Review: Love You To Death
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2013
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. I downloaded this book for free on Amazon.com. This book was not suggested nor "gifted" to me by the author. I have no affiliation with the author or his/her publisher.1. Strong Main Character/ Female Heroine: Liz or should I call you Elizabeth? Anyways, Liz is the female protagonist of this story and the reader only ever reads from her perspective, which is a very strong perspective, if I do say so myself. She is cautious and weary of people. She should be, because of everything that has happened to her. She has trust issues, which are to be expected. But for some strange reason, she decided to open up to two, well make that three, people. She is starting to develop a healthy functional life for herself and her father. She is a bit saucy and very athletic. She can kick any guy's arse any day, but she is not invincible. That is exactly what I liked about her. She is strong, but fragile like a real life person. Words and actions hurt her like they would to anyone else. And bullets? Sorry, but she is not bulletproof. She is a mind downloader, but not bulletproof. I enjoyed how human she is and how normal she acted. She processed everything so smoothly, so calmly and she was even smart about many things. She was also stupid like most teenagers can be, but that is to be expected and only served to make her more real and down to earth to me. I loved watching her life develop and how she grew throughout the story. At the end, she is not the same person that she once was and it was truly amazing to see such development executed beautifully. 5 out of 5 stars2. Strong Main Character / Male Hero: Liz's father plays a big role in the story and I loved that part about the book. It is nice to see a parent as a main character than as a background character or extra. Her father is not someone who is present in the story, but really does nothing to advance the plot. He takes an active role in the story by getting to know Liz's friends and by talking to her afterschool every day. I felt his presence largely throughout the book. He made the story more real to me that these people, this family was actually surviving this way. It brought the story home to me and made the emotional parts of the story more real...more touching to my heart and senses. Carey was not just your average knight in shining armor, but your average superman. His ability allowed him to save the day most of the time, but even superman is not impervious to bullets. He is caring and feels an instant connection to Liz and feels very protective of her. He does not force her to talk about herself, but gives her privacy and her secrets, because Carey himself also has many secrets. He learns to trust her with his heart first, then his secrets. I really enjoyed how Carey could not save Liz from everything and that she had to save herself in the end. I do not like the protagonist always being a damsel in distress and relying on others. So, this aspect of Carey was more endearing than annoying, because of this fact. 5 out of 5 stars3. Strong Main Character / Evil Antagonist: Preston is just your average sleaze ball with psychotic issues that should really be dealt with by a psychologist. He made for an interesting book, because he would pop up when you least expected him, making this book a guilty pleasure to read. He made for a thrilling read just to scare myself a little with: "OMG! He's insane!" It was all very exciting with Preston in the book that I hope to still be reading about him in the next installment of the series. The FBI department as a whole started out as an evil branch of government enforcement, but it turns out that not everyone in the FBI are as bad as the ones that she ran into in the past. Liz discovers that there are people that she can trust in this corrupted agency. Agent Carson is not one of those agents. He recognizes Liz and wants to repeat history. That is all I can tell you about this character, in order to preserve his true evilness...Or is he....evil? The Coalition is a private little antiterrorist organization that wants to use Liz to fight off terrorists or so they claim. They seem to be the terrorists to me. Not much is told to the reader about this organization. Fitz is an average bad guy. The author could have had much more fun with him and extended his interaction with Liz, but the author did not. I would have liked to see more with Fitz, because otherwise, he was just another bad guy in the world, nothing special about him. 4 out of 5 stars4. Strong Minor Characters: V.J. is the best friend that Liz could never have before she moved to this little nowhere town. V.J. allows Liz to be herself and a girly girl with her. V.J. never questions Liz's clothes or her gloves, but clings to her friendship with Liz. She was always an outcast herself, because of her father's money and she finds friendship with Liz. She is happy with Liz and even rekindles an old flame with an ex-boyfriend of hers. She is an interesting best friend. I just hope that there is no girl drama in the future with her. Agent Thrasher has a bigger role at the end of the book, when he really gets involved with Liz and her...ability. He is a trustworthy guy that wants to fight crime and leave his department free from any rogue agents. He believes in the common good of all people, even those who are as unique as Liz. There may be problems with him in the future, but who knows maybe I would be wrong. I will be reading the next book to find out if my suspicions are true. 3 out of 5 stars5. The Plot: Liz has a fantastic psychic ability after an auto accident that occurred when she was younger, but when she arrives in a small town, her attitude towards life changes and she wants to settle down to enjoy her teenage years. But after years of hiding, being seen could be more dangerous than she ever imagined. This plot was beautifully written and crafted. It flowed very smooth to me and nothing seemed forced. All