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Star-Crossed #1
Reckless Magic: The Star-Crossed Series
Sixteen-year-old Eden Matthews has been in and out of private schools for the last two years. She can't seem to stop herself from closing them down. Kingsley is her last chance to finish high school. Only Kingsley isn't like the other schools she's been to. The students are different. But, then again, so is she. After meeting Kiran Kendrick, the mysterious boy who seems to be the source of all her problems, she is suddenly in a world that feels more make-believe than reality.When her best friend Lilly is taken away and Kiran's life is threatened, Eden finds herself right in the middle of an ancient war that is so much bigger than high school. She alone has to find a way to save her best friend and the boy who has captivated her heart.Reckless Magic is an intricate story about adventure, magic and forbidden love. Eden Matthews is an unlikely heroine determined to save the world and be with her one, true love before it's too late.
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First published March 14, 2011
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About the author
Rachel Higginson
121 books3,495 followersRachel Higginson is the best-selling author of The Five Stages of Falling in Love, Every Wrong Reason, Bet on Us and The Star-Crossed Series.
She was born and raised in Nebraska, and spent her college years traveling the world. She fell in love with Eastern Europe, Paris, Indian Food and the beautiful beaches of Sri Lanka, but came back home to marry her high school sweetheart. Now she spends her days writing stories and raising five amazing kids.
She was born and raised in Nebraska, and spent her college years traveling the world. She fell in love with Eastern Europe, Paris, Indian Food and the beautiful beaches of Sri Lanka, but came back home to marry her high school sweetheart. Now she spends her days writing stories and raising five amazing kids.
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May 2, 2014
“I hadn’t figured anything out on my own yet.”
Spoilers...duh
Oh Reckless Magic, where do I even start?
A good friend of mine gave that book to me, since she is absolutely in love with the whole series. We agree with a lot of stuff, sadly this book is not one of them. I wanted to like it, I couldn’t. That doesn’t meant I don’t understand what people might see in it, I get it believe me, it is just not the one for me.
Please let me tell you, no matter what I might say here, I don’t want to bash the author. I actually admire everyone who has the courage to write something and use the wonderful opportunity called self-publishing.
If you like YA books, especially the paranormal romance kind, you might agree with me when I say it becomes harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are so many of them and sometimes you find a little treasure that is something special and other times you find books that seemed to exist to just jump on the Twilight wagon. If you’re wondering, this is the latter category.
Writing. I’m not a native English speaker. I make a lot of mistakes, especially when I’m busy and don’t re-read my stuff. The point is I’m a non native speaker that writes for fun, not a published author. Self-publishing is not an excuse for a bunch of mistakes in my opinion, you can still correct your own writing or ask friends and family for help during the editing process. This book reads like some kind of first draft, with the only editor being some autocorrection program. There are so many spelling and grammar errors, wrong punctuation and missing words up to a point where I only could shake my head in disbelief.
If you are able to ignore the mistakes then you find a very average writing style. It is your typical YA first person narration and its filled with a lot of exposition and repetition. Especially the repetition gets to a point where it can only be called downright annoying. Something is explained by a character and then about five chapters later another character explains exactly the same thing, with almost exactly the same words again. Your readers are not stupid, they don’t forget details so easily, so please don’t treat them that way.
Other than that the book is filled with unnecessary long sentences that mostly deal with over the top dramatic teenage angst. It is not the most awful writing style I’ve ever came across, but it is far from being good.
Story. The story is about 16 year old Eden who is a witch and doesn’t know about it. She has been kicked out of several schools and private school Kingsley is her last hope. What Eden doesn’t know is that the school is basically the mash up version of Hogwarts and Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. There she meets Kiran, also new and soon the undying love of her tortured teenage life. Soon she finds herself in a lot of trouble, life threatening situations and a centuries old conflict.
Now the idea itself is not that bad, sure it is not something I’ve never heard or seen before, but it could’ve been a lot better. The execution of the idea is just horrible.
The pacing in this book is awful. It starts out fine, we get to know a bit about the characters and Eden starts to discover her magic more and more, but then it slows down. There are a few action scenes to keep up the suspense, but they are simply overshadowed by the amount of teenage angst and “he loves me, he loves me not, he acts like a jerk so he must definitely love me” stuff.
Instead of moving the story forward it constantly stops for some chapters so that Eden can pine after Kiran or to describe to us how beautiful he is over and over again. Instead of immediately trying to help her so-called best friend Lilly she waits for the last possible minute to actually do something to save her, at some parts it almost seems like she has forgotten about her. The climax is almost non-existent. Instead of some showdown we get Eden rushing into court to yell that Lilly is innocent and that’s about it. The rest is her and Amory escaping, some lovey dovey moments with Kiran and more backstory exposition. If that seems more like a parody to you, then we’re on the same page.
Speaking of exposition. I get it, backstory sometimes requires a lot of exposition, but there is exposition that is just told (maybe while eating Chinese food) and there is exposition that’s cleverly intertwined with the plot. Guess what’s the case here? If your answer is Chinese Food Exposition then we have a winner. There are whole chapters with nothing but expositional backstory, there is so much crammed in that it is seriously a drag. This book is not really written like one that could stand on its own and it is purposely written as the first book of a series, so from all the things that could’ve been rushed, the backstory shouldn’t have been one of them.
World Building. The concept of this story and its world is not uninteresting, it is just very half-baked. The magical beings here are called Immortals, but they are not actually immortal. They were once but since they were forbidden to breed between their different races they are not anymore. If that sounds confusing, then just because it is. There are four categories of Immortals: Mediums, Witches, Shape-Shifters and Titans. Once there were Oracles as well. All of these species have different abilities and that’s where it gets extremely confusing. We get some glimpses of what different species can do, but it is never fully explained. The most definite of them are the shape-shifters and maybe Titans. The others, oh boy. Oracles are the most powerful, which I found quite interesting since if you look at several mythologies what an Oracle is, you might discover thtn the word is maybe misused here. An Oracle in its purest sense is someone who has precognitions about the future, prophetic dreams and gives mostly wise council. So, their role here is not that clear. Same goes for Mediums or Psychics, as they are called as well. First of all, I wouldn’t necessarily say a Medium and a Psychic are the same thing, related maybe, not the same. I had a hard time grasping what exactly they are capable off, especially compared to witches, since they seemed to share some abilities.
Also, the whole mechanics on how magic works seemed not very thought through since it was mostly like “it works how the plot demands it”. The rules were explained on how they fitted the plot and the constant changes were blamed on Eden’s cluelessness and therefore they could explain whatever they wanted.
Then there was the King’s Curse, the most confusing thing of them all. It is a disease that can kill immortals and seems to exist because they can only breed within their own species. It didn’t really make sense and just only exists for some kind of urgency and to make the stakes higher.
The monarchy and politics were actually okay, even if it wasn’t something very original. King who is really just a dictator and rebels against him, but it could’ve been worse. Only thing that made me raise my eyebrow was their apparent main location, the magical kingdom of…Romania. In the middle of the Carpathians, I might add. Why? Because they are called Immortals and the Carpathians are mostly associated with Dracula? Whatever.
Characters. I have to do this right?
Eden. She doesn’t start out that bad, but her character development is basically backwards. What starts out as promising and with a lot potential becomes fast one of the most annoying, please-someone-just-shoot-her heroines I’ve ever came across. She is oblivious to everything, she constantly buys into the lies people tell her, she never asks the right questions, her priorities are so messed up its not even funny anymore and she is most of the time not able to stand up for herself in any kind of way. She basically is the best model after the Bella Swan prototype for the dumb YA heroine. People give her hints and tell her things all the time and she never gets anything. She never discovers anything on her own and you really wish someone would just get a bright red sharpie to write everything down for her. They even make a joke in the end on how she never gets anything, tell you what that was probably supposed to be a self-aware joke, but it wasn’t funny. If it was something then frustrating. To make it simple, she is dumb as hell. I think the author tried to keep the suspense by keeping Eden in the dark, because it also kept the reader in the dark and yeah that can work, but not if the reader catches on to things long before the heroine does. Eden also gets bossed around a lot. Everyone around her treats her like a child, lies to her and commands her about what she should do. Of course they all do it just to protect her, give me a f*****g break. But Eden doesn’t really care, sure she gets pissed sometimes, but in the end she obeys. The one time she makes a choice of her own is the one time she should’ve listened to what people told her. Actually not only Eden is to blame for this one, but everyone else as well. She makes the dumbest decisions not only because she doesn’t use her brain, but also because she is constantly lied to and maybe would’ve been more careful if she knew the whole truth about herself. Speaking of, her upbringing makes no sense. She grew up human, not knowing anything about her powers as a constant danger to others and herself, feeling miserable and like an outsider for most of her life. Then she is thrown into the whole magical society just like that and still doesn’t get the full truth, even if it would’ve prevented a lot of bad things. Her brother grew up apart from her in the magical society. He learned how to use his powers, about their parents and the ongoing conflict. My question is why? They could’ve kept them apart and teach her about who she or at least about what she can do, maybe that would’ve made her less of an idiot. There is no real explanation for it. I guess you could say because she is a girl and girls shouldn’t fight, but I don’t start this discussion here because it would only make me angry. Like the reader, Eden gets a ton of information throughout the novel, but she never really reacts like a normal person would. This is especially the case when it comes to her family. She gets to know her twin brother whom she never knew even existed, but hey it’s okay, no emotional impact or confusion here. They just act like they knew each other all of their lives and move in together. Her headmaster is also her grandfather. Sure why not. She laughs it off because she didn’t notice it on her own instead of feeling betrayed he again lied to her. Her parents might be alive. Awesome, but when can she see her boyfriend again and can they ever be together? One word: LAZY. This is just lazy writing. Also, she is more confused about the existence of a Monarchy than about magic. Because we don’t have monarchies nowadays? Okay, so I guess the Queen is fictional and Harry Potter real then. After finishing the book I realized that even if I spent about 300 pages in Eden’s head, I don’t know her as a person. Yes, I know about her magic and that she feel super freaky and loves Kiran and stuff, but what else is there? What does she like? What doesn’t she like (besides girls prettier than her)? Hobbies? Friends before she met Lilly? Plans for the future, besides being Mrs. Kiran Kendrick? But hey, who needs a well rounded character, right?
Kiran. He is a prince. He is hot. He is arrogant. He is hot. He is British. He is hot. He doesn’t always agree with daddy. Did I mention he is hot? That is all Eden seems to care about anyways. I don’t know how many times Kiran’s looks are described in this book, because I honestly lost count. It was annoying to a point where I wanted to slam the thing against a wall and scream “I get it okay? Hot, British guy move on!” For being the main love interest there is actually not much to talk about here. He is pretty much a jerk the whole time. He drags Eden along and Seraphina (basically his fiancée), he loves his status, his a jackass to everyone around him and his feelings for Eden are pretty bi-polar. Or like Katy Perry would say: You change your mind, like a girl changes clothes. Of course he is only that way to protect her, because that totally explains humiliating someone more than once, bossing everyone else around, having no respect for anyone and being over the top manipulative. But hey, he is hot and British so who cares, right? I seriously wanted for someone to slap that stupid smirk out of his face. And again, we have no real personality here. Even Eden admits she doesn’t really know him (but it doesn’t matter because their love is strong anyway…WTF seriously). Likes? Dislikes? Hobbies? Boxers or briefs?
Avalon. You poor guy are punished with such a horrible name. I mean I get it, Avalon and Eden, super duper symbolism. Almost all the names in this book are beyond stupid, but this one tops them all. You were at least tolerable Avalon and from all of the dimwits you deserved a bit more. That’s right folks, I didn’t hate him, yaaay party time! That doesn’t mean I actually really liked him though. He is also kind of a bossy jackass sometimes, but at least he has some redeeming qualities. He has some common sense, he actually thinks for himself and he has a direction in life, which is good. Sure, again we have not much of a personality to work with but at least there is something. Really irritating thing here is that he seems to fulfill the humanity is icky cliché.
Quick thoughts on other characters:
Amory: Too secretive. Probably compulsive liar. Professor X?
Aunt Syl: Token human character.
Lilly: Plot device.
Talbott. Lassie. But actually potential to be likeable if given the chance.
Jericho: Hello there, Jacob Black.
Romance: I was thinking about talking about the other relationships as well, but this review is far too long already and I’m not in the mood. So let’s dive into the horrors of forbidden young love.
I knew that this was a YA paranormal romance before I started reading and that it was about forbidden love. I was skeptical yes, but hey it could’ve been a good romance. It is not. First of all, neither of them is a well rounded, three dimensional character to begin with, which is not a good beginning. And it pains me to say this (and those two are by no means good or well written characters) but I actually knew more about Bella and Edward as people than I know about those two idiots. Sad, I know.
They meet and immediately sparks fly…or spiders crawl, because there is anything but a spark. Eden and Kiran have no chemistry at all. She is the typical cliché heroine who falls for the guy at first sight, but needs a whole book filled with teenage angst to figure out her feelings. He is your typical jerk boyfriend and all he does is humiliate her, manipulate her and all the good stuff. Of course, he did it all because he loves her so much and wants her to be save.
They don’t have one normal conversation in the whole book. They just fight or he is mean or she is dumb, you know the whole yada yada. I seriously wonder why the fell in love. Was it the magnetic attraction of their blandness? Or is there and unwritten rule that the dumb as f**k heroine and douchebag always belong together? I could’ve lived with just physical attraction that turned into something else later on (I mean she just goes on and on about his looks) but no, it had to be eternal love. They even go to a point where they compare each other to Romeo and Juliet. Let that sink in. I know a lot of YA authors love to make comparisons and references to classics and hey sometimes it actually works, but with a lot of them (like this one) you ask yourself if they actually read and understood the source material.
My main problem is not only that the love story is written awfully, but (much like with Twilight actually) the message it sends. As a reader we tend to identify with characters, it is what makes us feel with them, so what is that book telling a reader (especially a teenager girl) and what does that say about the author (also female)?
If he treats you like dirt and humiliates you he secretly likes you? Nothing else matter except for the boy? Granted maybe a lot of teenagers think that way and eventually grow out of it, but still I find this disturbing, especially looking at the way both characters are written.
Why are YA authors doing that? Why write your heroine dense instead of smart? Why whiney instead of strong? Why dependent instead of independent? You were all 16 once and I don’t think you would’ve felt good being written like that.
Also the boys. Why smirking jerks instead of nice guys? He can be arrogant, he even can be an ass sometimes and do wrong things, but he needs good qualities to balance the bad ones out.
I can`t imagine anyone that wants to be treated the way Kiran treated Eden most of the time. Maybe it’s late and maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I read so many books that are written this way that I’m asking myself what is wrong people? Seriously? Yes, it is fiction. Yes, it is fantasy. But come one, shouldn’t there be slight sense of realism? Especially if you want your main character to be the everyday girl your readers can identify with?
Okay, I’m boring you enough…if you even read all of this. Gotta stop here, before I’ll write a whole essay, which this basically is.
Conclusion: You get my issues, right?
Recommendation: I really wouldn’t recommend it, but hey each to their own.
Spoilers...duh
Oh Reckless Magic, where do I even start?
A good friend of mine gave that book to me, since she is absolutely in love with the whole series. We agree with a lot of stuff, sadly this book is not one of them. I wanted to like it, I couldn’t. That doesn’t meant I don’t understand what people might see in it, I get it believe me, it is just not the one for me.
Please let me tell you, no matter what I might say here, I don’t want to bash the author. I actually admire everyone who has the courage to write something and use the wonderful opportunity called self-publishing.
If you like YA books, especially the paranormal romance kind, you might agree with me when I say it becomes harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. There are so many of them and sometimes you find a little treasure that is something special and other times you find books that seemed to exist to just jump on the Twilight wagon. If you’re wondering, this is the latter category.
Writing. I’m not a native English speaker. I make a lot of mistakes, especially when I’m busy and don’t re-read my stuff. The point is I’m a non native speaker that writes for fun, not a published author. Self-publishing is not an excuse for a bunch of mistakes in my opinion, you can still correct your own writing or ask friends and family for help during the editing process. This book reads like some kind of first draft, with the only editor being some autocorrection program. There are so many spelling and grammar errors, wrong punctuation and missing words up to a point where I only could shake my head in disbelief.
If you are able to ignore the mistakes then you find a very average writing style. It is your typical YA first person narration and its filled with a lot of exposition and repetition. Especially the repetition gets to a point where it can only be called downright annoying. Something is explained by a character and then about five chapters later another character explains exactly the same thing, with almost exactly the same words again. Your readers are not stupid, they don’t forget details so easily, so please don’t treat them that way.
Other than that the book is filled with unnecessary long sentences that mostly deal with over the top dramatic teenage angst. It is not the most awful writing style I’ve ever came across, but it is far from being good.
Story. The story is about 16 year old Eden who is a witch and doesn’t know about it. She has been kicked out of several schools and private school Kingsley is her last hope. What Eden doesn’t know is that the school is basically the mash up version of Hogwarts and Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. There she meets Kiran, also new and soon the undying love of her tortured teenage life. Soon she finds herself in a lot of trouble, life threatening situations and a centuries old conflict.
Now the idea itself is not that bad, sure it is not something I’ve never heard or seen before, but it could’ve been a lot better. The execution of the idea is just horrible.
The pacing in this book is awful. It starts out fine, we get to know a bit about the characters and Eden starts to discover her magic more and more, but then it slows down. There are a few action scenes to keep up the suspense, but they are simply overshadowed by the amount of teenage angst and “he loves me, he loves me not, he acts like a jerk so he must definitely love me” stuff.
Instead of moving the story forward it constantly stops for some chapters so that Eden can pine after Kiran or to describe to us how beautiful he is over and over again. Instead of immediately trying to help her so-called best friend Lilly she waits for the last possible minute to actually do something to save her, at some parts it almost seems like she has forgotten about her. The climax is almost non-existent. Instead of some showdown we get Eden rushing into court to yell that Lilly is innocent and that’s about it. The rest is her and Amory escaping, some lovey dovey moments with Kiran and more backstory exposition. If that seems more like a parody to you, then we’re on the same page.
Speaking of exposition. I get it, backstory sometimes requires a lot of exposition, but there is exposition that is just told (maybe while eating Chinese food) and there is exposition that’s cleverly intertwined with the plot. Guess what’s the case here? If your answer is Chinese Food Exposition then we have a winner. There are whole chapters with nothing but expositional backstory, there is so much crammed in that it is seriously a drag. This book is not really written like one that could stand on its own and it is purposely written as the first book of a series, so from all the things that could’ve been rushed, the backstory shouldn’t have been one of them.
World Building. The concept of this story and its world is not uninteresting, it is just very half-baked. The magical beings here are called Immortals, but they are not actually immortal. They were once but since they were forbidden to breed between their different races they are not anymore. If that sounds confusing, then just because it is. There are four categories of Immortals: Mediums, Witches, Shape-Shifters and Titans. Once there were Oracles as well. All of these species have different abilities and that’s where it gets extremely confusing. We get some glimpses of what different species can do, but it is never fully explained. The most definite of them are the shape-shifters and maybe Titans. The others, oh boy. Oracles are the most powerful, which I found quite interesting since if you look at several mythologies what an Oracle is, you might discover thtn the word is maybe misused here. An Oracle in its purest sense is someone who has precognitions about the future, prophetic dreams and gives mostly wise council. So, their role here is not that clear. Same goes for Mediums or Psychics, as they are called as well. First of all, I wouldn’t necessarily say a Medium and a Psychic are the same thing, related maybe, not the same. I had a hard time grasping what exactly they are capable off, especially compared to witches, since they seemed to share some abilities.
Also, the whole mechanics on how magic works seemed not very thought through since it was mostly like “it works how the plot demands it”. The rules were explained on how they fitted the plot and the constant changes were blamed on Eden’s cluelessness and therefore they could explain whatever they wanted.
Then there was the King’s Curse, the most confusing thing of them all. It is a disease that can kill immortals and seems to exist because they can only breed within their own species. It didn’t really make sense and just only exists for some kind of urgency and to make the stakes higher.
The monarchy and politics were actually okay, even if it wasn’t something very original. King who is really just a dictator and rebels against him, but it could’ve been worse. Only thing that made me raise my eyebrow was their apparent main location, the magical kingdom of…Romania. In the middle of the Carpathians, I might add. Why? Because they are called Immortals and the Carpathians are mostly associated with Dracula? Whatever.
Characters. I have to do this right?
Eden. She doesn’t start out that bad, but her character development is basically backwards. What starts out as promising and with a lot potential becomes fast one of the most annoying, please-someone-just-shoot-her heroines I’ve ever came across. She is oblivious to everything, she constantly buys into the lies people tell her, she never asks the right questions, her priorities are so messed up its not even funny anymore and she is most of the time not able to stand up for herself in any kind of way. She basically is the best model after the Bella Swan prototype for the dumb YA heroine. People give her hints and tell her things all the time and she never gets anything. She never discovers anything on her own and you really wish someone would just get a bright red sharpie to write everything down for her. They even make a joke in the end on how she never gets anything, tell you what that was probably supposed to be a self-aware joke, but it wasn’t funny. If it was something then frustrating. To make it simple, she is dumb as hell. I think the author tried to keep the suspense by keeping Eden in the dark, because it also kept the reader in the dark and yeah that can work, but not if the reader catches on to things long before the heroine does. Eden also gets bossed around a lot. Everyone around her treats her like a child, lies to her and commands her about what she should do. Of course they all do it just to protect her, give me a f*****g break. But Eden doesn’t really care, sure she gets pissed sometimes, but in the end she obeys. The one time she makes a choice of her own is the one time she should’ve listened to what people told her. Actually not only Eden is to blame for this one, but everyone else as well. She makes the dumbest decisions not only because she doesn’t use her brain, but also because she is constantly lied to and maybe would’ve been more careful if she knew the whole truth about herself. Speaking of, her upbringing makes no sense. She grew up human, not knowing anything about her powers as a constant danger to others and herself, feeling miserable and like an outsider for most of her life. Then she is thrown into the whole magical society just like that and still doesn’t get the full truth, even if it would’ve prevented a lot of bad things. Her brother grew up apart from her in the magical society. He learned how to use his powers, about their parents and the ongoing conflict. My question is why? They could’ve kept them apart and teach her about who she or at least about what she can do, maybe that would’ve made her less of an idiot. There is no real explanation for it. I guess you could say because she is a girl and girls shouldn’t fight, but I don’t start this discussion here because it would only make me angry. Like the reader, Eden gets a ton of information throughout the novel, but she never really reacts like a normal person would. This is especially the case when it comes to her family. She gets to know her twin brother whom she never knew even existed, but hey it’s okay, no emotional impact or confusion here. They just act like they knew each other all of their lives and move in together. Her headmaster is also her grandfather. Sure why not. She laughs it off because she didn’t notice it on her own instead of feeling betrayed he again lied to her. Her parents might be alive. Awesome, but when can she see her boyfriend again and can they ever be together? One word: LAZY. This is just lazy writing. Also, she is more confused about the existence of a Monarchy than about magic. Because we don’t have monarchies nowadays? Okay, so I guess the Queen is fictional and Harry Potter real then. After finishing the book I realized that even if I spent about 300 pages in Eden’s head, I don’t know her as a person. Yes, I know about her magic and that she feel super freaky and loves Kiran and stuff, but what else is there? What does she like? What doesn’t she like (besides girls prettier than her)? Hobbies? Friends before she met Lilly? Plans for the future, besides being Mrs. Kiran Kendrick? But hey, who needs a well rounded character, right?
Kiran. He is a prince. He is hot. He is arrogant. He is hot. He is British. He is hot. He doesn’t always agree with daddy. Did I mention he is hot? That is all Eden seems to care about anyways. I don’t know how many times Kiran’s looks are described in this book, because I honestly lost count. It was annoying to a point where I wanted to slam the thing against a wall and scream “I get it okay? Hot, British guy move on!” For being the main love interest there is actually not much to talk about here. He is pretty much a jerk the whole time. He drags Eden along and Seraphina (basically his fiancée), he loves his status, his a jackass to everyone around him and his feelings for Eden are pretty bi-polar. Or like Katy Perry would say: You change your mind, like a girl changes clothes. Of course he is only that way to protect her, because that totally explains humiliating someone more than once, bossing everyone else around, having no respect for anyone and being over the top manipulative. But hey, he is hot and British so who cares, right? I seriously wanted for someone to slap that stupid smirk out of his face. And again, we have no real personality here. Even Eden admits she doesn’t really know him (but it doesn’t matter because their love is strong anyway…WTF seriously). Likes? Dislikes? Hobbies? Boxers or briefs?
Avalon. You poor guy are punished with such a horrible name. I mean I get it, Avalon and Eden, super duper symbolism. Almost all the names in this book are beyond stupid, but this one tops them all. You were at least tolerable Avalon and from all of the dimwits you deserved a bit more. That’s right folks, I didn’t hate him, yaaay party time! That doesn’t mean I actually really liked him though. He is also kind of a bossy jackass sometimes, but at least he has some redeeming qualities. He has some common sense, he actually thinks for himself and he has a direction in life, which is good. Sure, again we have not much of a personality to work with but at least there is something. Really irritating thing here is that he seems to fulfill the humanity is icky cliché.
Quick thoughts on other characters:
Amory: Too secretive. Probably compulsive liar. Professor X?
Aunt Syl: Token human character.
Lilly: Plot device.
Talbott. Lassie. But actually potential to be likeable if given the chance.
Jericho: Hello there, Jacob Black.
Romance: I was thinking about talking about the other relationships as well, but this review is far too long already and I’m not in the mood. So let’s dive into the horrors of forbidden young love.
I knew that this was a YA paranormal romance before I started reading and that it was about forbidden love. I was skeptical yes, but hey it could’ve been a good romance. It is not. First of all, neither of them is a well rounded, three dimensional character to begin with, which is not a good beginning. And it pains me to say this (and those two are by no means good or well written characters) but I actually knew more about Bella and Edward as people than I know about those two idiots. Sad, I know.
They meet and immediately sparks fly…or spiders crawl, because there is anything but a spark. Eden and Kiran have no chemistry at all. She is the typical cliché heroine who falls for the guy at first sight, but needs a whole book filled with teenage angst to figure out her feelings. He is your typical jerk boyfriend and all he does is humiliate her, manipulate her and all the good stuff. Of course, he did it all because he loves her so much and wants her to be save.
They don’t have one normal conversation in the whole book. They just fight or he is mean or she is dumb, you know the whole yada yada. I seriously wonder why the fell in love. Was it the magnetic attraction of their blandness? Or is there and unwritten rule that the dumb as f**k heroine and douchebag always belong together? I could’ve lived with just physical attraction that turned into something else later on (I mean she just goes on and on about his looks) but no, it had to be eternal love. They even go to a point where they compare each other to Romeo and Juliet. Let that sink in. I know a lot of YA authors love to make comparisons and references to classics and hey sometimes it actually works, but with a lot of them (like this one) you ask yourself if they actually read and understood the source material.
My main problem is not only that the love story is written awfully, but (much like with Twilight actually) the message it sends. As a reader we tend to identify with characters, it is what makes us feel with them, so what is that book telling a reader (especially a teenager girl) and what does that say about the author (also female)?
If he treats you like dirt and humiliates you he secretly likes you? Nothing else matter except for the boy? Granted maybe a lot of teenagers think that way and eventually grow out of it, but still I find this disturbing, especially looking at the way both characters are written.
Why are YA authors doing that? Why write your heroine dense instead of smart? Why whiney instead of strong? Why dependent instead of independent? You were all 16 once and I don’t think you would’ve felt good being written like that.
Also the boys. Why smirking jerks instead of nice guys? He can be arrogant, he even can be an ass sometimes and do wrong things, but he needs good qualities to balance the bad ones out.
