Taylor Dawn

Find this review and more at Southern Bred, Southern Read Book Blog

London heard the four little words that no one ever wants to hear "You have terminal cancer." With no treatment, London is given a year to live and is told to make the best of it. She decides to to make a bucket list of things she would never normally do since she full intends to make the last year of her life the best year of her life. You see, London isn't the kind of girl to step out of her comfort zone and do something crazy like crash a wedding or drive a race car. She lives her life very conservatively and does her best to just blend into the shadows. The list in her ticket to accomplish everything she has ever dreamed about. She meets Adam accidentally, when he gets lost and stops her for directions. From there the seems to pop up wherever she is. When he shows up at her apartment and proposes to help her with her bucket list, there is no way she can pass up such an incredible opportunity. Adam is gorgeous and has connections everywhere and seemingly wants nothing in return for helping her. They set out on their journey with the promise not to ask any personal about each other and to just enjoy the adventure. Once strange things start happening, London starts questioning Adam and why is he doing so much for her. The truth is so unbelievable, but London finally realizes that there are forces greater than herself working to help her along her journey.

This was actually a pretty good book. The writing is enjoyable and draw you in. You find yourself wanting more and needing more information, which is what one of my biggest problems with the book is. Things are just so.... convenient. London meets this random guy who offers to help her with this crazy bucket list and basically just accepts everything at face value. She jet sets off with him all over the country and to other countries without really questioning anything until pretty far into it. What does this guy really want? How can he just drop everything to help her for nothing more than good will? It's pretty obvious to the reader what Adam is (especially since London makes a passing comment about how he seems like he could be her Guardian Angel), but it is frustrating that London doesn't figure it out until much later. One of my biggest pet peeves in books is when the readers know some big secret and the main character has zero idea what is going on.

Anyway, it is fun to read about their adventures while they cross things off of her list. Of course there is a bad guy who throws a wrench into everything. What kind of book would it be without a dastardly villain who has it out for our main dude? His name is Cain (which of course goes with the theme) and he seems pretty intent on showing London that Adam isn't at all what he seems and that she needs to come out with Cain. There is a ton of testosterone fights and a whole lot of good versus evil drama. I am admittedly not a huge fan of the fallen angel/angel theme that has become hugely popular in YA/NA lately. It is just not a subject that interests me much, because let's face it, The Mortal Instruments set the bar for the genre and nothing will ever come close. I can still appreciate how well it was written and how someone who does enjoy this theme would probably really like how the plot is set up.

The ending is what really gets me and lowered the star rating for me. Ok, let's be completely honest for a second and acknowledge with these type of books there are two outcomes: the main character lives or the main character dies. The main character living is the obvious HEA, but sometimes you just want the MC to die because that would be an unexpected twist. HEAs aren't always what every book needs. This book has your typical climax where poo hits the fan and it's an epic battle of good versus evil, but oh wait is evil really evil? And then it kind of just... ends. Adam is like "ok cool, accomplished what I needed to accomplish so peace out." London goes back to the doctor to check out her terminal diagnoses and OMG! It's a miracle! Personally, it was just a very bland ending. I would have enjoyed it much more if something unexpected would have happened instead of what you expect from your typical HEA.



Thank you to the author Taylor Dawn and her publishers for providing me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. If you are a fan of angels and fallen angels and HEAs, then this is definitely a book for you to check out. It is very well written, and a good short (~280pages) read that you can knock out in an afternoon.

3/5 stars… (altro)

Thanks to LibraryThing for this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this novel thinking that it sounded interesting. I mean, a younger person with a bucket list that's somehow tied to saving the world? Yeah, sounds kind of interesting, right? And it was, on some levels. But here's my beef with the story: London was not so easy for me to like. Well, I won't go into what I thought about doing to her, but let's just say that I work with students her age all day, every day, and sometimes they're mature and have their head on straight, and other times you wonder if they somehow skipped from 12 to their twenties. Not trying to be harsh, but London was just rather immature. And it kind of annoyed me that she lets this random stranger, Adam, into her life, and then lets him take over her bucket list. I mean, it's a bucket list: something she wants to do before she dies! Shouldn't she want to do these things, somehow, on her own? I don't know, it just felt off to me. In some ways it felt like this was an MG that had been converted to a NA book. Buuuut, this might be just me. I did find that there was no romance in the book kind of interesting and unique--not what you're expecting from the start, but a realistic and refreshing take on the situation. Anyhow, overall, not exactly my favorite read, but definitely something an advanced younger reader could read as it's very clean.… (altro)

I expected Saving London to be sad, since it's about a girl who has barely reached adulthood and diagnosed with a terminal illness. I did not expect it to have much more going on under the surface, and was pleasantly surprised when I realized that I was reading a different story than I thought at first. However, the plot, once it was remotely suggested, was fairly predictable, spurred by the obvious character names. I did enjoy the details of the main character's shenanigans as she completed her list, but the ending, although predictable, seemed rushed and at a different pace than the rest of the book. Overall, a solid effort.… (altro)