Review: Great series start!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2013
4.5 stars -- I finished this last night and have been sitting waffling over the stupidest thing -- whether I want to round up or down with my stars.  Basically, I LOVED this book, but parts of the ending fell flat for me....but the problem is, I've been feeling really stressed and anxious and even sick (cold) lately that I don't know if that influenced my reading, kwim??NOTE: I just wrote the rest of my review and realized it wouldn't be helpful, so I'll stick this slightly more review-esque part in here first -- basically, Ms. Higginson scores another homerun.  Fabulous, thoroughly well developed characters, with a great set of secondary characters.  The emotions evoked run the gamut, and really make you feel things (and not always good things).  The dialogue is first rate, at times hilarious and witty banter....  And then, while the paranormal world isn't delved into deeply yet, it leaves you intrigued for more of something that is unique (at least to me it was).  Now, back to my babbling:OK, so LOVED Ivy.  I wasn't sure if I would, b/c she's kind of an outward bitch, you know?  I had read a few teasers and was totally sucked in, but at the same time the one where she first meets Ryder?  I just thought she was spoiled and ridiculous.  But wow, that opinion didn't last more than a few seconds.  Ms. Higginson took my heart, let it know Ivy, and basically broke it.  She is such an intriguing character, b/c there is SO MUCH GOING ON inside of her that like NO ONE knows.  Wow.  I just...I don't even have words.  I just wanted to spend so much time hugging her.Ryder was an intriguing book boy too, b/c he spends so much of the book in the friend category which you would think would be unsatisfying, but b/c of how isolated Ivy is, you just want that for her so much.  B/C you can see how she would be wary of him falling for her, but she's just never had a *real* through and through friend.  And Ryder was just perfect.  I mean, he was perfect for all these good book boy reasons, but most importantly he was PERFECT for Ivy.  I actually strangely enjoyed the stalled in friendship relationship, with those tempting little tidbits where you know there's more between them, but they can't go there.  It should have frustrated me, but I guess you'll have to read it to know what I mean.The secondary characters were as usual flawless.  PHOENIX!  Oh dude...  Even Chase and Kenna, who should have been...I don't know...I have these expectations for how they would be (since they're the competition for Ivy and Ryder), but Ms. Higginson just took my expectations and said, nope....you're gonna love them too.  Just to really make life complicated you know?  Then there's her girls, Sloane and Exie, which you didn't get much of, but I enjoyed the tastes of them.  And her sister and Honor's Dad??  *sniff*  It's like she came back from her "therapy" and somewhere along the way developed this awesome support system that she didn't know about.And I must say, I'm not sure I've ever HATED a character as much as I hate Nix....and her mother.  They are just so...GAH!  Sometimes it's nice to be able to black and white know how to feel about a character.  And that feeling is disgust.  I can't even think about them without shuddering.Huh, I think I just realized that my reviews probably don't make any sense to anyone who has not read the books.  :(  I shall endeavour to improve.OK, so back to the ending falling flat...it really was only bits.  I guess I just saw these big blowups with Nix and I expected the climax like right after that, but he let things go longer than I expected.  Maybe it didn't feel realistic to me??  But then again, the ending just felt perfect....it was a balance to the opening of the book.OK, so huh...I haven't even talked about how much I love the paranormal aspect...and I actually really enjoyed that it wasn't introduced and only hinted at for most of the book....I know it's gonna make the rest of the series epic.  It's such a unique paranormality, I am SO excited to see where it goes!!