Format Read: Ebook
Number of Pages: 292 pages
Release Date: December 7th 2010
Publisher: Ireadiwrite Publishing
Formats Available: E-Book
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon
Blurb:
Grace Lynn Stevenson is an eighteen year old girl who recently moved with her wealthy, but busy parents to a new city. She’s popular, pretty and rich – what more could a girl want? But deep down, she’s sad, lonely and plagued by nightmares.
When she meets Sebastian Caldwood at her new private school, she’s inexplicably drawn to him and his strange tattoos. Sebastian always gets what he wants – he simply has to wish it; but he’s fighting his own inner demons, and struggling to remember a past that eludes him. When he remembers that he is much older than he looks, he realizes that he’s seen many people live and die, including Grace.
Once Sebastian realizes his true nature and finds what he has been searching for the past hundreds of years, he also realizes that it is now up to him to protect Grace from the dangers that have plagued them throughout eternity.
My Thoughts:
Grace is trapped in a world of rules although she lives a privileged life with wealth and good connections, such as the popular boyfriend and leading the ‘in-crowd’ at her school. However despite these advantages she finds herself drifting and burdened with expectations especially by her parents and her boyfriend. But when she she meets a mysterious boy, Sebastian, who awakens her inner desires and Grace soon finds her true self but is torn between expectations by her family and friends and what Sebastian can offer which is definitely otherworldly.
I think the past year or so I may be burned out on YA that feature Twilightesque plots/characters, and I am not a huge fan of these tropes, especially with so many books having similar premises. I think my main gripe (and problem) with this book was the fact that Grace was not a proactive character and was pretty passive for most of the book.
I also really did not like the that fact it took Sebastian, to show her out of rut and the passivity of the life she was in, and the way this happened never really worked for me. The message behind this also made me wary, I have no issues with the Sleeping Beauty trope/styled story but I wished there was development in the story. I especially found Grace’s privileged background and beauty made her too much of a Mary Sue character and there was not much conflict or interest for me on why she would feel like this or be so passive. It made her character almost feel like a cardboard cutout and she only came alive when Sebastian came along and I found it very hard to believe she would not have rebelled in some way or actually become selfish, snobbish and be as self centred as her friends and family with the expectations she was brought up with. Although, Grace’s parents were restrictive and self centred there was a suggestion later in the book about why this was the case but this was way too late into the story.
I also had real issues with the romance. I didn’t see any real chemistry with the hero, there was a lot of telling instead of showing with their relationship. The pacing really, really dragged, especially for the first three quarters into the book. I love romance but there was no real tension between the characters and I found Sebastian’s character even less developed as Grace. During their courtship there were lots of mentions of Sebastian telling Grace stories and jokes but there was no scenes of real interaction and no sense of how they fell in love. It was only towards the end, that we got to see some interesting aspects of Sebastian but again too little, too late for me.
At this point of the story I was getting so bored with the book that I seriously considered DNF – but I managed to plow my way through the rest of the story which improved slightly although I think at that point it was too little too late. The twist at the end was the only thing that saved the book but even with that plot ending, it wasn’t as much of a surprise since I suspected this throughout the book. I really wished this aspect of the plot was brought forward earlier because this was the most interesting part of the book. In fact this was when the story started to get interesting for me and I wished this was brought up much earlier in the book. The romance was not strong enough to carry the story although the characters felt lackluster as well but the twist would have added some plot and tension and it did made them become more interesting for me.
I think there will be people who will enjoy this book, especially if they are fans of similar stories and premises but the romance, and characters didn’t live up to the promise. The twist and development at the end of the book only started to engage me into the story and then it ended. I really wanted to like it but it didn’t work for me especially with the heroine’s passivity.
I give Amber Frost 2.5 Bookies
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About Has
Has is a bookaholic and feeds her addiction whenever she can. She usually can be found lost in a Romance or an Urban Fantasy novel. Her favourite sub genres are Paranormal, Fantasy and some Scifi. Her most treasured authors are, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Ann Aguirre, Lisa Kleypas and Tamora Pierce. She loves that discovery of finding a brand new author and falling in love with their books. Has also blogs a The Book Pushers - Book chatter and reviews
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Good review. I was looking into this one today. I think I will hold off. Thanks!