Review: You'll never forget Elise Michaels!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 21, 2013
This story had a lot of voice which helped create a really strong MC. Elise, the MC, also shows a little character development, which was interesting to see unfold a little.Elise was transparent from the beginning: she had personality and lots of it. It worked well, and stayed consistent in this story. I haven't read much of modern day books with witches, and this didn't totally disappoint in that regard. There is strong language, and some sex (although not much), so if that's a turn off for you, you may not click with Elise's personality.As far as the paranormal aspect, it involves werewolves, vampires and witches. I'm interested in witchcraft, but not vamps or werewolves. Fortunately, Young doesn't go into a lot of detail regarding the vamps and werewolves, which made it bearable for me. They were there, but they weren't sucking blood like crazy, so I didn't mind them.Overall, it was an easy read with a strong magic system. If she had anything going for her, Young seemed to really know how the magic worked, and she kept that consistent. It was interesting to read about the spells they'd cast, the way they used their magic, etc. I liked this aspect, and it made me want to keep reading to see how Young would introduce different things.My biggest issues come from the characters and their relationships. It felt like it went from love triangle, to square, and back to a different triangle. By the end, I still didn't have a good understand of what her relationship with Van was. I clearly understood that they weren't committed, but why was he so annoyingly possessive and protective then? Mona, a sweet little girl, was good in herself, but I didn't really understand her purpose. She's very powerful for a ten-year-old, but by the end, she just seemed to fizzle out. With that kind of build up, I thought her power would mean something for the story, and it didn't. Elise speaks about how much she cares about Mona, and how unexpected her feelings towards Mona were. She says it a lot. Almost too much. At the end of the book, I wasn't sure I really connected with any character. Elise is supposed to be the Head Mistress, but she comes off like a 16-year-old through most of the book. That got really annoying, but at least Young kept her consistent. I'm still not even sure her actual age. She wants to reintroduce 'fun' into the school system, and just ends up acting immature most of the time. It wasn't believable for someone who should be taking responsibility for other people.Because there was a lot of backstory and history, it led to a lot of telling. I started to skim in some parts. Elise tells the history of her people at the beginning, but since I didn't know them as a reader, I wasn't too invested in learning about it.There were several misspellings, repetition in words, and some grammar mistakes, but I've seen much worse before. It wasn't too distracting, and they were mostly spaced far apart.The ending definitely threw me for a loop, but I felt no real sense of closure in it. It stirred up too many questions and introduced something out of the blue that made me feel like I'd missed something and had to go back and check.