all hearthfires & holocausts

I was given this galley free of charge from NetGalley.This has so much potential to be a truly unique, gripping paranormal love story. I haven't read many ghost-centric stories in this genre, though I'm sure they exist, and was excited to see a new spin on the young adult romance. I was disappointed. Though the premise had potential, the execution was lacking. The writing was rambling and repetitive, and though I know it was in the voice of an eighteen year old girl, didn't feel smart. I never felt connected to Amelia. Perhaps it was because we knew so little about her; her story and personality emerged so slowly at times I wondered if the author had a plan or was just going to throw different elements into the mix at will until something cohesive developed. Unfortunately... in my opinion, that never happened. Amelia could do calculus with little effort, but had trouble stringing the simplest logic together about her own state when the answer was so clear it was as though she was missing it deliberately. Joshua was cute and sweet, but we never really learned much about him other than that he has--coincidentally--a powerful Seer in his very close knit family, which made his acceptance of the existence of ghosts very easy. Such a helpful coincidence. There was no development of their relationship--no explanation of why a seemingly normal eighteen year old boy would want to touch and kiss a ghost. You know, someone who's dead? I mean, I get that he's thankful she saved him, but that's taking gratitude a little too far if there's no other explanation for their 'connection' other than--of course!--the electric sparks when they touch.(I'm thinking I seriously missed out as a teenager according to all these young adult authors. No boy ever electrocuted me.)I could have maybe forgiven those issues since they seem to be the tenets of the recent young adult lit, but added to that a meandering and stilted plot, horribly flat and trite dialogue, and the gag worthy last few lines of the epilogue (dude, Amelia. You just kicked some major underworld ass--and now you're simpering and practically begging your boyfriend to figure out a way to make you live again? An understandable desire and man is that brick of foreshadowing probably really heavy to carry around, but maybe you could, I don't know, take a stand and try to figure it out yourself instead of waiting for the big strong man to do it for you?) I could only manage to give this two stars.