Crossfades by William Todd Rose + a Giveaway

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm part of the TLC book tour for William Todd Rose's Crossfades. There's a tour wide giveaway on this one, so do be sure to scroll through to the end for that.

Chuck has an unusual job. Yes, he gets up every morning and hops on the subway just like everyone else. But when he gets off, Chuck takes a second train with a very limited passenger list. His office lies hidden fifteen stories underground and his officemate, the one who basically gives Chuck his assignments, is comatose. 

See Chuck works for a group that helps send the souls of the dead where they belong. Sometimes those souls become trapped between our world and the next. They call this the Crossfades, a borderland the soul creates and inhabits when they aren't ready to believe they've died. It's Chuck's job to enter the Crossfades and convince the soul that their new reality is anything but. It isn't terribly difficult or dangerous at Chuck's level, but when a routine job turns into something much more sinister Chuck soon finds his very existence at risk. 

This is a cool concept for a series: a super secret organization that recruits employees through standard psychological tests - you know, the ones they do in college. I myself had to participate in at least three during my Psych 101 semester as part of my grade. Anyway, the test was just the beginning for Chuck and he soon found himself part of said organization.

The Crossfades were definitely cool. William Todd Rose describes these magical and horrific worlds with such great detail, lulling us in the beginning with a pleasant alternate world before throwing us into a nightmare created by a mind so twisted even our hero may have trouble defeating it.

Crossfades is just the first novella to feature The Institute. It's out now from Penguin Random's Hydra imprint. The second installment, Bleedovers, follows in September and I for one am looking forward to seeing what's in store. I'm particularly interested in learning more about The Institute itself and hope that'll play a larger role the second time around. Their basics are included in this first outing but that's about it. Though that certainly makes them more mysterious, it also left me with a lot of questions. Questions regarding some of the why, though, nothing pertaining to the actual story itself. Basically William Todd Rose did his job, he left me wanting - and looking forward to - more.

Rating: 3.5/5

And now for the giveaway. Again this is a tour wide giveaway hosted by the publisher. To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. Check back here in September for the review of Bleedovers!

For more on William Todd Rose and his work, you can visit his website here. You can also like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.