Danger seldom leaves its victims unscathed in the ways of seduction, and this lesson is one that sixteen-year-old Cassie Foster now knows all too well. Nine months following the traumatic accident that claimed the life of her mother and sister, this high school junior has at last found a fresh start in the quiet town of New Haven, Maine. In the company of her best friends, Ian and Gwen, she’s bracing the usual turmoil of adolescence and taking all in stride… until the new transfer student, Jackson Matthews, comes walking into her life. He’s arrogant, sarcastic, roguish, devastatingly sexy, and the very last thing Cassie wants to entertain. But when circumstances drive these two together, she finds herself a bit too close for comfort as their bond intensifies. Plagued by unexplainable events, a sudden string of disappearances, and even a cult-related murder, Cassie begins to fear for her life. Is it all just a coincidence that these happenings began when this Casanova strolled into town, or has she in fact fallen for a real lady-killer, or worse?”
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Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series book: Yes
Will I read the Next: Yes
I am truly surprised I had never heard of this book! I guess it's what you call "under the radar" but it really should be up there with the rest of the well known paranormal romance books. It's got everything you regular "Twilight" genre book should have: Mysterious hot guy, girl who doesn't know she's pretty, mysterious deaths...all you need for a run-of-the-mill yet enjoyable YA paranormal romance book. And at first I have to admit I wasn't really into it and was really knit-picky with my notes on it, but once it really got started---holy bleep muffins it really got started.
First let me just say, the writing in this book wasn't bad just kind of...annoying. And not for the whole book either, only about a third of it. When was it annoying? WHENEVER CASSIE SPOKE. Not even kidding. If Cassie was expressing her opinion it was with long winded paragraphs and big words that I only use when I'm writing essays. Seriously. WHO TALKS LIKE THAT? Someone I don't want to know that's who. And so does Jack...And Ian..And shoot me that is the most annoying thing. Thank the Lord it wasn't like that for the whole book. After that stopped being the case, I found myself reading non-stop and by the last page I actually repeatedly tried to flip the page. I was reading on my phone and I don't really check to see how many pages are left, so at the very end I actually spent about three minutes tapping the edge of the screen to turn the page. Then I realize that was the last page and I'm just like....Shit. Oh and speaking of the last few pages, one more knit-picky thing about the writing that annoys the hell out of me in any book!?! Mini rant on !?!: You see that!?! I ended the sentence with "!?!" That is the single most annoying punctuation any one can ever use ever. I don't know whether or not its correct grammar but really. !?! is something I use to do in elementary school until I started to read over what I wrote and you can tell that the question mark is lost between the two exclamation points, so the upward inflection we read and speak questions with is gone. It is literally just me yelling at myself in my head when I'm reading. And if !?! is used more than once you can actually lose a whole paragraph or more just because the meaning of the words are gone. Seriously. No.
First let me just say, the writing in this book wasn't bad just kind of...annoying. And not for the whole book either, only about a third of it. When was it annoying? WHENEVER CASSIE SPOKE. Not even kidding. If Cassie was expressing her opinion it was with long winded paragraphs and big words that I only use when I'm writing essays. Seriously. WHO TALKS LIKE THAT? Someone I don't want to know that's who. And so does Jack...And Ian..And shoot me that is the most annoying thing. Thank the Lord it wasn't like that for the whole book. After that stopped being the case, I found myself reading non-stop and by the last page I actually repeatedly tried to flip the page. I was reading on my phone and I don't really check to see how many pages are left, so at the very end I actually spent about three minutes tapping the edge of the screen to turn the page. Then I realize that was the last page and I'm just like....Shit. Oh and speaking of the last few pages, one more knit-picky thing about the writing that annoys the hell out of me in any book!?! Mini rant on !?!: You see that!?! I ended the sentence with "!?!" That is the single most annoying punctuation any one can ever use ever. I don't know whether or not its correct grammar but really. !?! is something I use to do in elementary school until I started to read over what I wrote and you can tell that the question mark is lost between the two exclamation points, so the upward inflection we read and speak questions with is gone. It is literally just me yelling at myself in my head when I'm reading. And if !?! is used more than once you can actually lose a whole paragraph or more just because the meaning of the words are gone. Seriously. No.
Oh here's the fun part: the plot. I have very few complaints. Only one actually. One: The plot line promised is pretty much a stereotypical people are getting murdered maybe the main character is next. But my complaint isn't that, my complaint is that the book focuses more on the romance for about half of the book with sprinkles of the actual plot and then a little over halfway through, the plot picks up. What would have been great would be if the plot had jumped a little sooner. Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance but it cannot be the only focus of half of the book. But the good part of this plot? The TWIST! I thought I had it figured out who the bad guy was from the very beginning. And then BAM! It's not who I thought it's.... and then I'm like wait a second...BAM! Is it..Wait no...Yes...It is...No...BAM! Does that make sense? Like I said when this book actually gets started...it gets started.
AHAHAHA CHARACTERS. There's Cassie, there's Ian, there's Gwen, there's Jack, and then all those minor characters that matter but not all that much. At first with Cassie and Ian, their clothes are described and I'm just like...WTF. I actually wrote that in my notes, "WTF?" Ian is wearing what can only be described as a steampunk/gothic/ magician look. And Cassie is wearing leather pants, a leather jacket, a homemade shirt, and stiletto boots. She's 16 going on 17 and I'm pretty sure they're both in maybe 11-12th grade. Maybe it's just my "private school where we all wear awful navy blue, white, gray, or khaki uniforms" side coming out but damn. Even our local senior Gothic theatre geek Kelli doesn't dress like that. And she owns one of those miniature top hats..Ian has an excuse later b ut I just don't understand. Otherwise, I'd say the characters are all pretty well written, my favorite being Gwen. She has a pretty 2D personality but I have a soft side for all those gossip obsessed(not that I can relate to that....*cough*)
Can you say oblivious? As in what Cassie is when it comes to Ian. Theres actually a seen where they are in the ocean, hugging in their underwear. Cassie's just like "best friend" and Ian's all "I love her so much." Honestly....
And then theres Jack. He's like Patch from Hush, Hush but sightly more...devilish. I can't decide if I'm team Jack or Team Ian. On one hand, Jack is very good at romancing But that's literally his job "Protect and seduce" But he's also a huge jack-ass (ahaha punny). But maybe he has a sweeter side. I don't even know. NEXT BOOK WE NEED YOU NOW.SUMMARY OF REVIEW(In case you don't actually feel like reading the review):
Writing: 3.5 out of 5
Plot: 4 out of 5
characters: 4 out of 5
Romance: 4 out of 5
Overall: 4 out of 5
PG-13
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