Review: Pleasantly Surprised
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2011
I will be up front. I didn't expect a lot from this book going in. Not because of the price (99 cents is the right price for me to try out an unknown author, but not for me to expect Tolstoy) but because of the length. I'm used to reading 100,000-word stories in the adult fiction section, and 60,000 words in YA. This book comes in at a little over 45k, which is firmly in the "longer novella" category.This book pleasantly surprised me. So much so that I downloaded the sequel immediately, and tore through it like Grant went through Richmond. And after that, I had no problem ponying up the 2.99 for the third.I won't waste space with a summary, but Harper is an engaging heroine, Peachville is just the right amount of creepy, and the cheerleader angle is cleverly done.It's hard to find YA paranormals that don't immediately turn every boy character into a potential date/crush/love polygon candidate. It's also very difficult to find a YA paranormal that strikes the balance between romance and external story. Cannon's series does just that. Harper has romantic interests, but they are not the focus of the story. Harper's still very much her own person, and doesn't bore the reader with endless moping about how Tall, Dark And Delinquent is her whole entire life now. Harper is also well-suited to the story, and her decisions reflect both her experience as a cynic in The System and as a girl who hasn't yet lost hope. She's no ingenue, adorable helpless heroine, TSTL, or I'm-soo-badass heroine, but rather a well-rounded blend of skeptic, outcast, and hopeful, who is smart enough to know when she's out of her depth. The story is first and foremost a young girl's journey from last chance to a potentially wonderful world...with a dark underbelly. There are romantic threads present, but they don't overshadow the other storylines in the book.The paranormal elements are tightly focused and neatly spun out. There are no tour-guide stops at "paranormal critters R us" and the infodumping is minimal. I enjoyed the fact that in this series, secret societies of paranormal critters keep their secrets. I suspect it's killing the author to have to hold back on exposing more of her world (and I sympathize :) ).The only weak spots in the book were some questionable character motivations. In a longer book, Cannon might have had time to establish motivations for the characters who are adversarial towards Harper and fleshed out her individual villains a bit more with some foreshadowing. However, the fact that there's the shadowy secret organization acting as villain makes up for the seemingly unjustified actions of some of the adversaries. Typical of YA books, especially series books, it ends somewhat abruptly, but the main questions are answered satisfactorily enough. In the longview, since this is a series start, there are many themes the author can explore in the ongoing story (which I sincerely hope she does) with the potential to give the series more gravitas as it goes on.Technical specs: Sarra Cannon has clearly put effort into learning her craft and polishing her work. No matter what the publishing origin, be it Agency 6, Traditional/Legacy, or E-publisher/Small Press, I have found books riddled with errors across the board, and I'm no more or less tolerant when a book comes from a big name publisher and is full of errors than I am if it comes from a little indie outfit. I was inordinately pleased to see that this series (the 3 books out at the time of this review) had very few grammar and usage errors and only a few usage/formatting quirks. I don't go hunting for them, but I do notice them and I will be honest--I'm trying to get over an internal bias towards expecting more errors from indie/self-pubbed books. I'm pleased to say Sarra Cannon's books have helped me do that. The books are very well-formatted and I can tell that they've been edited to within an inch of their lives and not just run through spell-check. If the author did the editing herself, she can count on a second career as a book or copy editor from any number of presses.This book is a really strong beginning to what I feel is a really strong YA paranormal series. It's got an engaging premise that is just unusual enough to appeal to those who are getting a little tired of the vampires and werewolves. If you have lost your patience with endless pages of romantical moonings overshadowing interesting mysteries and engaging worldbuilding, you'll enjoy this book. There's a solid mystery, an interesting world, and a likable, smart heroine.