Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

5 wonderful peanut butter cookies coated with chocolate.

Cover Love: YES!! How creepy is this cover? And I love the colors.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
I am sure the author hates to get this, but the synopsis reminded me of my favorite TV show, Supernatural. How could I not want to read this?! Here's it is from Good Reads:

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

I Kept Reading Because: The first night I was reading before bed and I got to the part when Cas first encounters Anna. It is a chilling scene. At the same time a breeze in my house blew my bedroom door shut. It was the perfect touch. I pretty much read non-stop after that!

Romance?: Yes!

What I Liked (& Didn't):
Ghost stories are hard to write. In fact, scary books are hard to write. I normally don't get scared from books. This was a well written scary book because it scared the beejeezus out of me! The setting was so well described I could see myself there. Anna and the other ghosts were so creepy and Cas' interactions with them always had tension and suspense to them. It got my heart racing!

Cas was self assured and confident, a great main character. I couldn't help myself but I kept picturing a young Dean Winchester as Cas while I was reading. When we meet Cas he is totally focused. He know what he has to do and goes about it methodically. Anna throws him for a huge loop. Cas becomes less sure of himself and does a lot of growing through the course of his dealings with Anna. He also lets people into his circle of friends. Adding friends to his life and work make him an even better Cas by the book's end.

I liked Cas' mom a lot. She supports Cas and his work even though it was what took her husband away from her. I was also glad the author explained that Cas' dad left them with enough money so that Cas could continue his father's work and they wouldn't have to worry. I am not sure that he would have wanted Cas to follow in his footsteps, however.

Anna 's story was so heartbreaking!

This is a ghost story and it is scary, but there were so many more emotions throughout the book. Ultimately it is a great coming of age story!

To Sum Up:  Pick it up sometime in October when it is closer to Halloween for extra chills!

Book won from TorTeen (I wanted to win this so much I entered every contest I could find. It finally worked!).