Through the Lens by Shannon Dermott

Through the Lens by Shannon Dermott
Published: 22 November 2012

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Shannon released a contemporary novel, while not my regular read, I knew I'd have to read it. I love how she writes romance in her Cambion series, and having been a beta reader for the first book in her new series, Remember, I knew she'd done a great job there too.

We're led into the story knowing that Jessa has just lost weight, having been the fat twin. She's not like her identical twin Jenna, who is beautiful and part of the popular crowd. Jessa doesn't see herself as beautiful and prefers to just stick with her two best friends. She lacks the confidence of her sister and so does nothing about her crust on Josh, one of the popular guys at school, who used to date her sister.

One weekend, with nothing better to do, she helps her dad clean out the attic and comes across an old camera. She heads out to take some photographs, not realising that this is about to change her life. While snapping away at a local park, she suddenly comes across a gorgeous guy sitting on a bench, lost in thought and begins snapping photos of him. When he notices, he takes her into the Butterfly Museum where he works and allows her to take pictures there.

Before she knows it, she has a job and two new friends, Ethan and his girlfriend Allie. Bummer, because Jessa has a major crush on Ethan but really likes Allie too so has to keep reminding herself that he's her friends boyfriend.

Things change one night, when Jessa spots an anklet on Ethan's leg, and immediately jumps to conclusions causing them to have a falling out. So when her old crush, Josh, starts showing an interest in her, she decides to give it a go.

This book had a thriller mystery kind of feel to it. Plenty of suspense and I was on the edge of my seat while reading. I really enjoyed the romance, as I had expected to and the characters were well written and awesome. Ethan = swooning.....It wasn't predictable at all as I really couldn't figure out the direction that this book was going to take, every turn of the page left me anticipating something awful happening.

The only negative thing I would have to say about this book is that I felt the ending to be a bit rushed. I felt it could have been played out a bit more with more detail. It did however, end well, and realistically. I can't wait for the next book, Broken Lens, which continues on but is written from Ethan's POV, while he's away at college.

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