Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the publisher, Red Coat PR, via NetGalley for an honest review.
Genre: Fiction/Young Adult
Plot: Sixteen-year-old, Charlize Daniels, is resigned to her place in the shadows until one day with a rush of death, she meets him.
He’s everything she’s not. Tall with face like an angel, a mouth like a sinner, tattoos and piercings to rival those of rock gods, in one word, he’s cocky. And worse, he comes with his own personal fan club.
Only their every meeting is suspect, leaving her to question why he only ever turns up when her life is headed south, backwards or upside down. His explanations are shady, and his hot and cold gives her whiplash. But his lips on hers burn and take her places she’s never been.
If only she can trust him. If only he reveals what he really is? Then hopefully they won’t end up on opposite sides of a frenemy line, and she’s forced to take him down. Worse case, he’s already planned to take her out first. And not on a date, but in a dead kind of way.
Opinion: I read through this book CRAZY fast! So obviously, it has the “hook-you-in” factor going for it. Though I might lose some readers with this next sentence, I know I will hook a few others. This book feels like a different take on the ever so popular Twilight books, but it THANKFULLY lacks the sparkly vampires and awkwardness that Twilight ultimately is.
A few weeks after the recent and mysterious death of her father, Charlize Daniels is just now going back through her normal daily activities. Her high school is filled with eyes constantly following her, waiting for her to break down. But among those eyes is her old best friend, Alex, who is just as much dreamy as he is protective over Charlize. But one day when Charlize, or Charlie, is alone in the forest, she becomes face to face with a boy that saves her life. Peter is mysterious and dark, but always seems to be there right when Charlie needs him the most. Soon Charlie’s world becomes engulfed in a whirlwind of adventures and secrets, and she learns that not everything has been what it seems.
One great thing about this book is that for the most part of this story, the author keeps you completely confused and blind to what is going on. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s that purposefully vague book description; but I was STILL guessing after I had read much more than half of this story. I love a story that can ACTUALLY keep a reader confused, but also how an author can be so subtle with their hints is fairly desirable in any book. In that sense, I found the overall pace and lead up to the end, perfect.
WOOHOO for another badass female lead! Ahhh, I just love when a young woman isn’t afraid to speak her mind and get a little feisty. Charlie is the epitome of a tomboy, and has no qualms with telling unwanted people to get off her back. I found her relationship with Alex to be VERY interesting. As they had grown up together being best friends, their relationship shifted once those wonderful hormones started to shift; which ultimately resulted in them becoming distant in their freshmen year of high school. Throughout this read we see Alex acting very protective over Charlie, but we also see Charlie having a lot of conflicting feelings about how she feels about Alex. As soon as the reader starts to catch the drift that something might arise between these two characters…WHAM! Enter Peter, the “game changer”. Peter is ALSO another male character in this story that is constantly watching Charlie in order to protect her. He is the complete opposite of Alex, a complete “bad boy”. Now the ultimate tug-of-war for Charlie comes out, and these boys get serious about her fast. Obviously by this point, the reader will have an understanding that some S*** is about to go down since these boys have this SERIOUS need to basically stalk her around in case she trips and falls on a pebble. Basically what I’m saying is, you start to realize there MUST be something these guys know that Charlie doesn’t. Nobody needs that much saving, especially when you’re a woman who can take care of herself.
Honestly, these fantasy stories with the overpowering adolescent drama is starting to weigh on me a bit. It seems like every story now has a female lead who just can’t seem to decide which guy she likes. This story left me sitting there screaming “OH JUST PICK ONE ALREADY!” Apart from this annoying and ridiculous love story, the plot was just as basic as the romance was. It is just something we have all already seen before. But did I enjoy reading it, well yeah. The writing keeps you intrigued, the characters are fairly developed, and the story-line is exciting because the reader has to figure out what is going on. I actually did enjoy this book, I just wish the author would have put some originality into it.
jenacidebybibliophile 