Rating: DNF
Will I continue reading this series: No
I was really hoping my first review would be a positive one. And judging by the rating this book had on goodreads (comparisons of the book cover to the Fallen
series aside) I was fairly certain this one was a sure thing. I was
intrigued by the unique concept and hopeful that it would be a great
read. Unfortunately it just didn't do it for me. I know this means my
review will only be of the part of the book I read and I am quite
possibly missing the part where the book got amazing, but I'll do my
best with what there was.
It's
a very, very rare occurrence that I find myself unable to finish a
book, but this was definitely one of those times. You know when you get
to a lull in some books and you find yourself stopping and thinking
"Wait what did those last two sentences say?" and you have to go back
and re read them? Well I found myself doing that over and over again for
entire pages, where I'd have to read it three or four times before I
was actually reading and not just skimming over it automatically. It may
have just been that I dislike when I have to read in present tense so I
was not giving it as much of a chance as I should but it just didn't
seem to flow as naturally as it should have and I found myself
completely uninterested in it. Between that and the many things that
irritated me, I barely made it to chapter four before I just couldn't do
it anymore.
*SPOILER ALERT*
First
of all, I found the Prologue to be pretty much pointless. You find out
that there is some "special secret" about Dawn that even her mother
didn't know about and that is it. I found myself wondering if it was
completely necessary to be told this like we wouldn't have figured this
out on our own. I mean she is the main character for goodness sake, of
course there is something special about her, or there would be no
story.
I
found the characters very unbelievable and unrealistic. (Yeah okay it's
a book about vampires and I'm griping over it being realistic but work
with me here) The main character's parents have just recently been
brutally murdered and yet the first thing we find her doing is going to a
house party with her friend. The two of them proceed to go out after
dark alone as if it were nothing and then try and get drunk within five
minutes of arriving. Because nothing says being watchful of the threat
of vampires then get trashed and stumbling home alone in the middle of
the night. When they are saved by a complete stranger the main character
blindly follows him to some abandoned building and locks herself in and
opens up to him as if they were best friends. Does no one know what the
word caution means?
There
were also parts of the story that were just illogical (again, work with
me here). Dawn hits her head hard enough that she is surprised she
isn't knocked out, and yet three seconds later she is running through an
alleyway, has enough coordination to chain and padlock some doors, and
can focus on someones eyes enough to see they are two shades of blue.
Tegan is drugged so badly that she has to be carried to safety, and yet
two pages later is lucid enough to question being in a car, and then
takes dibs on first shower? I may have no experience in being drugged,
but I'm pretty sure the whole point is that you don't bounce back in an
hour or two. Dawn is so well known that people recognize her face and
yet she is suddenly concerned when she realizes she didn't have to
mention where she lived when she was driven home. Call me crazy but if
you are the famous human delegate to a master vampire, I'm pretty sure
it wouldn't be too much of a shock that everyone in the half deserted
town would know where you lived.
As
I said earlier, it isn't very often that I find myself unable to finish
a book, but I found that there just wasn't enough substance in this
book for me to be able to overlook the many little things that irked me.
I just could not get into the story at all, and found it boring before
it even really began, which was a shame because it seemed like it could
have had the potential to be fantastic.
I
may one day pick this one up again and manage to make it all the way to
the end, and if I happen to change my mind and think it was amazing
after all, well I'll be sure to write a brand new review. But until then
this one goes on the "stay as far away as possible" shelf!
