Review: Not that impressive
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 28, 2013
I have to say that I wasn't all too impressed with this novel.  It was okay, but that's as far as I'd go.  Having said that, we need to keep in mind that a teenager wrote this book...so that's pretty impressive!  However, I do not let things such as age/experience affect my reviews; all books get treated as they are and with no biases.  Okay, so the story was good.  The story was probably my favourite part of the novel.  It is quite creative and unique.  It's about a girl named Allai, who doesn't remember much about her past other than a few weak memories.  She remembers a boy demon named Drake who tried to kill her after always claiming he would keep her safe.  She has constant nightmares about him, until one day he comes back into her life.  And saves her life.  Then, she has to force herself to trust that what he says is true, because she needs him to keep her safe once again.  Together, they embark on a journey with ups and downs and hopefully safety at the end...I was not a big fan of either Allai or Drake.  I found it difficult to connect with either of them, but I do find this often happens for me with third person narration.  But, I just don't feel that these characters were very memorable...there was nothing that stood out from them, in my opinion.  Allai is a typical damzel in distress throughout the majority of this novel.  She is weak and constantly screaming or fainting.  Definitely not the tough heroin I like my leading ladies to be.  Drake is the tough one.  He is Allai's knight in shining armour; he's always coming to Allai's rescue.  Both Allai and Drake are likeable enough, I suppose; but, I find myself very much disconnected from them, even while writing this review.  I can't even think of interesting things to say about them...The writing is below average, I would say.  It's weak and immature, although it does have it's strong moments.  I understand that Rivers is very young and this is her debut novel, so I don't want to go too hard on her.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  And, believe me, the writing could be a lot worse -- I've definitely read worse.  So, Rivers' writing isn't bad per say, but it's not very good either.  I also noticed that there were quite a few mistakes in the later half of the novel.  I'm not sure what happened there...did the editor get sick of it and started becoming sloppy?  I don't know...but there were significantly more in the second half than the first.Overall, I wasn't too keen on this book.  I don't think I'll read the second of the series.  But, if you think it sounds up your alley, then please try it out for yourself.  It does have quite a few 5 star ratings on Goodreads.  Oh, one thing I love is the cover, though!  It's awesome!