I can`t imagine anyone that wants to be treated the way Kiran treated Eden most of the time. Maybe it’s late and maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I read so many books that are written this way that I’m asking myself what is wrong people? Seriously? Yes, it is fiction. Yes, it is fantasy. But come one, shouldn’t there be slight sense of realism? Especially if you want your main character to be the everyday girl your readers can identify with?
Okay, I’m boring you enough…if you even read all of this. Gotta stop here, before I’ll write a whole essay, which this basically is.
Conclusion: You get my issues, right?
Recommendation: I really wouldn’t recommend it, but hey each to their own.
June 22, 2012
It was really hard to rate this book because my feelings are so conflicted. For the first half of the book I was really bored and constantly frustrated with everything that was happening. Our main character, Eden, is left in the dark about everything going on around her. She is full of magic but it keeps exploding out of her and she doesn't know how to control it and no one is informing her about her magic, her family, or the danger she is in. I just wanted her to get her act together and try and figure out what was going on, but instead I had to read about all these different characters yelling at her and blaming her for various incidents that weren't really her fault. But once we finally started to get some real answers to what was going on, the book started to get a lot more interesting and then I couldn't out the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. After finishing the book I wanted to give it four stars because I absolutely loved the second half of the book, but the first half of the book was just so frustrating and boring that I couldn't justify giving it such a high rating.
--------------
So about a month after I wrote the review above, I ended up buying the other books in this series on Amazon because I didn't know what else to read. I read all the books and I ended up absolutely loving the entire Star-Crossed Series and it is now one of my favorite book series of all time (it is right up there with my love for the Harry Potter series and Millenium series). When I found out that I could buy my own paperback copy of Reckless Magic I was stoked and ordered it the day it became available. I meant to hold off on reading it right away because I have a zillion other books that I plan to read this summer, but one of the books I was reading was so boring that after reading half of it I decided to hit the pause button on it and I picked up Reckless Magic again to read for a second time, this time holding the actual book instead of just reading it on my ipod. The second time around I love love LOVED this book the whole way through. I think that the first time I read Reckless Magic I was just too impatient with the plot because I wanted to know what was going on right away and my impatience and frustration and confusion messed with my judgement of the book.
I had originally given this book three stars, but I now am giving it the 5 stars that it totally deserves!!!!!!!!!!
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So about a month after I wrote the review above, I ended up buying the other books in this series on Amazon because I didn't know what else to read. I read all the books and I ended up absolutely loving the entire Star-Crossed Series and it is now one of my favorite book series of all time (it is right up there with my love for the Harry Potter series and Millenium series). When I found out that I could buy my own paperback copy of Reckless Magic I was stoked and ordered it the day it became available. I meant to hold off on reading it right away because I have a zillion other books that I plan to read this summer, but one of the books I was reading was so boring that after reading half of it I decided to hit the pause button on it and I picked up Reckless Magic again to read for a second time, this time holding the actual book instead of just reading it on my ipod. The second time around I love love LOVED this book the whole way through. I think that the first time I read Reckless Magic I was just too impatient with the plot because I wanted to know what was going on right away and my impatience and frustration and confusion messed with my judgement of the book.
I had originally given this book three stars, but I now am giving it the 5 stars that it totally deserves!!!!!!!!!!
December 30, 2011
This book is quite possibly my favorite book of 2011. I am SO glad the next two books are already out as I plan to devour them asap. Gosh, where to start.
Ok, first, Eden. She's so normal! I loved her. If she was a real gal, we'd be best friends. She was shy yet outspoken when it mattered. She was effectively suspicious but loyal. She was loving, with whole heart and body and soul and really, in my opinion there should be no other kind of love. She was sweet, caring, feisty, funny and also seemed to be making someone smile or making someone sigh with exasperation. I loved her!
Now on to Kiran. Oh boy. I heard so many people say that they didn't enjoy him or that it took so long for them to, but the whole time he knew who she really was. He was trying to save her, but was so drawn to her that he couldn't resist her at the same time. Yes, he was annoying in the beginning, that was the point! Big picture people. Big picture :) I adored him by the end of the book and though I'm a little hesitant about going into book two because I know that him and Seraphina will have to be back to pretending they are betrothed and Eden will have to watch all that, I can't wait to see how he turns it all around and either makes his father see reason or dethrones him.
Please don't disappoint me Rachel!! :)
I love their chemistry and how when after all that trying to stay apart stuff was over that they were both all in. Love it!
I even liked Talbot a little and hope him and Lily have a sweet reunion, though....he was terd for not standing up for her. So maybe not. Lily was sweeter than pie! And Jericho....I like him. I know something is going down with him....
5 Solid, Heart Wrenching, Sweet, Gasping, Lovely stars from me!
Ok, first, Eden. She's so normal! I loved her. If she was a real gal, we'd be best friends. She was shy yet outspoken when it mattered. She was effectively suspicious but loyal. She was loving, with whole heart and body and soul and really, in my opinion there should be no other kind of love. She was sweet, caring, feisty, funny and also seemed to be making someone smile or making someone sigh with exasperation. I loved her!
Now on to Kiran. Oh boy. I heard so many people say that they didn't enjoy him or that it took so long for them to, but the whole time he knew who she really was. He was trying to save her, but was so drawn to her that he couldn't resist her at the same time. Yes, he was annoying in the beginning, that was the point! Big picture people. Big picture :) I adored him by the end of the book and though I'm a little hesitant about going into book two because I know that him and Seraphina will have to be back to pretending they are betrothed and Eden will have to watch all that, I can't wait to see how he turns it all around and either makes his father see reason or dethrones him.
Please don't disappoint me Rachel!! :)
I love their chemistry and how when after all that trying to stay apart stuff was over that they were both all in. Love it!
I even liked Talbot a little and hope him and Lily have a sweet reunion, though....he was terd for not standing up for her. So maybe not. Lily was sweeter than pie! And Jericho....I like him. I know something is going down with him....
5 Solid, Heart Wrenching, Sweet, Gasping, Lovely stars from me!
February 13, 2022
Wow! I'm completely hooked on this series already and it's only the first book.
Eden Matthew's has been raised as a human and keeps rejecting her magic.
This has caused her magic to come out unexpectedly, and the reason she is starting her fourth school in two years. Kingley is her last chance to finish high school, and as her stress builds so does her magic, and her growing mortification. I loved reading this book there was never a dull moment, and I'm really happy there are so many books in the series.
Happy Reading 📚📙📗📚📒📓📚📘📕📔📗📘📚📖📙📗📚📒📓📘📕📔📗📚📚📖
Eden Matthew's has been raised as a human and keeps rejecting her magic.
This has caused her magic to come out unexpectedly, and the reason she is starting her fourth school in two years. Kingley is her last chance to finish high school, and as her stress builds so does her magic, and her growing mortification. I loved reading this book there was never a dull moment, and I'm really happy there are so many books in the series.
Happy Reading 📚📙📗📚📒📓📚📘📕📔📗📘📚📖📙📗📚📒📓📘📕📔📗📚📚📖
October 18, 2012
I actually started reading this book with high hopes. While the prologue was pretty generic (twin babies being dropped on a door step) I thought that it could possibly turn itself around. After all, Harry Potter managed to make that scenario interesting too, didn't it?
And it certainly started strong. I really wanted to like the main character Eden. But I could tell that the author really wanted Eden to like the main male lead, Kiran. Even Eden wondered why she was being pushed into this snot of a boy's arms. Kiran is even less appealing than Joffrey Baratheon and his only good feature is his accent. Seriously. Eden is constantly pointing out how arrogant, cruel, manipulative and conceited Kiran is. But he's got a nice face, body and a sexy accent so it must be TRU LUV!
The whole romance plot is painfully trite. I'm not even sure why Eden likes Kiran. He forced her against a few walls and kiss-raped her... so now she's in love. Great. Well so much for liking the protagonist of this book.
It wasn't just the romance that bothered me, (although that did make up the vast majority of my gripes in my 134 status updates). I also wasn't thrilled with the whole way the magic was handled. I know that the author was trying to build a sort of mystery around Eden's powers- but what this novel was severely lacking was a good Dumbledore-esque figure. Amory should have been this character but he stays in the background. His (or the author's) excuse for this lack of participation is that he was hoping Eden "would discover it for herself" despite later repeatedly scolding Eden for not catching on sooner since they are kinda on crunch time what with the whole magic terrorist war thing. About 90% of the drama and conflict that this novel has could have been solved in the characters would just communicate. If people like Amory and Avalon would tell Eden the reasons why she shouldn't do certain things, Eden wouldn't do half the stupid shit that she does.
Here's a few examples of what could have been cleared up.
1. Tell Eden who Kiran is.
There was really no reason to keep Kiran's true identity secret from her. In fact, it makes Eden stick out at the magic school even more because of the way she unintentionally treated him. If she was informed that he was magical royalty- I'm sure Eden would have been less inclined to be around him.
2. Tell Eden she has magical powers.
Again, they said it was super important that she know she has powers seeing how she was causing herself physical pain by being unaware. And drawing an unnatural amount of attention to herself by acting like a human in a magical school.
3. Tell Eden who her parents were and what they did.
Again- this is absolutely imperative for Eden's survival. Her ignorance at this point is only making her a target. If Eden was more aware of the danger her own existence as put her in the less likely she is to do things that draw attention to herself. Which leads to my next point...
4. Tell Eden that she will be KILLED if people realize who she is.
She looks like her mother. Her mother had a forbidden fling with a body guard and gave birth to twins of most sinful kind in the magical word. Eden and Avalon's very existence puts them in constant danger. Eden should have been made aware of this. By keeping her in the dark, it enabled Eden to do stupid things completely unaware of the consequences.
I got a little off tangent. But I think I made my point on that front. Back to the use of magic. While it was very interesting, the concept of untapped magical potential literally eating Eden from the inside out... I didn't like it when magic actually came in halfway through the book. Magic made everything too easy. There were no consequences. Kids could use magic to do homework for them for heaven's sake. They don't have to even pay attention. They just will the correct answers into being on the paper. Why bother learning anything anymore? Why bother going to this magical academy? Seems like an awful waste of time.
In Harry Potter, magic didn't just come to you. There was some risk and rewards involved. It had to be studied and practiced and performed just right. In this book, magic is just everything and makes everything infinitely easy. Magic never seems to backfire on anyone but Eden (and even on her its rare). In truth, this makes the magic of this world very boring.
I also didn't enjoy the inequality going on. Avalon, Eden's twin brother, gets told everything about his past, about their family, about magic and about the dangers they would face. Avalon also gets entrusted with a lot of the tasks their parents left behind. But Eden is told to be content with ignorance and idleness. Why? Probably because Avalon's a boy. That's the only logic I can find. Eden is far more powerful and even if she looks like her mother, Avalon MUST share some of those features too. Meaning he's in just as much danger of being recognized.
Maybe this will get explained in the next book that I will never read. But I still don't understand why Avalon gets to know everything.
Oh yes, and this resistance. Wow. For something that's an secret society, they sure do go about the whole secret process poorly. I love how they invite Eden along to their meeting without even first making sure she had plans to join. They let her see their hideout, all their faces, know all their names and then listen to their secret plans to murder Prince Kiran. All of this before they double check to see if she wants to join. And even after they ask and find out she doesn't want to because she LUVS Kiran too much, they let her stay and listen to the rest of the meeting.
...I can't even begin to explain how utterly stupid this is.
But whatever. The book overall is very long winded. Much of what takes 100 pages to explain could have been done in ten... twenty pages tops. Characters have very bipolar reactions that seem to differ according to the author's mood. Avalon, Amory and Kiran are notorious at this.
And then the climax of the story is Eden rushing cross country to save her friend who's on trial for treason. She literally only runs into the room to scream "She's innocent!" before being whisked away. I can't help but feel that the whole conflict could have been solved with a simple phone call. Or at least if Kiran was less of a dick. If that's all it took to save her friend, Eden really should have just stayed at home. While I like it that Eden actually attempted to do something heroic to save her friend- the result was just so anti-climatic that I couldn't give her full credit. The plot just sort of fizzles out after that. There's some vague threat made to Eden's life but yet they have no trouble escaping so the whole thing seems rather empty. Not the best conclusion to such a long novel.
All in all, the novel reads like a first draft. It's a disorganized long winded mess that needs some serious revising and reworking plot and character wise. There's the spine of a possibly good YA novel in here somewhere but I don't think it's quite there yet. I feel like this novel was self-published way too soon.
And it certainly started strong. I really wanted to like the main character Eden. But I could tell that the author really wanted Eden to like the main male lead, Kiran. Even Eden wondered why she was being pushed into this snot of a boy's arms. Kiran is even less appealing than Joffrey Baratheon and his only good feature is his accent. Seriously. Eden is constantly pointing out how arrogant, cruel, manipulative and conceited Kiran is. But he's got a nice face, body and a sexy accent so it must be TRU LUV!
The whole romance plot is painfully trite. I'm not even sure why Eden likes Kiran. He forced her against a few walls and kiss-raped her... so now she's in love. Great. Well so much for liking the protagonist of this book.
It wasn't just the romance that bothered me, (although that did make up the vast majority of my gripes in my 134 status updates). I also wasn't thrilled with the whole way the magic was handled. I know that the author was trying to build a sort of mystery around Eden's powers- but what this novel was severely lacking was a good Dumbledore-esque figure. Amory should have been this character but he stays in the background. His (or the author's) excuse for this lack of participation is that he was hoping Eden "would discover it for herself" despite later repeatedly scolding Eden for not catching on sooner since they are kinda on crunch time what with the whole magic terrorist war thing. About 90% of the drama and conflict that this novel has could have been solved in the characters would just communicate. If people like Amory and Avalon would tell Eden the reasons why she shouldn't do certain things, Eden wouldn't do half the stupid shit that she does.
Here's a few examples of what could have been cleared up.
1. Tell Eden who Kiran is.
There was really no reason to keep Kiran's true identity secret from her. In fact, it makes Eden stick out at the magic school even more because of the way she unintentionally treated him. If she was informed that he was magical royalty- I'm sure Eden would have been less inclined to be around him.
2. Tell Eden she has magical powers.
Again, they said it was super important that she know she has powers seeing how she was causing herself physical pain by being unaware. And drawing an unnatural amount of attention to herself by acting like a human in a magical school.
3. Tell Eden who her parents were and what they did.
Again- this is absolutely imperative for Eden's survival. Her ignorance at this point is only making her a target. If Eden was more aware of the danger her own existence as put her in the less likely she is to do things that draw attention to herself. Which leads to my next point...
4. Tell Eden that she will be KILLED if people realize who she is.
She looks like her mother. Her mother had a forbidden fling with a body guard and gave birth to twins of most sinful kind in the magical word. Eden and Avalon's very existence puts them in constant danger. Eden should have been made aware of this. By keeping her in the dark, it enabled Eden to do stupid things completely unaware of the consequences.
I got a little off tangent. But I think I made my point on that front. Back to the use of magic. While it was very interesting, the concept of untapped magical potential literally eating Eden from the inside out... I didn't like it when magic actually came in halfway through the book. Magic made everything too easy. There were no consequences. Kids could use magic to do homework for them for heaven's sake. They don't have to even pay attention. They just will the correct answers into being on the paper. Why bother learning anything anymore? Why bother going to this magical academy? Seems like an awful waste of time.
In Harry Potter, magic didn't just come to you. There was some risk and rewards involved. It had to be studied and practiced and performed just right. In this book, magic is just everything and makes everything infinitely easy. Magic never seems to backfire on anyone but Eden (and even on her its rare). In truth, this makes the magic of this world very boring.
I also didn't enjoy the inequality going on. Avalon, Eden's twin brother, gets told everything about his past, about their family, about magic and about the dangers they would face. Avalon also gets entrusted with a lot of the tasks their parents left behind. But Eden is told to be content with ignorance and idleness. Why? Probably because Avalon's a boy. That's the only logic I can find. Eden is far more powerful and even if she looks like her mother, Avalon MUST share some of those features too. Meaning he's in just as much danger of being recognized.
Maybe this will get explained in the next book that I will never read. But I still don't understand why Avalon gets to know everything.
Oh yes, and this resistance. Wow. For something that's an secret society, they sure do go about the whole secret process poorly. I love how they invite Eden along to their meeting without even first making sure she had plans to join. They let her see their hideout, all their faces, know all their names and then listen to their secret plans to murder Prince Kiran. All of this before they double check to see if she wants to join. And even after they ask and find out she doesn't want to because she LUVS Kiran too much, they let her stay and listen to the rest of the meeting.
...I can't even begin to explain how utterly stupid this is.
But whatever. The book overall is very long winded. Much of what takes 100 pages to explain could have been done in ten... twenty pages tops. Characters have very bipolar reactions that seem to differ according to the author's mood. Avalon, Amory and Kiran are notorious at this.
And then the climax of the story is Eden rushing cross country to save her friend who's on trial for treason. She literally only runs into the room to scream "She's innocent!" before being whisked away. I can't help but feel that the whole conflict could have been solved with a simple phone call. Or at least if Kiran was less of a dick. If that's all it took to save her friend, Eden really should have just stayed at home. While I like it that Eden actually attempted to do something heroic to save her friend- the result was just so anti-climatic that I couldn't give her full credit. The plot just sort of fizzles out after that. There's some vague threat made to Eden's life but yet they have no trouble escaping so the whole thing seems rather empty. Not the best conclusion to such a long novel.
All in all, the novel reads like a first draft. It's a disorganized long winded mess that needs some serious revising and reworking plot and character wise. There's the spine of a possibly good YA novel in here somewhere but I don't think it's quite there yet. I feel like this novel was self-published way too soon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2012
Rather frustrating heroine. Yes, she is only 16 and is pretty naive, but very little growth/maturity by the end of the book, if at all. Hard to keep cheering her on, especially with all the teenage angst-riddled narration from her point of view. The plot development is rather weak. The characters seem to accept sudden changes and revelations like they are not that big of a deal. Sometimes their viewpoints/attitudes are conflicting,
Can't decide whether or not to keep reading this series.
Can't decide whether or not to keep reading this series.
July 29, 2012
I would really love to be able to give this book four stars, because it definitely kept me entertained and engrossed in the story and characters. But, (and I don't know if this is just the edition I got - it was free after all) there were so many instances of grammar errors/typos and flow/writing style issues that I feel like I just can't go higher than three.
The story found within Reckless Magic is filled with adventure, romance, and of course, magic. The beginning is a bit slow and there are several instances throughout the book that felt a bit like info dumping as necessary information about the magical world of the 'Immortals' is relayed to the main character Eden, who is at first ignorant about her powers and many other aspects of the Immortals' society. Except for the prologue, the story is told from Eden's first person point of view (who, I might add, is a bit dense when it comes to noticing magic and whatnot) and I honestly found her a rather entertaining narrator and character. She has some spunk to her and likes to utlize sarcasm to her advantage. However, I had some issues with the writing style itself. Eden is sixteen, so this book is obviously aimed at a younger, teen audience, but there were several instances of awkward sentence structure and poor word choice that, frankly, got a little bit on my nerves (until I reminded myself that I got it for free). The action scenes were particularly long and tedious.
After saying all that it probably sounds like I didn't like the book at all; however, I actually quite enjoyed it. Looking past the definite need for editing, I loved the story and characters. I'd say it's a rather classic plot with a magical society dying out, a tyrant king, and resistence building against the current monarchy, but it also has several unique little twists to it that I loved. The romance was pretty typical of a YA novel with that 'forbidden romance' twist. The characters are really what sold it for me; they all have very distinct personalities and voices and I came to really care for them.
Overall, it was a fun read. I just don't know if I'm willing to pay money for the next book in the series if the editing issues are still there.
The story found within Reckless Magic is filled with adventure, romance, and of course, magic. The beginning is a bit slow and there are several instances throughout the book that felt a bit like info dumping as necessary information about the magical world of the 'Immortals' is relayed to the main character Eden, who is at first ignorant about her powers and many other aspects of the Immortals' society. Except for the prologue, the story is told from Eden's first person point of view (who, I might add, is a bit dense when it comes to noticing magic and whatnot) and I honestly found her a rather entertaining narrator and character. She has some spunk to her and likes to utlize sarcasm to her advantage. However, I had some issues with the writing style itself. Eden is sixteen, so this book is obviously aimed at a younger, teen audience, but there were several instances of awkward sentence structure and poor word choice that, frankly, got a little bit on my nerves (until I reminded myself that I got it for free). The action scenes were particularly long and tedious.
After saying all that it probably sounds like I didn't like the book at all; however, I actually quite enjoyed it. Looking past the definite need for editing, I loved the story and characters. I'd say it's a rather classic plot with a magical society dying out, a tyrant king, and resistence building against the current monarchy, but it also has several unique little twists to it that I loved. The romance was pretty typical of a YA novel with that 'forbidden romance' twist. The characters are really what sold it for me; they all have very distinct personalities and voices and I came to really care for them.