the events came naturally together by an unperceived force. It was pure literary genius. The pace of the novel in the beginning is a little slow, but it soon picks up speed and the novel soon flies by. I was sad, when it was over, because I wanted to read more. 5 out of 5 stars6. The Setting: As all my readers know by now, I love very descriptive scenery in a book. It is the only way I can picture myself being there and the events that take place in the story becomes more real to me. The description of the setting makes the story come alive to me and the author wrote just that. The places were beautiful and I could imagine what the people looked like and what they were wearing. There were clothing details, scenery details, and the most mundane details like what foods where available in the cafeteria. I ate all of them up happily. I just wished for a little more detail in the woods scene and the second "Carey's favorite spot" scene. It would have made those scenes really come alive more than they already did to pack a big punch of wow factor. 4 out of 5 stars7. The Dialogue: There was really nothing special about the dialogue although I did find the speech a little too proper for teenagers in this book. I believe that Liz, Carey, Preston, and V.J. could have spoken in a more teenager-like fashion than adult like. The author could have thrown in a couple of clichés or text speech. It would have given their dialogue a teenage slant that would have seemed very natural. As is the dialogue just seemed average. There were no fancy words or phrases translated from one language into another or cute acronyms. 3 out of 5 stars8. Engaging Surprises: There were plenty of Preston surprises in this book and revelations about people. It seemed like something was going on, on every page once the novel really got going. It just took off from there. It seemed like I was learning new things in every chapter and there was no foreshadowing, so I never got an inkling about what was coming next, which just made this book that much more suspenseful. I really enjoyed all the surprising happenings and I believe that this novel is more suspenseful or thrilling than paranormal, although it is that, too. 4 out of 5 stars9. Climax: There is a really high climax in this book that it is really unmistakable. It is the highest, most adrenaline, heart racing part in the entire book. It defies all expectations and really packed a punch. My heart was racing, while I read this book lying down. Once I hit that high point, I could not stop reading, until the story was done. I could not put it down and NOT know what would happen next. It would have been on my mind and drive me half crazy. It was the most thrilling event in the book like a cat and mouse game in a thriller movie. Readers will be satisfied with the climax and ending of this book. It makes the book worth reading as well as the shockingly real characters. 5 out of 5 stars10. Emotional Response: Once I connected with the main character, I began to really feel for her and what she was going through. Every high and every low become shockingly real to me and I found myself either crying or laughing about Liz's snarky remarks. I also foolishly smiled at the cheesy parts with Liz and Carey. I felt bone chilling fear during the last few chapters of the book, when everything important went down. This book will pull at your heart strings, but not overly so. It allowed me to escape reality and live vicariously through someone else's life. It was a joy to read. 4 out of 5 stars11. Ending: All I have to say about the ending is that it was superb. It could have been the ending to the book and you would never know that it was a part of a series. It ends so smoothly that most of the loose ends are tied up. I like the idea of no loose ends, because it means that the characters can have a different adventure in the next book and the first one does not drag on and on. It added to my enjoyment of the book immensely. 4 out of 5 stars12. The Writing: Characters are exceptionally well developed, which is very rare for an Indie author that is new to the public eye and quite refreshing. The writing is without any grammatical errors or misprints, which allowed me to enjoy the book without ignoring my pet peeve. The author hired a great editor that should be proud of him/herself. The author can really write up a great plot that smoothly transitions from one phrase to another. The only improvement that the author could make would be the dialogue, otherwise it is almost as great as some of the big names out there today on the market. 4 out of 5 stars13. The Artwork: The cover of the book could be improved. It is really nothing special, but it is not ugly by any means. If the title had not caught my eye, I would not have picked up this book to read. I would have glossed right over it to something else, but I am glad that I did read it. Please, choose a different cover for this amazing book! 2 out of 5 stars14. Genre: This novel is first of all, a paranormal romance, but it is also a thriller and suspense novel. It fits this novel, because of the darkness surrounding these corrupt agencies out to no good. I like the idea of a rogue agency out there and the genre of this novel mixes a few together for the perfect combination of romance and danger. My only suggestion of improvement would be to make the novel a little darker, like making something bad happen at the party to really strike the more dark aspect of the book. It would be a nice contrast against the normalcy that Liz craves. 4 out of 5 stars15. Title: At First Touch fits in with the plot and the characters. It adds mystery to the book and has the reader wondering what the title means exactly. It does not fool the reader into thinking that the book is different than it is. The title stays true to what the book is about. 5 out of 5 starsOverall, I give the book 4 stars to start the series. It is a terrific start to a new series and with a few tweaks this book could become a 5 star read with the next book. I cannot wait to read it.