Serial Hottie by Kelly Oram

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Bluefields

Pages: 397pgs

The Story

Ellie's sweet sixteen is a summer of firsts.

First car. First kiss. First boyfriend. First serial-killing stalker?

Hockey-obsessed tomboy Eleanor Westley has never been the object of a guy's affection before. So when the hottest boy she's ever seen moves in across the street and starts treating her like she's the center of his universe, naturally she's going to be a little skeptical. But everything starts to make sense when girls who look just like Ellie start dying all around the city. Obviously the new guy is the killer, and of course he only likes her because he wants to slice her into tiny pieces. Right?

The more Ellie gets to know Seth the more she's convinced he's a psychopathic killer. The problem is he's the sweetest psychopathic killer she's ever met. Not to mention he's brutally hot. No matter how hard she tries, she can't help but fall for him. Will Ellie find true love, or will her summer of firsts turn out to be a summer of lasts?

The Review

A big thanks to the author for providing me a review copy of the book!

This is the first book I've read of Kelly Oram's and it most certainly won't be my last. Now I really enjoyed the concept of this book, I really did. The reason why I wanted to read this book so badly was because I love anything that has something to do with serial killers and I've always loved these certain books where the killer is closer than you think or rather you fall in love with the killer and so on. It just has this exciting element about it like the TV show Dexter does. And, on the plus side, what made me enjoy SERIAL HOTTIE even more than I thought I would was that it also had this Nancy Drew vibe to it with a slight hint of your classic horror movie of predictability and boy did I love it!

SERIAL HOTTIE is a fluffy but a really intense read for the most part, and what did it for me was the characters alone - even when they frustrated me so many times you lost count and I often was yelling at them saying, "Why did you just do that?!". But for our main character, Ellie, she's a total tomboy compared to her sister, Angela, who is the complete opposite. Ellie is someone who plays hockey, hates wearing girly clothes (which I can totally understand), and let's just say she's not the kind of girl who attracts your average guy because she is mostly 'just friends' with them instead. Honestly . . . Ellie was the easiest person to connect with in the book because for most of my childhood I was your typical tomboy and wanting to do things boys were doing at a younger age, so I loved that part about her. Even her sister, Angela, was a real hoot to have in a book such as this one and boy thank god for her humor - not to mention her brains - when it came to the new boy in town, Seth, whom is the kind of boy you're going to either love or love to hate, or just plainly hate, hate, hate.

Apart from the girls, Seth was the only captivating boy character in the book and never have I been so conflicted with a male character before. It's a first for me. Seth is someone you want to love and trust, but then once he goes all weird on Ellie's character, especially when a killer is supposedly on the loose and he starts to get way too involved, you just didn't want to trust him anymore. But here's the thing about his character: He has serial killer tendencies - oh my god, I'm not kidding here. Ellie suspects he is the local serial killer and it's no wonder why her thoughts had always led back to him. After all, Seth is really creepy. Really, really creepy. He was just always there, he was saying things killers would say to their victims prior to the killings (it's called stalking your prey), then he was all possessive-like and controlling over Ellie, and oh yeah, Seth does have a thing for knives (who doesn't?) and a bad temper which explodes at the worst possible times too. Call him whatever you like, but I might not have loved him nor swoon for him, but I did kind of like him. I shouldn't but I did and the fun part . . . ? Honestly I have no idea why I like him so much because really . . . this boy right here has no business dating girls because he's not of the stable kind. Still . . . I liked him. So if you can't love a male character for confusing you on so many levels and make you love to hate him, then I don't know what else you could possibly want from a young adult book!

Overall, SERIAL HOTTIE was such a fun, quick read and if you love a book with crossovers between Nancy Drew, Dexter, Veronica Mars, and a little bit of the horror/thriller film elements, then I would highly recommend this book to you! It's fun . . . a little creepy perhaps but fun.

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars