Review: Good foundation for what could be a great series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 25, 2014
Let’s start this review off with a warning:If you are one of those readers that can not get past grammatical deviations (I’ll explain this in a moment), then I will say you most likely will not enjoy this book.From the start of this book it seemed obvious to me that English is not the author’s first language.  To me this was not a distraction, considering I grew up in a community where most folks did not speak English, did not speak it very well if they did (yep, I am fluent in Spanglish), or spoke a very proper version because that’s what they were taught.  There are a lot of passages in this book where you can tell that translation of a word is literal and not what a native English speaker would have chosen (we all know how things can get “lost in translation” sometimes).  So, if you are one who likes everything to be as it should, then you will probably grit your teeth and have to force yourself to get through this book.That aside… I really liked this book.  We follow Elizabeth (Beth) as she comes into powers that she was unaware she possessed.  Along the way, we find out there are others with powers similar to hers.  All of them must join forces in order to save their town.  Aside from odd sentence structuring, I didn’t find any major flaws in this book.  The storyline stays true to itself, details are followed consistently, and the story moves at an enjoyable pace.  The main group of characters are all young adults (17+), so while some of the conversation or reactions may seem juvenile (let’s not forget that I’m old… so the reactions I have in my head aren’t the same as a 17 year old), they really are mature based on the 17 year olds I come into contact with daily. I thought that maybe I would not be able to connect with the characters because they were so young, but once I really got into the story I found myself connecting and by the end of the story I was really rooting for them… especially Beth and Leon (so I’m sappy).  The story is original; definitely not something that has been rehashed over and over recently.We aren’t left with a huge cliffhanger at the end.  The situation that the group sets out to fix is fixed in this book.  We are left wondering what is going to happen with the characters and what their next adventure might be.  There is an excerpt of Book two at the end of this one; and I can’t wait to read it.  This is a good foundation for what can easily turn out to be a great young adult series.