Hereafter

Title: Hereafter

Author: Tara Hudson

Genre: YA/Paranormal Romance

Release Date: June 7, 2011

My Rating:
♥♥♥♥

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.
Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.

Via Goodreads

I loved this book!  When I first read the summary, I was like "Hey, this is just like The Hidden, but the dead and living are switched around."  But I could not have been more inaccurate; The Hidden and Hereafter have totally different writing styles, characters, and....well, everything.
At first, the writing did seem a tiny bit juvenile, sort of like reading a lower-grade book, but that really wasn't a problem because the vocabulary seemed to become more advanced the farther I read on (I have a problem reading books that have bad vocab.  My little pet peeve).
It was a bit difficult to delve into because in the beginning it seemed all very plain and just 'I'm dead.....yup.'  But never fear, that part also becomes more complex as the story progresses.
I was seriously enthralled into this book after about the first hundred pages; I totally couldn't put it down.
My two favorite characters (Joshua & Amelia) were such a joy to watch as their relationship blossomed and turned into something far more serious than a casual friendship.  They became dear to one another even though they were polar opposites.
There is a lot of rambling in this book, I mean, she is dead with no one to converse with, so she has a lot of stuff going on in her cranium.  It wasn't necessarily boring rambling, but I did get tired of it after a while.  Hudson probably should have deleted a lot of the unnecessary narration just to make it less 'I'm totally talking to myself 24/7' and more.... dialogue-ish.
Hereafter was a wonderful read and I would definitely recommend the book to anyone trying to escape the realm of fallen angels, fairies, and all that deliciously good stuff that becomes very trite, very fast.
Overall, I am giving Hereafter a 4/5 because of it's unique plot-line, but it was slightly lacking in substantial, mature language.