, we don't get any backstories for the minor characters. This led to them being not really fleshed out. I'm hoping that the sequel focuses more on character development in this regard. Otherwise, the story would remain static and flat like in this one. Other than that, the story's mystery element was enjoyable. The plot twists and devices kept me engaged. It's not an overly complex story but then the author has made it so in order to get a series out of it. But, nonetheless, the history and secrets of Willard's has enough potential for a great series. I do look forward to reading the sequel and would recommend giving the book a try if you are looking for something new to read in the YA genre.

#youngadult #mystery #paranormal #romance #BRMyers