Novel Review: Save Me by Jenny Elliott

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Swoon Reads (Feiwel and Friends)

Release Date: January 6, 2015

Spoilers?: Yes.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Debut-novelist Jenny Elliott’s thrilling romance, chosen by readers, writers, and publishers for the first list in the new Swoon Reads imprint, pours on the tension and danger in an addictive combination that will keep you turning pages!

Something strange is going on in the tiny coastal town of Liberty, Oregon. Cara has never seen a whale swim close enough for her to touch it—let alone knock her into the freezing water. Fortunately, cute newcomer David is there to save her, and the rescue leads to a bond deeper than Cara ever imagined.

But then she learns something about David that changes everything, and Cara is devastated. She turns to her best friend for support, but Rachel has changed. She’s suddenly into witchcraft, and is becoming dangerously obsessed with her new boyfriend….

Cara has lost her best friend, discovered that her soul mate is off limits, and has attracted the attention of a stalker. But she’s not completely alone. Her mysterious, gorgeous new friend Garren is there to support her. But is Garren possibly too perfect?

The Cover:

I actually love this cover. I think it's super pretty, the image is gorgeous, the colors, the words... All of it is super pretty. But I really don't think it goes with this book. It gives a more supernatural, ethereal look to the book, which is not present in it at all. It makes it seem like the water and/or angel aspect is more important, when it's not.

Review:

I was a little wary of this book, if only because I don’t read a lot of YA paranormal romance, and a lot of them tend to be very similar. I started it and it was all right. I was surprised by how much hate this book was getting—I didn’t think it was that bad. Now that I’ve finished it, I didn’t love it, but I didn’t think it was horrible. I probably would have enjoyed it when I was younger.

Cara is pretty average. She’s not a standout heroine, and she’s not really the greatest at anything, but she was relatable. She took everything in with disbelief and very slowly, which is somewhat normal. She was honest with her mother, which you don’t see a lot, and I liked that.

The romance is extremely present. This is more romance than anything else, honestly. Cara falls for David very quickly—too fast, as far as I’m concerned. But she fought to give their relationship a chance, and I understood that. It was very insta-love, but aside from that it was all right. David was a good guy, and I liked how honest he was. I think he gave up being a teacher too fast, with almost no hinting that he didn’t like it. They moved too fast in all ways, aside from sex—trusting each other, saying I love you, deciding to stay together for so long. Even Cara’s mothers disapproval, which is a problem the entire book, changes in an instant.

The paranormal aspect… was just cheesy, and given so little development. It’s pretty apparent from the beginning that something weird is going on, including with Cara’s best friend, and yet no one does anything. Cara even finds out that it’s pretty much a demon possession, and still waits forever to do anything. There’s literally like a hundred page pause, in which months pass, where all the attention goes to the romance, and Cara’s best friend is only mentioned in passing. It kind of astounded me how little Cara paid attention to her best friend, who she’s known forever, and is suddenly being horrible and hissing and has black eyes.

But then the demon possession goes to exorcisms, and those are just anticlimactic. There’s two of them, and they are just so boring. Extremely straight-forward, no scare to them, the first one over very fast, and the second not much better. It just seemed like a waste.

Cara makes friends with Garren, a new boy in town. I actually liked Garren, and how he acted with Cara. They were just friends, and I appreciated that. There’s a lot of hinting at what he is, with Cara not even thinking about it the entire time. I wasn’t surprised, although a little disappointed at how anticlimactic that was, as well. Hinting the entire book, and then Garren just tells her at the end.

The whales are given a lot of attention, as well. They’re a symbol to Cara, but that’s pretty much it. No paranormal stuff with them. And then their problem is solved in minutes as well. A bit disappointing.

The entire book was kind of just boring. It was easy to keep reading, don’t get me wrong, but it was also easy to put down. All of the problems are solved easily, disappointingly so. I didn’t fall for the romance. I didn’t really grow attached to any of it. I’m glad it’s over, I guess.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, Swoon Reads. Thank you!

Novel Review: Unearthly (Unearthly, #1) by Cynthia Hand

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: HarperTeen

Release Date: 2011

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees...
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

The Cover:

This cover is one of the stereotypical girl-in-pretty-dress ones, but I still think it looks pretty. It doesn't particularly stand out to me, but I think the colors of it work for the book. It does give a nice atmosphere to the book.

Review:

I have heard a surprisingly amount of good things about this series. It had me curious, but it still took me forever to read this; I’ve had it on my shelf for way too long, too.

The writing was nice, pretty and simple, and made the book go by pretty fast. It didn’t keep me glued to the pages, but it was easy to keep reading.

I enjoyed the lore of the angels. Their powers, the way that Clara grows into it. Her mom’s adamancy of keeping everything a secret, and I don’t know how much I believe her claim that it was better that way. It just makes it harder when they find out, I think.

