Reviewing Holding Smoke by Elle Cosimano

 Holding Smoke by Elle Cosimano 4*

BLURB: John "Smoke" Conlan is serving time for two murders but he wasn't the one who murdered his English teacher, and he never intended to kill the only other witness to the crime. A dangerous juvenile rehabilitation center in Denver, Colorado, known as the Y, is Smoke's new home and the only one he believes he deserves.
But, unlike his fellow inmates, Smoke is not in constant imprisonment. After a near death experience leaves him with the ability to shed his physical body at will, Smoke is able to travel freely outside the concrete walls of the Y, gathering information for himself and his fellow inmates while they're asleep in their beds. Convinced his future is only as bright as the fluorescent lights in his cell, Smoke doesn't care that the "threads" that bind his soul to his body are wearing thin-that one day he may not make it back in time. That is, until he meets Pink, a tough, resourceful girl who is sees him for who he truly is and wants to help him clear his name. 
Now Smoke is on a journey to redemption he never thought possible. With Pink's help, Smoke may be able to reveal the true killer, but the closer they get to the truth, the more deadly their search becomes. The web of lies, deceit, and corruption that put Smoke behind bars is more tangled than they could have ever imagined. With both of their lives on the line, Smoke will have to decide how much he's willing to risk, and if he can envision a future worth fighting for.

My Review: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book as it was a good steady read with plenty of twists and turns, and a believable storyline, given that the main character was in Juvenile Prison for two murders. It was definitely outside my normal reading criteria as it's a YA book, and at my age I don't always enjoy those, and also it is set in a prison which is not the kind of place I usually like to read about either. Yet somehow Elle manages to both keep my interest and make me sympathetic towards the guys in there (well some of them at least). As I hate giving spoilers I won't go into the storyline too much but I will give away a small one that irked me. In the blurb it says John had a near death experience yet in the book it says he was dead for 6 minutes. I get really irked when the blurb isn't accurate about the story but that's just my personal quirk but, like hating cliffhangers but loving a certain series that does it all the time, I can ignore this when the story is as good as this one was.
If you want to read a YA that is an enjoyable read with great characters and a little bit of many genres then this is the book for you.