Jessica Miller (2)

I was given the book free of charge in exchange of an honest review (Lovers of Paranormal). The following review may contain spoilers.

Rating 6 of 10

I will admit I struggled reading the book. So... 5 stars for the plot, because I really liked the main idea in the book and 1 star for Josie - she sooo made my day. Let's start with what I liked in the book first.
The plot - demon possessions, power-hungry witches, old lovers, nothing sounds too original but somehow it all worked for me and made me wonder "what happens next?". And that's what kept me reading even thought there were times when I wanted to trow it out and say "I am done".And for that same reason I will most probably be reading the next book too. Come to think of it... I already can't wait for it.
I also liked how the book started. Ella was struggling with the fact she had killed someone and that was okay. If we had seen more of that by the end of the book - things would have been nice. And Josie telling Ella that she is selfish? I soooo wanted to read that from book 1. Absolutely made my day.
Josie and Billy's love story... sweet. I really like seeing these two together. They have a dynamic in them that I still haven't seen in any other couple in the series.
And we are to a point where things went down.... Ella, who at book 3 finally acted her age, went back to the hormonal teenager from book 1 - she couldn't make up her mind on anything, got moody and selfish and everyone was pitting her for having so much to deal with. Yeah, right, she wasn't dealing with anything - the only thing she did for 90% of the book was making out and have sex with Tristan(or thinking for Tristan). Which sort of was my biggest problem with the book, because the entire time it was like the real big problems were secondary to Ella's sexual life. A bit annoying for me. And we practically saw close to nothing from Roman. He was the one possessed but they didn't even kept an eye on him. Oh, and have I mentioned how much I dislike Tristan? He is annoying, self-obsessed, believes sex is the answer in every situation and he has the ability to bring out the worst of Ella. No idea what she sees in him but good looks.
Overall, bad balance in between a good plot and Ella's emotional struggles. I hope that next books will be better on that part because I really want to know what will happen next.… (altro)

I was given a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review(Lovers of Paranormal). The following review contains spoilers.

Rating 5 of 10

Very good book, a real page-turner. Very unexpacted twists that keep you guessing what's next till the last page.

BUT....

Ella....

That girl was annoying. Don't even know where to start with. She is selfish, spoiled, stuborn(and not in a good way) and very stupid girl. I felt for her at the beginning. She seemed nice and I liked the fact that even after the tragedy she is trying to get a grip of her life and move on. If the book was about her trying to do just that, it would have been great. No such luck. I didn't like how she acted on that party and made out with that Mark guy but I overlooked it. Hey, a girl have the right to be a bit recless after such a tragedy. Accepted it as part of the healing process and moved on. And then Ella went to the university. To get drunk as pig on your first party there is absolutely unacceptable behavior for a girl in my opinion but that's just me. I have seen it happen, so... whatever. Now enter Tristan. She said he annoyed her but I never saw her doing anything really to get rid of him, just a few half-hearted attempts that looked more like a flirting to me than anything else. And don't tell me that she couldn't get rid of him, cause he was persistent. If Ella wanted to do it she could have done it. As it happened - Tristan played her like a cat plays with a mouse... and she played along. He challenged her and Ella never knew when to back down or fight back. If she really liked him from the very beginning and had second thoughts because of Kyle I would have thought it normal. But at this point I would have loved to hear more about Kyle. He sort of have been forgotten somewhere on the way. Okay, lets move on. The date was nice, nothing much to say for it. But after Ella saw Tristan with another girl I thought she will finally get the hint. Nope, she lets herself being smitten with him again. And then Tristan refused to sleep with her because she was drunk(again). This is the point that I actually decided that he is a good guy and is worth the shot. Ella, of course, finally decided to get rid of him. Because she obviously prefers bad guys and the possibility of Tristan actually being a nice one repulses her. So she chooses Jack. The creepy guy. At this point I already had a bad feeling about him. Mostly because of his reaction on her dating Tristan. Looked a bit too possessive to me. And that leads me to another annoying thing about Ella - she never asked herself who the killer is. She was way too self-absorbed to bother with suck a trivial thing like a murder on the campus. A child would have been more curious than her. And I laughed when they found the second body. Ella herself mentions he have been dead there for days. But is worried about the roommate. Like there is a chance he didn't noticed that his roommate is murdered.... Funny girl.

