Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy, #1)

by Kiersten White

[Rowena]

I’ve had this book sitting on my nook for the longest time and never got around to reading it. I would start it and then stop and then move on to something else but with my niece borrowing my kindle, I picked this book up on my nook again and finally read it through the end.
I’m glad that I read it through to the end.

This book follows a young woman named Evie who works for the IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency) and her job there is to bag and tag paranormal creatures that are behaving badly. Her special power is that she can see through any glamour that paranormals hide behind to the real things they are underneath. She’s an orphan that was tossed around in the foster system and then was discovered and “adopted” into the IPCA. Her handler, I guess you can call her, Raquel has been like an adopted mother to Evie and even though she doesn’t tell her much about anything, she’s all Evie has. She’s all Evie has ever had.

Even though Evie is content with the way that her life is, she’s not necessarily happy. She wants to be normal, or as normal as she can be. Her favorite TV show is Easton Heights, which is a show about high school. She wants to attend high school, have her own locker and kiss boys but since she can’t, living the way that she lives, she lives vicariously through the characters on her show. Evie’s never questioned her life until she bags and tags a paranormal that tried to break into the IPCA. His name is Lend. He’s a shape-shifter and he’s got some secrets that he won’t spill to Raquel or anyone else at the IPCA so in a cell he sits while they try to figure out what he is and what he was trying to do by breaking in.

Evie is intrigued by him so she sneaks into see him every chance she can and the more she sees him, the closer they get. The more she realizes that he’s not the bad guy that everyone seems to think that he is. When paranormals are dropping dead all over the place, Evie makes some decisions on where her loyalties lay and what she’s going to do about, well everything. Her life, the paranormal situation, etc.

In the beginning of this book, it took a while for me to warm up to Evie. Her attitude and her personality took some getting used to but as the book continued on, I really came to like her. I came to respect the hell out of her and admire the choices she made. She followed what she thought was right and didn’t let anyone talk her out of doing what she thought was right.
I’m not really big on the lighter paranormal stories. I don’t read very many of them because I prefer paranormals (when I read them) to be darker and more serious. I prefer my paranormal love interests/heroes to be the silent, brooding types but White does a really great job of drawing me into this story despite all of that. I really enjoyed watching the story unfold in pieces and I loved getting to know the characters.

I loved Lend (even though I’m not a fan of his name) and I’m really anxious to see more of him in Supernaturally. I loved the relationship that he had with his parents and I loved the way that he embraced Evie and showed her the things that she was missing, being trapped away with the IPCA. I really enjoyed the presence he had in Evie’s life and the influence he had on her. He made her a better person and it was just great.

I really enjoyed getting to know Evie as well, after that rocky start we had in the beginning. She was a really kick ass heroine, real strong and I loved that she used her powers for good and not evil. What I really liked about her was something that far too often, I hate in other characters in other books. I really liked that she was upfront and honest about what she dreaming about and what she thought was going to happen if she kept hanging out with Lend. I loved that she respected him enough to know why she was acting the way that she was. I loved that she protected him by giving him the knowledge he needed to protect himself and to help her any way that he could. I really liked that.

What I didn’t like was Raquel’s sighs. She sighed too hot damn much and it got on my nerves. Every time she sighed one of her “Why are you doing this to me” sighs and her “Why are you an idiot” sighs, I wanted to hit in her the face. I’m still on the fence with her but I did love the other characters that were introduced in this book. I can’t wait to dig into Supernaturally which is what I plan to do right after I finish this review.