Made for You by Melissa Marr blog tour with review and giveaway @melissa_marr @harperteen @TLCBookTours

Happy Hump Day! We are today's stop on the Made For You blog tour. Being Melissa Marr fans, we are stoked to feature her latest YA book. Keep reading to learn all about Made For You, check out our review, and enter our giveaway to win a finished copy of the book. Have a great day!

Made for You by Melissa Marr

YA mystery thriller

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published September 16th 2014 by HarperCollins 

Bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely books Melissa Marr’s first contemporary YA novel is a twisted southern gothic tale of obsession, romance, and murder. A killer is obsessed with Eva Tilling. Can she stop him, or will he claim her?

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

purchase links: Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

I loved Melissa Marr's take on the fae with her dark and unique Wicked Lovely YA series. This is the first time I've read a contemporary written by her and again I was thoroughly taken with her obscure version of a contemporary Gothic thriller mystery in Made For You.

For the town's "It" girl, Eva has it all: popularity, the family names with instant recognition which also garners respect, the hot boyfriend, the close circle of longtime friends. But she's nice. As the main narrator--there are some other narrators as well but Eva tells her story the longest--we see what a nice, normal teen girl she is, until she gets hurt. Waking up in a hospital, she spots her closest friend Grace and her mother and wonders why she's there. We feel for her since her parents are hardly around as their travels take them around the world. Grace's mom, Mrs. Yeung, is her substitute mother. Eva awakens in pain and discomfort, and with a strange 'new' gift--she can see a person's death with a touch. Cue creepy movie music. Where's Johnny from The Dead Zone?

Marr uses the Gothic setting of the small southern town of Jessup, North Carolina with wonderfully chilling results. We can smell the trees, hear the wind, feel the coldness of someone dying as Eva does. I like that Eva isn't the typical mean girl, she's more bored with her predicament until she learns someone tried to kill her. She seemed to move along in life letting others lead her and being okay with that. That did get under my skin. As the story progressed and the conflict (and murders) escalated, Eva did step up to take some level of control making her more endearing. The one narrator I couldn't really get into was Judge and that was for a very good reason. It's interesting to try to understand the mind of a killer and this one was very disturbing. 

The mystery aspect was well done and I enjoyed the interactions with Eva's friends and schoolmates. The pacing was consistent up until the middle where it did slow down, but as Eva uses her gift to keep her friends breathing, the pace revved up for a satisfying ending. The one part I felt seemed hasty was the relationship between Eva and Nate. Yes, they had a 'history' as best friends until middle school and seeing them reconnect had its moments (they made a 'nice' couple), but the guy did treat her as though she didn't exist for years. I wouldn't have forgotten that no matter how hot he was. And why did he do that to her anyway? Because his parents divorced? That part needed closure.

Made For You is a chilling read and great to jump into especially this time of year as Halloween approaches. The story reminded me a bit of Kimberly Derting's Body Finder series (girl with the gift of touch and also narrated by the killer) and some classic Gothic tales. I still love Marr's world of the dark fae, but I really liked her foray into this other genre too.

Rating: 4

Cover comment:

This cover makes me think of Clarice Starling and The Silence of the Lambs for some strange reason. Weird and uncomfortable, I'm not crazy about it but it works in establishing a creepy vibe.

Book source:

I received a promotional copy in return for my honest review during a blog tour.

About the author:

Melissa Marr is the author of the internationally bestselling Wicked Lovely series (currently available in 26 languages). In adult fiction, she is the author of the award-winning novel, Graveminder, and the newly released, The Arrivals. With Kelley Armstrong, Melissa is the co-editor of two anthologies and co-author of the Blackwell Pages trilogy (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), a children’s series about the Norse myth of Ragnarök. Her upcoming HarperCollins 2014 release, Made For You, utilizes both her graduate degree in Southern Literature and her personal experience with stalkers in a story about a killer who terrorizes a small North Carolina town.

Melissa lives in Virginia with her family. You can visit her online at www.melissamarrbooks.com or on Twitter (@melissa_marr), Tumblr, or Facebook.

Giveaway:
Want to win a copy of the book, Made For You? Simply leave a reply with your name and contact info along with an answer to this question: What's your favorite mystery/thriller book or movie? Good luck! Our giveaway is open to US only and closes on Oct. 11, 2014.

Follow the tour:

Tuesday, September 16th
 The Best Books Ever

Wednesday, September 17th
From the TBR Pile

Thursday, September 18th
Snowdrop Dreams of Books

Thursday, September 18th
About to Read

Friday, September 19th
Bewitched Bookworms

Tuesday, September 23rd
About to Read – author Q&A

Wednesday, September 24th
Lost in a Great Book

Thursday, September 25th
Supernatural Snark

Monday, September 29th
Paperback Princess

Tuesday, September 30th
Bibliophilia, Please

Wednesday, October 1st
Reader Girls Blog

Thursday, October 2nd
Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, October 6th
Writing Whimsy

Tuesday, October 7th
Books à la Mode

Wednesday, October 8th
Sweet Southern Home

Thursday, October 9th
booknerd

Friday, October 10th
Book Marks the Spot