Cécile Tasson

This is going to be a slightly confusing review, given that I rated this four stars, but mostly nitpick the novel here, so bare with me.

I toyed with the thought of rating this three stars. Frankly, my chosen rating of four stars is definitely more of a testament to my mental block to rate good books lower that four stars, than it is to the actual rating I think this probably deserved.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is in no way a bad book; it just isn't a great book. And I think, that from the years that I've spent reading Armentrout's various works, I've come to expect a slightly higher standard.

I definitely think that she does a wonderful job of conveying emotion and that it serves to convey some important messages and morals. I do feel like it came across a little heavy handed though, and as a result seemed a little immature at times. The peril of reading Young Adult novels as a 21 year old, I suppose.

I think the novel would have had a greater impact as a New Adult release, which would have given the author the chance to explore some of the themes to a more serious degree. I felt like a fair portion of the book was spent tiptoeing around the protagonist's survivor's guilt, and the extent to which this was affecting her mental health. A couple of instances, such as the discussion of her future with the grief counsellor, really left me anticipating a big admission from the protagonist. Did she wish she'd died in the accident? Was she depressed? I feel like it was hinted at, but never strictly addressed. I think that in theory, it makes sense to target a YA audience, because of the moralistic message of the book. But unfortunately, I think that in practice, it hindered the novel a lot.

I felt like I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think it's probably because we've become used to the standard plot formatting of having a big climax towards the end of the novel. And while that does, kind of happen, when Lena and Sebastian fall out, because of that earlier, much larger climatic event, it all falls a little short for me.

And to top that off, I think that way about the halfway mark of the novel, it started to feel a little rushed. And as a result I felt like there were a few loose ends when the novel came to a close. Did Sebastian know that Lena and Cody had a thing at some point? What happened to Keith's parents? Did he and Abby actually date?… (mehr)

This is going to be a slightly confusing review, given that I rated this four stars, but mostly nitpick the novel here, so bare with me.

I toyed with the thought of rating this three stars. Frankly, my chosen rating of four stars is definitely more of a testament to my mental block to rate good books lower that four stars, than it is to the actual rating I think this probably deserved.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is in no way a bad book; it just isn't a great book. And I think, that from the years that I've spent reading Armentrout's various works, I've come to expect a slightly higher standard.

I definitely think that she does a wonderful job of conveying emotion and that it serves to convey some important messages and morals. I do feel like it came across a little heavy handed though, and as a result seemed a little immature at times. The peril of reading Young Adult novels as a 21 year old, I suppose.

I think the novel would have had a greater impact as a New Adult release, which would have given the author the chance to explore some of the themes to a more serious degree. I felt like a fair portion of the book was spent tiptoeing around the protagonist's survivor's guilt, and the extent to which this was affecting her mental health. A couple of instances, such as the discussion of her future with the grief counsellor, really left me anticipating a big admission from the protagonist. Did she wish she'd died in the accident? Was she depressed? I feel like it was hinted at, but never strictly addressed. I think that in theory, it makes sense to target a YA audience, because of the moralistic message of the book. But unfortunately, I think that in practice, it hindered the novel a lot.

I felt like I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I think it's probably because we've become used to the standard plot formatting of having a big climax towards the end of the novel. And while that does, kind of happen, when Lena and Sebastian fall out, because of that earlier, much larger climatic event, it all falls a little short for me.

And to top that off, I think that way about the halfway mark of the novel, it started to feel a little rushed. And as a result I felt like there were a few loose ends when the novel came to a close. Did Sebastian know that Lena and Cody had a thing at some point? What happened to Keith's parents? Did he and Abby actually date?… (mehr)

YA alien PNR. For what it was, it wasn’t bad. With the world building that often sucks the life out of the first in a lot of series, I’d probably like reading on. I don’t know if I’m attached enough to characters to do that, but if book two gets on my radar I suppose I wouldn’t say no.

Maybe not a ringing endorsement, but it kind of is. The genre of teenager alien PNR is often fraught with ridiculousness, and insipid characters. This wasn’t. It really wasn’t bad. In fact is was MILES better than one I read recently “Memory Walker”. Good gravy that was painful. I think the thing, besides first book syndrome, that took away from this particular tale for me was the fact that the MMC was a bastard 90% of the time. I just finished (for me, I quite half way through the published books) a series (Fever by Karen Marie Moning) that everyone seems to love. But, Barrons was an ass 99.9% of the time, and I just couldn’t get past it to find him all dreamy. I like some snark, but full time rat bastard just doesn’t work for me.… (mehr)

Sigh....

If I were to say exactly how I felt about this book...All there were be is a bunch of curse words because that's what the book left me with...Just no words...Just...Shit This book was damn amazing! Ugh...From page 1..It had me..and kept me! Any slow moments didn't last long...

It's rare that I give into over-hyped books and love them...Well...this is one of them...(The others were the Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy just to name one)

Now, what I am about to say, may get me into a little trouble with some people, but I mean this with the highest of compliments because I loved the series when I read it..And remember, this is my personal opinion...

But some parts, were a tiny bit reminiscent of Twilight, but only a little...Just with the family of "supernatural" family, in this case, Aliens. I cracked up when Katy asked Daemon if they sparkled..That was hilarious!! lolAnother part that reminded me of the other series was the fact that a couple in the family/friends didn't like Kat very much.....But Dee's personality was as bubbly & as sweet as Alice...But of course, those were the only things that really reminded me of Twilight...There were naturally many other differences...Katy was No where near as whiny or stalkerish..and she fought back, hard! She didn't bow down to Daemon's jerk...asshat (hey, that's her word, not mine! lol)ways...

But, oh Daemon, sexy Jerk-y Daemon! Even when he was being a jerk...You just couldn't resist him! The further you got along in the book, the more you began to understand why he was the way he was...And by the end of the book...his swoon-worthyness was so...sigh...I have no real words for it..except that you almost felt as light headed as she did...I think I finally found myself a fictional boyfriend, well, if he was above age 21 that is! lol...(Hey, I'm what many teens consider to be an old woman! lol)...But Daemon, dammit, I love you! Ugh...Without the jerk mode...If I could find one of him closer to my age, I swear my wanting to get married would change!

I have tried to read one of J.L Armentrouts N.A. books, but couldn't get into it..I happened to see Obsidian and Onyx at the library and said I would at least give it a try...Well, let's just say, I am so glad I did! I may go right into Onyx just to see what happened next! Daemon has me hooked! And yes, I love Kat and all her claws too! lol… (mehr)