Clara was all right; I didn’t really connect with her, but I definitely didn’t dislike her. I did have a hard time really connecting with all of the characters, though, and I think part of it was that I didn’t get to spend that much time with them. Clara hangs out with her friends often, and enough time with the boys I guess, but it didn’t all add as much depth as I thought it should. Clara’s mention of friends in her old town, for instance, wasn’t believable, because I never saw even one of them, and they were only mentioned (without names) like twice. I also had a hard time believing that Christian was some perfect boy. I saw enough people swooning over him, but he never seemed that great any of the times that Clara talked to him. Plus, since we spent more actual time with Tucker, clearly I’m going to be on his team.

I did like the twist thrown in at the end of the book. Clara’s decision was nice, and I wasn’t really expecting that surprise with Christian. I also feel like something is going to happen with Clara’s brother, and I want to know what it is.

Overall, this was an enjoyable but not amazing book for me. I want to read the next one, but I’m not anticipating picking it up.

Novel Review: Devine Intervention by Marth Brockenbrough

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Paranormal

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)

Release Date: June 2012

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

There is a great legend of the guardian angel who traveled across time and space for the human girl he loved, slaying those who would threaten her with a gleaming sword made of heavenly light.

This is not that story.

Jerome Hancock is Heidi Devine's guardian angel. Sort of. He's more of an angel trainee, in heaven's soul-rehabilitation program for wayward teens. And he's just about to get kicked out for having too many absences and for violating too many of the Ten Commandments for the Dead.

Heidi, meanwhile, is a high school junior who dreams of being an artist, but has been drafted onto her basketball team because she's taller than many a grown man. For as long as she can remember, she's heard a voice in her head - one that sings Lynyrd Skynyrd, offers up bad advice, and yet is company during those hours she feels most alone.

When the unthinkable happens, these two lost souls must figure out where they went wrong and whether they can make things right before Heidi's time is up and her soul is lost forever.

Martha Brockenbrough's debut novel is hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful, with a sense of humor that's wicked as hell, and writing that's just heavenly.

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It's very pretty, with the colors and the clouds and the couple holding hands. It represents the book really well, too, giving a good feel, as well as with the characters and the look of heaven. I think it's both very fitting and very pretty.

Quotes:

• "Heidi breathed deeply and focused on the lyrics. She could feel herself in them, especially in the line about being a bird you cannot change. While the song itself is about a guy who doesn’t want to be tied down, it’s also about being fundamentally broken, unfixable. That was her. She was the bird with the fatal flaw.” (Hardback, pg. 20)
• "People suck when they think no one’s watching.
  Here’s the thing. Someone’s always watching.” (Pg. 60)
• "'I think it was going out on something. It didn’t really matter how good you got or how good you acted, as long as that something was what you gave the world. Basically, making your own heaven on earth while you were alive. That’s the thing. Living the best life you can.’” (Pg. 99) [On how you get into heaven.]
  
• "'I still thought about the future as this thing, this thing with possibilities, this thing that would actually happen at some point.’” (Pg. 105)
• "We might be born alone, and we might die all by ourselves, sometimes with some help from our cousins, but the best part of life is when you find someone you can be with, and you’re good enough and they’re good enough and no part of you wants anything else. I knew what the feeling was, and the word happiness didn’t do it justice. Not even close.” (Pg. 283)
• "To draw someone, you have to see their edges and all the spaces around them. To even start to love someone, you have to know where you start and where you end. Where you are, and where you aren’t, the shape you make in the world.” (Pg. 293)

Review:

This book was definitely entertaining, and the serious moments weren’t downplayed, but I’m not sure about the ending.

I was expecting this book to be funny from what I’d heard, and it was. It was also more serious and thoughtful than I thought it would be, though, and I liked that. I also liked the writing, and the way that the characters would tell about a memory. I didn’t know it was in two points of view going in, and I liked that.

The story was a little slow paced, and it didn’t really get to one big climax. There were a few twists thrown in, and I really liked the Handbook guidelines between chapters. I’m not sure which character I preferred, because both of them were good characters, and very different from each other, with different voices.

Jerome is a bit of a mess-up, but he has a past, and he is actually a pretty sweet guy. Heidi feels a bit like a loser, and that sucks, but I think what happened let her get some perspective, and made her grow.

I was not expecting the ending. I mean, I thought of a couple outcomes (including, as I read closer to the end, what actually happened), but I didn’t know what did happen would actually be it. And I guess it fits. It makes sense, but I’m also not sure if I like it. Mostly, though, I think that’s because I wanted more of a happily ever after. This ending makes sense for the characters and the heaven thing, though.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable book. It was funny, and there were several stories and characteristics thrown in that I enjoyed.