I read and love YA books of pretty much every genre.
All the stars!
**Minor spoilers, but only for the first 4-5 chapters, which you can download as a free eBook from any retailer.**
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown starts off with the main character, Tana, waking up in a bathtub after a party. She goes into the living room, and finds the ravaged bodies of the other partygoers. Then she goes to find her shoes and phone, but discovers her ex-boyfriend tied to a bed, with a vampire chained at the foot instead. That's the first chapter. That's when I got sucked in. I know, it doesn't seem like enough, but Holly's descriptions and word choice made everything flow so nicely, I kept turning pages.
The rest of the book flowed just as well as the first chapter, even though the main storyline was broken up every so often by flashbacks Tana had of her mother (background: Tana's mother was infected when Tana was 10, and made it 37 days before Tana unlocked the door. She then attacked Tana in bloodlust, and was killed by her husband before she could do any real damage.) or other POVs. In fact, the flashbacks and POV changes enhanced the plot, as they should. I especially liked Gavriel's POV (the vampire chained to the bed), because while it was infrequent enough to keep much of him still a mystery, it did shed some light on an otherwise shadowy character.
The ending was superb! And the outcome at the end of the "final battle" was quite unexpected. I can't go into more detail without spoiling, so I'm going to leave it at that. I loved how all throughout the novel you could see that Coldtown was inspired by the short story of the same name, especially the very end. Reading those last 2-3 pages made my little fangirl heart go "YESSSSS!" Holly is quite an amazing storyteller, and I think this is my favorite of her novels, and most definitely one of my favorite vampire novels.
*I received this book from the publisher at BEA. That fact in no way colored my opinion of this book. I was in no way paid for my review.*