And then the big secrets are revealed. Ella is annoyed about being lied to. I get that but why she had to trow a tantrum? Didn't saw Josie doing that. But Ella obviouly had a problem with autority. I get her prolems with being royalty but not the one with the guardians. Hello, girl, time to get the memo - there is someone out there determned to kill you. But what she does? Sneaks out to go to a party. And not only there, but back to the empty building where they are an easy prey. Do I blame Ella for what happened? I sure do! Josie didn't get the whole danger, but Ella did. She was just too stupid to even think that someone might get hurt. For a stupid party? If you want to go that much why not ask permision first? Go with guardians? Honestly, at the end of the book I wished Ella was dead.

And in the same time I couldn't just put the book down. At some point, I think it was when Ella trew a tantrum and refused to listen to anything her father said, I went back in the beginning to check how old actually Ella is. If I have found out she was 14-15-16 years old I would have given the book a 10 and never given it a second thought. At the age of 18 a girl is (supposedly) out of puberty and that confusing age of the 'misunderstood' girl.

What else I really liked in the book?

The secondary characters were actually very well developed. Josie grew on me from page one, her brother was adorable and Billy and Dixon were just great. Would have been happy to see more of Josie' and Billy's love story. The twists in the plot were actually unexpected.

Time for book 2. Can't wait to see what happens next and I really hope that Ella is going to grow up.… (altro)

Ella, the main character in the story, is a teenager who has had to deal with way too much grief for someone her age. You can empathize with her from the start but also hope that she is able to get past it. She makes some lousy decisions in the story that will make you angry but thankfully, she always comes through in the end. Tristan is your typical gorgeous college student who is completely incorrigible, to the point where I didn't even like him at some points in the story. He seemed too much of a playboy to be swoon worthy. However, as I began to piece things together toward the end, I realized that what I thought was happening wasn't really the case. Even though all of my questions weren't answered about him, I have some pretty good hunches about why he acted the way he did. By the end, I was also enamored by him and hoping he and Ella would find happiness together. Jack started out as a good friend but I knew something was wrong with him from the start. I just couldn't place my finger on what it was but he was just off in some way that made me suspicious.

What I found quite interesting about the story was that there was really no major paranormal element to it until about halfway through. I wasn't sure if we would be dealing with witches, vampires, werewolves, or what. There were little clues here and there, and Ella's dreams of course, but the big reveal didn't happen for a long time. I kind of liked it this way. Not only did it keep me reading to see if my predictions were correct, but I didn't feel like the romance or plot was rushed in any way. Once everything was finally out in the open however, the action really picked up and the ending was, well... let's just say I need the next book now.

Fans of YA paranormal will like this story. When I mentioned earlier that it could use a little bit of polish, that just means that there were a few editing issues and I still have a lot of burning questions that need to be addressed. I'm hoping that these questions will be answered in the next book. Give this one a chance. I think you will enjoy it.… (altro)

[I was given a digital edition for free from the author, in exchange for an honest review]

The book focuses on the life of eighteen year old Ella and how she discovers the true origins of her family. First chapter offers a small glimpse at the mystery that will be slowly unraveled through the pages of the novel. Ella lost her boyfriend in a car accident and since then she’s been having nightmares about the strange yellow eyed man who tried to kill her that night and the anonymous person who saved her. After this incident, her parents become overprotective and thus she feels suffocated by all their care and attention. She is looking forward to going to college with her best friend Josie to get away from them and her two older brothers.

While there are some aspects that I did not enjoy and I will elaborate below, the book was a great read, with amusing expressions and moments. The author’s writing feels natural and I found myself enjoying the witty dialogues between the characters. Despite the slow progress of the plot, I got caught up in the pages and did not want to put it down till the last word!

One of the things that I did not enjoy is the difficult way in which the story unfolds. We are overloaded with irrelevant actions or dialogues and because of it the book is longer than needed. Also, there are moments when one may think: “Ok, now she finds out” but nothing happens. It becomes frustrating by the end.

From characters point of view, Ella is close to the typical teenager who wants her independence. What I did like about her was the fact that she was neither too good nor was she too rebellious. She had a little bit of everything. What I did not like was the fact that she never asked questions or she never waited for an explanation. For example, she overhears one of her brothers arguing with their father about the decision of not telling her the truth, but she does not try to find out what was that all about.

Ella’s friend Josie is the party type girl, always wanting to have fun. Her actions have an important role in shaping Ella’s love life. As for Tristan and Jack, the two boys fighting for Ella, I can say they were very nicely presented in the book. Even though Tristan was asking for forgiveness too much, his personality brought so much light and charm to the story.

I believe that the book needs a little bit of editing as well, as there were some grammar mistakes and repeated words. But then again, I probably had a draft version.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and since the ending left me wanting for more, I will for sure read the next books in this series. This was a fun read, with a story that keeps you hanging till the end, I would like to thank Jessica Miller for the opportunity and congratulate her for this great book!… (altro)