Title: The Locket
Author: Stacey Jay
Release Date: February 8, 2011 (paperback)
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 288
Source: Bought

Overall: 4.5 Stars

Summary:

On her seventeenth birthday, Katie discovers a locket and decides to wear it for good luck. But when her boyfriend Isaac finds out she cheated on him— with their mutual best friend Mitch, no less—he dumps her, leaving her devastated.

And then a miracle happens. The locket burns on Katie's chest and she feels herself going back two weeks in time, to the night she cheated with Mitch. At first, Kate is delighted to be a better girlfriend to Isaac this time around. But as other aspects of her life become inexplicably altered, she realizes that changing the past may have had a dangerous effect on her present.

Can she make things right before the locket destroys everything—and everyone—she loves? 

My Thoughts:
After reading and loving Stacey Jay's two Megan Berry novels, I just couldn't wait to see what her next YA novel would be... and when I heard about The Locket, I just knew I had to get my hands on it right away. Well, I finally got a chance to read it the other night and it was so good! My only regret is not getting to it sooner because I think it may just be my favourite novel of hers yet!

Stacey Jay's previous novels may have centered around zombie settling, but I'm still considering The Locket as her darkest novel yet. It still retains her fun writing style but it felt like she challenged herself even more to give her readers a novel they wouldn't soon forget! And with the added aspect of a locket which goes back in time unexpectedly and the little alterations it makes to Katie's life, it constantly kept me on toes guessing what was going to happen next.

Katie is very much your average teenage girl and it's this trait of normalcy that I've always loved about Stacey Jay's writing. She writes about teens that act and speak exactly like their age! They make stupid mistakes they'll regret later, they have their immature moments and they get easily swept up in high school drama. All of these things can be applied to Katie. Even though she's been dating Isaac for a few years now and loves him so much, she still feels insignificant compared to her popular, star basketball player boyfriend who takes her for granted.

And then there's their mutual childhood best friend, Mitch, who's sweet, funny and is always there for her when she needs someone. (I'm sure you can tell which boy I was obviously rooting for from the very beginning!) So while Katie spent most of the novel convinced she had to do whatever it took to maintain her relationship with Isaac and didn't repeat her mistake of kissing Mitch, I on the other hand, was spending my time urging her to wake up and see what was in front of her all along!

The build up to the ending took me completely by surprise! A twist occurs that I didn't see coming at all, and it left me so devastated and shocked that I couldn't even form tears. As soon as it occurred, I was panicking and in disbelief... and I simply couldn't believe Stacey Jay would play with my heart this way. Anyways, I won't say more on the ending as I'll leave you to discover if the ending was happy or not... 

With one mysterious (and sometimes evil) locket, swoon-worthy romance, and a bit of time-traveling... where can you go wrong? And I can't share my thoughts on the novel without at least one mention of the cover because isn't it just so gorgeous? I fell in love with it at first sight, that's for sure!

In any case, I'm just glad I don't have to wait too long to read Stacey Jay's next novel because Juliet Immortal, the first of a two-part series, will be out August 9!