Review: A Soild Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2012
I promise to be brutally honest with my opinion, but it should not be taken as fact. Any reader should read it for themselves, before they decide if this book has any merit or not. Do not judge this book biased solely on my opinion. If you do, you might miss out on a great read. You never know. It could happen. My review may contain spoilers, but I really strive to be spoiler-free.1. Strong Main Character/ Female Heroine: Ariel is a bit needy and clingy. She does not try to be strong and live life on her own in the beginning. As time progressed, she got stronger and gained a stubborn streak in her. In the beginning she really annoyed me, but by the end, she had me charmed by her loss and her strength to move on with her life. Although I did read the excerpt to the second book, which I have a different issue with, but I will not include it in this evaluation of the book. She is a little self-centered and love-centered. Even I could see who the bad guy was, but I did not know who he actually really was. You would understand what I mean, if you have read the book. All in all, I liked Ariel and tolerated her. 3 out of 5 stars2. Strong Main Character / Male Hero: Liam has some chapters of the book from his own point of view, which I very much enjoyed. It was a nice reprieve from Ariel and I learned more about what was actually going on. It is nice to know what other characters are doing in the story and where they fit into it. Liam is a strong loyal character and boyfriend that I was disappointed with the ending. If the author wanted to keep things interesting, they should not do what this one did in the first book. Then, you are basically running off of a different plot that is only thinly connected to the first book. You thought that I would spill a juicy detail, didn’t you? Well, I am happy to disappoint. I hate reading reviews that spoil the book and I try real hard not to spoil it for you, if my review makes you interested enough to actually go read the book yourself. If I do do that, then my work has been worth it. But yes, Liam was a great aspect to the book and my attention was riveted on him and what he would do next. 4 out of 5 stars3. Strong Main Character / Evil Antagonist: Vincent, Vincent, Vincent. His evil character was SO promising, but he very much disappeared from the beginning of the book, before magically reappearing at the end. He was not such a great evil antagonist. He was gone. Someone was killing a lot of people. Then, he reappeared with his parents. It was all very muted down and all the focus was on the cute couple. 1 out of 5 stars4. Strong Minor Characters: Lane is a really interesting character, who definitely provides comedic relief for the story. He is the class clown of the little group and enjoys a good time; however, he also knows about the danger that threatens his very existence. Blake is Ariel’s best friend, but she is not really a big part of the story. Lane has a bigger role in the story than she does. Blake pushes Ariel to do things that she never would have done without being pushed, which is a good thing. Blake is not really believable to me. She is just a generic best friend, nothing special about her. There were so many other minor characters that I cannot keep all of their names straight, but I do know that there is a vampire, werewolf, and guardian angel family that decided to live in the town. I do believe that the town is remote and that is why they all moved there, but it seemed a bit extreme that they ALL knew AND liked each other. 3 out of 5 stars5. The Plot: There was an underlying story to all of the romance, but the sad part is that nothing really picked up until the last quarter of the book when everything came to a head. I personally believe that the book is too long and some parts should be taken out to give this book a faster pace. The romance was an integral part of the story and it took very long to develop and I believe that the author still could have shown that the relationship developed over almost a year without being so long. The plot is not really unique. I have read a lot of stories like this, but if it turns out that Ariel is half angel and half human, a Nephi. Then, I would say that this story would be more unique. 3 out of 5 stars6. The Setting: One of my most favorite aspects about the book is how descriptive all of the scenes are. You can really imagine anything and everything in this book. The picture is so clear and crisp in my mind. The scenery is really very beautiful and I can tell that the author spent a lot of time absorbing Mother Nature before writing the book. Lord knows that I have spent a lot of time doing this myself for my debut novel. It really makes the descriptions more beautiful, when the scenes are described accurately with natural flora found in the named area. 5 out of 5 stars7. The Dialogue: The dialogue is a little mature coming from Ariel, at times and I would expect that to come from the angels and vampires than from her. It gets a little stilted and stale at times, but not everyone can write the way teenagers talk, especially when the spelling app keeps trying to correct you. You know you are doing something right when the spelling and grammar app wants to correct you, unless you are really bad at grammar. Then, it would want to correct you as well. 3 out of 5 stars8. Engaging Surprises: There was only one surprise that happened at the end of the book, which I am very upset about, because it was not a good surprise. It was a sad surprise that causes an emotional response, which I will talk about in #10. There was a lot of predictability in this book that sucked some of the fun out of reading it, but with creating a new world there is a lot of history to cover. I just wish it was done in a lot more surprising way. 2 out of 5 stars9. Climax: I believe that the epic fight scene near the end of the book would be the climax and it is very exciting and makes the whole book really worth reading. Everything slows down in slow motion and all of the horror hits you in the face about what is happening all around Ariel. It is heart pounding and adrenaline producing just to read about it. I wish that same amount of effort was put into the rest of the book. It would have been an epic book. 4 out of 5 stars10. Emotional Response: I literally cried after the end of the fight scene an all throughout the rest of the book from thereon out. Tears kept on slipping from my eyes down my cheeks. The ending is very emotional and gripping. I wish the rest of the book was just like it. It caught my attention and I finished the ending all in one sitting. I love it when a book makes me cry. It reflects well on the author that they can actually manipulate other people’s emotions so severely. I wish more scenes in the book gave me an emotional response whether happy, angry, or sad. 4 out of 5 stars11. Ending: Like I said earlier, I read the ending all in one sitting. It was a bit disappointing for me though. I never expected that to happen to Liam and I bet other readers are just as angry about it as I am. It seems like a crime to do what that author did. It disappointed me and I thought to myself why would I finish the rest of the series? Liam is my favorite character and not having him there would lessen the enjoy ability for me. Ariel seemed to have matured and I hope for my sake that she has. 3 out of 5 stars12. The Writing: I have to say that the prologue was very uniquely phrased and written. It was a shame that the rest of the book was not written in the same style, but I did enjoy the narrative from the POV of Ariel and Liam. That was a very nice twist to the book. I just wish that I had a little bit more of Liam’s story. Another issue that I had with it was that there were a lot of grammatical mistakes that kept me distanced from the book and the writing made the story a little unbelievable at times. There was too much nonfiction and not a lot of facts that made me distance myself from the story at times, instead of immersing myself in it. The writing was not horrible, but it was only okay and I liked it a little. I just wish it was better edited and looked over before being published as a kindle book. 3 out of 5 stars13. The Artwork: I am not too crazy about the cover. It seems a little too dark, when the story does not ring that dark to me. I mean, it is dark, but not to the extreme that the cover suggests. 2 out of 5 stars14. Genre: The novel truly is a paranormal romance through and through. There was great marketing done on this one. The genre rings true and I believe that it will attract a lot of readers, if it was not for the cover.. 4 out of 5 starsOverall, I give this book 3 stars. It was enjoyable, but it was not the best thing that I have ever read. I would read the second book in the series if it was free, gifted to me, or I won it. I would not really seek it out though. There are other series that I would seek out books to before this one.