Review: Loved it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 9, 2013
My most FAV book so far this year. Which is weird for me cos I don't do paranormal. (Unless its all things JR Ward, of course)Read this without spoilers. Didn't know what I was getting myself into and I'm glad I did. Totally unexpected. Nothing like I've ever read before.Firsts for me:- Never have I welcomed a hero who is slow to love his heroine like Ryder is. What a relief.- he has a gf and I was fine-ish with that.- I was ok with the long wait for the bottom line (I'm sure readers of Paranormal got it waaay before I did.)- never been exposed to this Siren phenomenon before.I love the writing style. Truly a gift. I can't explain it so I'm gonna paste some beautifully written quotes here. I hear the YA voices but its not too simplistic or too heavy. Powerful yet young and fresh. A perfect balance.I didn't want this book to end. I wanted to bask in the intense scenes she depicted. The emotions, the descriptions, the characters. How does she create a hero who says so much without actually verbalizing his feelings? Its entirely in the heroine's POV but I can feel his intensity and how he is drawn, unwillingly, to her, NOT because of who she is but because of a pull within himself and a bond between them that has NOTHING to do with what she is. Maybe it helped that I read a chapter in his POV on the author's blog. Either way, it kept me reading even when my body protested at its lack of sleep, even when I was nauseous with worry and hatred and disgust and wallowing in the bittersweetness.1 star short of 5 cos:- its too long- its an installment read. I prefer closure and a follow up in the form of a series not a cliffhanger with installments to follow- There isn't enough "together" time for the H and h. (Although I get this, cos its probably a YA Paranormal read before its a Romance)- it needs some editing although it didn't distract from the impact of the story.- and it bothered me very much that *****SPOILER******The h didn't contact the hero's family when he got in a helluva lotta trouble for defending her. She has so many intense emotions and I needed her emotions to be concentrated on HIM and HIS wellbeing when she saw the enormity of the situation he found himself in, because he cares about her.I am now doing something I swore I wasn't ever gonna do again: wait for the installment.Just cant help myself. I need to know where this is going and I've fallen in love with Ivy and Ryder.*****************POSSIBLE SPOILERS*************************MY FAV EXCERPTS FROM MY NEW FAV BOOK:RYDER:"His gray eyes were heated in the low lights of the bathroom but full of excited adrenaline from being on stage. The ends of his hair were damp from being under the hot lights and curled around his neck and over his ears, slick with sweat. His shirt clung to his body, sticking to him from the performance. He was full of feral energy; his presence was completely intrusive and demanding. His energy was infecting the room, reaching every molecule and atom around me, making the air bounce off the walls in excited frenzy.He was overwhelming."RYDER, ABOUT IVY, THE HEROINE'S TATTOO:"My soul is free," he whispered into the silence with the reverence the phrase was meant to hold. "My soul is free." He repeated the words and my heart expanded at the incantation. The words I had chosen so carefully held the deepest meaning of my existence. I loved the way they sounded out loud, how they fell out of his lips and off his tongue with care."HE'S JUST HOLDING HER HAND:"I felt every small connection of his skin to mine, the pads of his fingers, his joints that bent to curve around my hand, the heel of his hand as it pressed into mine. I closed my eyes against the sensation. The feeling was so profound, so all consuming that it intensified until my fingertips tingled and my toes curled. I closed my eyes and prayed this was all that Ryder was, just a rush of feeling, of sensation, that the only pull I felt to him was the rush."THEIR CONNECTION:"All of a sudden the space between us was filled, brimming over with emotion and tension. There had been some of that before; the space between us had never been empty. But now it was completely full, atoms and particles and molecules and whatever else occupied the space between zinged around in a wild frenzy, charged with the growing something that enveloped everything separating us."HER LIFE:"My stomach erupted in nerves. Not nerves like the butterflies Ryder gave me, unless these butterflies had strapped razor blades to their wings and were flying about with the sole intention of shredding me from the inside out until I bled to death."THEY SAY SHE'S NOT GOOD FOR HIM:"Fun fact," Ryder smirked at me. "Tanner blames that on your terrible influence. Turns out your poison to a good boy like me.""Huh, imagine that," I sighed. "And what do you say to that.""I say it's less like poison and more like kryptonite." His steady gaze held mine and my heart thumped in my chest, responding to his words, even if I wouldn't let any other part of me."RYDER'S RAGE:"He was a man possessed by rage and retribution.""Ryder's whole body tensed when he realized Taylor was the one that hurt me. It was like he followed that bloodied fingertip up the length of his arm and to his face and put the entire night together in his head.And then Ryder snapped.He launched himself forward, onto Taylor and his fist connected with Taylor's face like a branch breaking off a huge tree during a lightning storm. I heard the crunch of bones from even inside the car and then watched the splurt of blood soil Ryder's face, hands and chest. My hand flew to my mouth and I gasped against the horror of the moment."THE TITLE:"The way he played his guitar.... the way he drank his coffee.... the way he didn't bother with his hair, the way he laughed at me, the way his silver eyes cut to me from across a room and he could determine in once glance if I was alright or if I needed to be rescued, the way he protected me from everything, even myself.... but most of all the way he made me feel when we're together, when we're not together, hell the way he made me feel anything at all.... the butterflies and blushing.... the rush of it all. Damn it. I'd fallen for the rush."