KitsuneBae
Written on Aug 22, 2013
This review is also posted on my blog at: Thoughts and Pens
Disclaimer: A free copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
This book has gone batshit crazy. For a very short read, I was impressed with the mixture of emotions it has stirred in me. Curiosity then joy then giddiness then confusion then @_@ then rolling eyes then another @_@ then WTF?! I don’t usually do GIFs but to be able to relay the message with clarity, see below.
What the hell is wrong with this book?! It had a nice beginning then everything came crushing down like some distant planet crossed the borders of Earth and pounded it to pieces. I love the concept of the story. I love the pacing at the start. I like the romance part. But there were a lot of buts to save this book from being shelved into my “2013 Worst-Reads.”
Let me start with the romance. While I was starting to enjoy the whole banter between Josh and Grace, I was immediately stumped when things took a sudden turn. In an instant, they became girlfriend and boyfriend. Whoa! Wait, maybe I am missing some pages here…lemme check. OK. Done checking. It’s confirmed, folks. This book is plagued with that horrible instalove sickness. And it did not only happen to our leads but happened to the secondary characters as well.
Speaking of the characters, my mind is currently engaged in a fight… a fight about which character should I root for. Ah, there’s the answer: NONE. During the start of the story, I liked Josh, Grace and Archer. But as the story moved forward, I saw the real them: underdeveloped with conflicting personalities. Let’s take Grace for example. One moment, she was this very smart, sensible, badass Angel who swore to continue the legacy of the Tates and then the next thing I know, she’s revealing her true self to Josh. Another very concrete example was when she hopelessly fell inlove with Josh. The way the romance was told, she was crazy and can’t get enough of him. But during the end part, she was all over Seth. I was like
How did that even happen? And suddenly she hated Josh just because he became a sadistic vamp. Well, here’s the thing girl, whose fault was it that he became what he is? Wasn’t that your selfish and highly impulsive decision? Instead of being patient with him, you immediately hooked up with Seth like nothing’s happened, like you didn’t just make a mess of the whole thing? And what about your wonderful idea of making the students as baits for the vampire? Please remind me again about your reaction when Abby and Claudia was attacked because of your stupid decision? Nada! It was as if they have not existed. Really? For the love of every sensible thought, you are an Angel and you think that way? I am convinced that you deserve this one hell of a…
Josh, come here. You’re next. How about some nice
I had hoped that we’d get along nicely. But that hope went down the drain as you became a henpecked loser of a boyfriend. How come that you went along with all Grace’s craziness? First, you accepted all the things about her in just a matter of minutes or was that seconds? Then, you just said yes to all her decisions. And lastly, instead of really getting angry for what Grace had done to you, you let all your dignity fly out the window and hoped to get back with her. Answer me; are you a mindless prop to this whole story?!
What about you, Seth? Come here and let me see you. How in the world that the author forgot to put you in a primary role? Sure, I did enjoy you being on the background but when I got to the last pages of the book, it was revealed that you deserve the spotlight after all. How come I didn’t know you that much? Why oh why, Seth?
Should I even go on with the other wishy washy characters? I don’t think so. Another thing that made me utterly annoyed with this book is the alternating POVs between Grace and Josh. Yes, it had been alright until it was revealed that Josh was afterall a prop boyfriend. And Grace sacrificed her position as an Angel just to be with you (Never mind the whole Charlotte issue because that was just a ploy to make Grace’s sacrifice conceivable and noble. She fell because of you.) What a twist! Very impressive!
Moving forward, the pacing of this book was: Average to Normalto Fast and to Hold on for dear life! Everything just snowballed. By the time I was finished reading it, my mind was spinning. The events happened too fast that I’ve lost any bits of appreciation that I have for this book.
And there’s the plot. The last time I read the synopsis, the story is about fighting evil and eradicating vampires. But all the numerous romances in this book overshadowed that. By the way, this book was only dealing with three vampires, four if you count the vamp in beginning. And then there was the haphazardly inserted angel fight scenes. I wasn’t even convinced with the Fallen Angel thing. On how hard it is to fall because Grace didn’t really spend some time reflecting over it. She instantly moved on. As I’ve said, this book has gone batshit crazy.
It was a good thing that the ending had a nice cliffhanger but not enough to convince me to read the second book. This book does not have any subtleties at all.
