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The Year of Four is the first book in the Phoebe Pope series by Nya Jade. The Phoebe Pope series is a young adult paranormal romance featuring a magical boarding school for shifters. You all know I am a sucker for a magical school setting, and this one was particularly cool for two reasons. One, it sits below a normal boarding school, and the students attend classes both "above" and "below". I loved the mixing of the students from the two schools, and I really loved the idea that the regular school "hid" the shifter school. And the second reason I loved this setting was that this was no ordinary school for shifters...no this was a secret spy school. Where they are training animal shifters of all kinds to be spies! How awesome is that? I have never seen this spin the boarding school idea and I couldn't wait to dive into the series.

I also really, really love the cover changes the series got. I think the new covers are perfect for the story. And I'm not sure if this is unique the to new cover editions or not, but I absolutely loved the illustrations in the book as well. The Year of Four follows Phoebe Pope and a group of other students and shifters in their school year. Like I mentioned before, I loved the mixing of the normal and the paranormal. I thought it added so many layers of excitement to the story. Honestly, this book really surprised me. When I first started reading, I thought the story was going to be one thing- where we trained Phoebe and the other new shifters to fight and ultimately kill Vigos- these horribly scary shifter monsters that are plaguing the earth. But then the story soon morphed into something much more, with lots of mysterious characters ans secrets. I really enjoyed myself with this book, and I am so so happy that I have the second one because I can't wait to dive in and continue the story.

I loved the whole cast of characters but I loved Phoebe the most. I feel like Nya Jade did a fantastic job of fleshing out her character. I felt like she was a real life friend that was telling me about her adventures. She felt so real to me. She is going to be a character that I know I am going to continue to love in upcoming books because I felt like we really got to know the way she thinks and learn what makes her, her. That is my favorite part of a book. When an author can make you think the main character is a real person, then I know they have totally won me over.

Bottom line: The Year of Four was a pretty great start to the phoebe pope series. I might have missed this series when it first released in 2012, but I am super happy that I found it now. It kind of reminded me of The Shapeshifter's Secret series by Heather Oslter, which I really enjoyed. Except Pheobe Pope has a big twist in the story that makes it totally unique and a lot of fun. This series will be great for people who really enjoy a magical school setting, love adventure and love paranormal books featuring shifters. Bring on book 2!

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs