Review: It seemed like a good story and I wanted to like it but....
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
Spoiler alert. Scenes and situations from the book are mentioned in this review. I bought the book because I love paranormal stories and it sounded good. Even though the cover art looked familiar, I just thought another author must have used a similar image or something and so I went ahead and bought it. Once I started reading it though I'm sad to say I was disappointed and the story seemed familiar to me, but more about that at the end of my review. Certain things were left open and unanswered, built up then forgotten and not explained or mentioned again. Some situations made no sense at all and were poorly explained. I think it could be a good story, if more thought is put into the storyline and it is re-edited to make sense and have better continuity.I felt like certain parts were built up too much and then dropped while others weren't built up enough and should have been given more detail or explanation to make situations more realistic and believable. For instance the bit in the beginning about the students parents receiving a letter about a new student who had problems at his previous school. Which makes no sense, is totally unrealistic and then it was just dropped, never mentioned again as to why this vampire kid was 1) Attending school at all since he has no family to speak of and is over 400 years old and 2) why he was supposedly written about and reported in a letter to all the parents of the school's students and 3) He goes from being a supposedly shy kid who is being tutored in detention and resents it since he didn't do anything to even deserve a detention or if he is deserving of a detention or tutoring it's not mentioned why, to suddenly sharing his most personal secrets to the girl who's tutoring him, which by the way are also supposedly "forbidden" secrets NEVER to be shared with humans? All within little over a week of being thrown together with a girl in detention because she looked at him? The whole detention thing was weird also. The girl turns around to watch the "new kid" take his seat and gets a detention for it? It is implied that the teacher hates her but is never explained why and it is unrealistic to me that she would even get a detention in the first place & be forced to tutor the "new kid" just for watching him take his seat. Then after a week of these detentions he shares with her forbidden secrets about his "kind" and off they go running for their lives all because he shared his secret dream walking ability thing with her. I don't know, I wanted to like the story, but it just seemed poorly thought out, didn't draw me in, and needs more thought and explanation given to certain details that are built up then just dropped. I was so busy wondering what should have been mentioned or explained and wasn't, like wondering if I had missed things or something, that I couldn't get drawn into the story.I ended up skimming pages just to see how it ended out of curiosity but unable to really read through the whole book page by page. I also went back a few times to the beginning looking for things that were mentioned to have happened or to have been said, but weren't. It was like I was missing things but when I went back looking for them they weren't there, but had been referred to like they were. I don't know. If you want a book that you can read quickly and not get too invested in then this is the book for you. I personally won't be buying the second book in this series, it just wasn't my "cup of tea" I guess.Also, I was VERY disappointed to find out this book had been put out before and the author just changed the title and the names of a few of the characters and put this story out like it was a new one when it was really one that she had put out before and just briefly changed a few names. Other author's who I have read and who have revised or improved upon their earlier series MENTION the fact that they have done this, so as to not TRICK people into buying the same story TWICE!!! This is a Sneaky and disappointing way to get profits to say the least. If the author wants to build up a loyal readership following this is NOT the way to do it! It just makes people mad to have wasted money on the same story TWICE when it wasn't improved upon or anything, just given a new title and changed the names of a few of the characters!! Makes people not want to try any other books by the author because who really knows if it REALLY IS A NEW BOOK or an OLD ONE RENAMED!! Amazon should NOT let people trick people into buying their books this way. It's sneaky, shady, and makes the author appear lazy, greedy and untrustworthy! I can understand getting some time and experience under ones belt and wanting to improve upon earlier works. I have read other author's who have done this, but they MENTIONED it up front to let people know, especially if the title had been changed, in case people had already read it! And usually also give the improved upon works for free as an UPDATE to those who bought it when it first came out before the do-over!!