I received this book for free from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

Last year I went to my first ever book signing and was so excited to get to meet quite a few authors at the event. One of the authors was Melissa Marr and I was so curious when I saw hoe many die hard fans of hers were there. I thought to myself “I need to read a book by this lady and see what she’s all about!” I failed to do so until this past week and I am now so happy that I finally gave one of her novels a go.

Made For You is being pretty aggressively pitched as her first foray into contemporary and that it’s a gothic novel. Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I would not shelf this novel as either of those things. Yes it takes place in present day and it does take place in the south but it doesn’t have the telling features I have come to expect of either of those labels. What I would shelf this as is a supernatural thriller. Eva is a high society rich girl living in the south and her world is rocked when she is run over one day by someone who drives off and leaves her for dead. After the accident she wakes up and can all of a sudden see people’s death if they initiate any sort of touch with her which of course comes in handy when she is trying to figure out who is picking off her friends one by one. I really liked all of these aspects of the story but to me they are what makes me incapable of buying the story as what it is being sold as.

The mystery here is a good one. Even though I did manage to call the killer in the first few chapters it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the story at all. The writing is rich and you get lost in this high society southern world as you get to know the snooty inner workings of it. While I did come to find out that I was right about who the killer was Eva’s pool of friends is quite big and we are introduced to most of them here and there making the pool of possible suspects quite large. I did second guess myself here and there which was a lot of fun and kept me fully engaged in the novel.

Also keeping things interesting is the perspectives we are given throughout Made For You. Not only do we get Eva’s perspective along with her friend Grace’s but we also get one from Judge, the killer. It was creepy to read what was going on in this person’s head and see his obsessive, twisted thoughts over Eva and his plan to get her to love him. I loved getting to go into the dark mind of the psycho behind it all and try to pick up little pieces of evidence that would reveal who he was. Marr did a great job of making us feel fully immersed in his world while still not revealing too much until later on in the story when we were to find out who it was.

All in all I had a really great time reading this one and I can’t wait to read more from Melissa over time. I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a good whodunnit with some charming southern flair.

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