Overall, it was a fun read. I just don't know if I'm willing to pay money for the next book in the series if the editing issues are still there.
Read
February 20, 2018Unfortunately, I have to put this book on the DNF shelf.
At 2 hours and 35 minutes in, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has happened, unless you count numerous unexplained fainting spells as something. Nothing happening would be fine if it was because the characters were being developed, but I know as little about Eden now as I did on page one. All that being said, I would have kept going, being that this book was described as "Twilight meets Harry Potter" (both awesome), but then this happened...
"I parked my car in the long line of black something-or-others, taking up two parking spaces. My sunflower yellow Land Rover stuck out terribly, but I could've cared less."
For me, that is an inexcusable error. Enough said.
From the beginning, I had a feeling that this book was more juvenile than YA, or maybe it was just Eden's shrinking and unassertive personality that kept me from getting into the story. I don't know. I'm not saying that it was terrible or that someone else wouldn't love it, but it just wasn't for me. Because I didn't finish Reckless Magic, I don't think it would be fair to assign a rating.
At 2 hours and 35 minutes in, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has happened, unless you count numerous unexplained fainting spells as something. Nothing happening would be fine if it was because the characters were being developed, but I know as little about Eden now as I did on page one. All that being said, I would have kept going, being that this book was described as "Twilight meets Harry Potter" (both awesome), but then this happened...
"I parked my car in the long line of black something-or-others, taking up two parking spaces. My sunflower yellow Land Rover stuck out terribly, but I could've cared less."
For me, that is an inexcusable error. Enough said.
From the beginning, I had a feeling that this book was more juvenile than YA, or maybe it was just Eden's shrinking and unassertive personality that kept me from getting into the story. I don't know. I'm not saying that it was terrible or that someone else wouldn't love it, but it just wasn't for me. Because I didn't finish Reckless Magic, I don't think it would be fair to assign a rating.
March 27, 2014
I'm not sure I understand the high ratings for this book--unless of course, most of them just came from young girls who are primarily concerned with the romance in the story. And, well, given that this is a YA romance book, that very well may be.
My primary complaint is that the writing is amateurish. It holds promise, but the text feels half-baked. There are tons of typos, but even worse, there are numerous grammatical and word usage errors. An editor and a dictionary would have gone a long way here. There are also inconsistencies in dialog, unbelievable, odd, or overly complex character reactions, and poor attempts at foreshadowing. (Actually, most of the foreshadowing manifests itself as something that's plainly said out loud in front of our main character but she's too dimwitted to catch on.) I don't mean to sound harsh; I did enjoy this book and will move on to the next, but these problems kept me from fully engaging with the story. On the plus side, the cover is gorgeous and the characters are likable (yes, even the dimwitted one).
My primary complaint is that the writing is amateurish. It holds promise, but the text feels half-baked. There are tons of typos, but even worse, there are numerous grammatical and word usage errors. An editor and a dictionary would have gone a long way here. There are also inconsistencies in dialog, unbelievable, odd, or overly complex character reactions, and poor attempts at foreshadowing. (Actually, most of the foreshadowing manifests itself as something that's plainly said out loud in front of our main character but she's too dimwitted to catch on.) I don't mean to sound harsh; I did enjoy this book and will move on to the next, but these problems kept me from fully engaging with the story. On the plus side, the cover is gorgeous and the characters are likable (yes, even the dimwitted one).
January 18, 2013
I'm a sucker for shitty, nonsense fantasy fluff, so another bildungsroman-style magical universe sounded right up my alley. And... No. I read both this and the next (charitably designated) novel in the series, as I'm largely immune to over-the-top romance drama appearing in an otherwise seemingly well-constructed fantasy world. The disappointment factor has been the lack of any judicious editing, specifically in reference to her grammar. The author seems to be unable to distinguish between "there/their/they're" (misusing the three in equal measure), "your/you're", and even includes such bon mots as, "The silky skirt flowed around me, while my midriff was bear." Ouch. It has gotten to the point that I'd be incredibly embarrassed to recommend her books to anyone, frankly. Especially when her acknowledgements include the line, "First of all, this gift of writing that sometimes feels more like a miracle at the end of the day came from God alone and to him I give the glory," as apparently, God is an absolute shit copy-editor... Well, ugh. Rachel Higginson really needs to sit down with a few beta readers and work out some of her more rogue language usages.
July 12, 2015
I loved this book! It definitely wasn't the most well written book I've ever read but it was probably one of the most addicting and fun to read. If I were to factor in the predictability and the cliches embedded in both the characters and plot then I would have to drop my rating down to 3.75/5 stars but I honestly cannot do that because of how engrossed I was with the story. Absolutely planning on continuing with the series soon and can't wait to see how things carry on in the second book.
Actual rating: 3.75/5 stars
Personal rating: 5/5 stars
Actual rating: 3.75/5 stars
Personal rating: 5/5 stars
August 6, 2018
I have a crap ton of questions.
Reckless Magic felt like a pretty quick audio book to listen to. However, I just kept forming so many questions with each chapter. Then after the ending.. I have even more questions that I will hopefully get answers for in the next book. Hopefully.
In this book you will meet Eden and Kiran. Their little romance was cute and shit.. but highly frustrating. Definitely got vibes of Romeo and Juliet.. but for more stupid reasons - I guess? I have no idea if that makes sense.. but this book was kind of confusing. They say they love each other but then he's all like.. Oh.. yeah, I'm gonna stay with my fiancée (who is a major self-centered bitch) and pretend to think you don't exist. Please do the same.
BUT WHY!?! I'm so confused. Then there's Eden who is basically a new born puppy and doesn't know anything. She's pretty naïve and doesn't really seem to understand things even after the book ended. She also whined a lot and that was starting to rub me the wrong way. Then there's the confusing love interest Kiran.. and I just don't really want to dive into that.
The little twists and turns were confusing, again. I just don't understand why they were plotting to kill the prince when they have all of these problems with the king. Yeah, it's cool that he's going to become the king ONE day but.. he's still the damn prince right now. Just go kill the king and call it a day.
Overall, I haven't really connected to anyone so far (except maybe Lilly because she's a god damn bad ass and maybe Jericho) and I'm hoping that the next book will give me someone to like. If not.. then I don't know what I'm going to do without wine because I'm at work.
Reckless Magic felt like a pretty quick audio book to listen to. However, I just kept forming so many questions with each chapter. Then after the ending.. I have even more questions that I will hopefully get answers for in the next book. Hopefully.
In this book you will meet Eden and Kiran. Their little romance was cute and shit.. but highly frustrating. Definitely got vibes of Romeo and Juliet.. but for more stupid reasons - I guess? I have no idea if that makes sense.. but this book was kind of confusing. They say they love each other but then he's all like.. Oh.. yeah, I'm gonna stay with my fiancée (who is a major self-centered bitch) and pretend to think you don't exist. Please do the same.
BUT WHY!?! I'm so confused. Then there's Eden who is basically a new born puppy and doesn't know anything. She's pretty naïve and doesn't really seem to understand things even after the book ended. She also whined a lot and that was starting to rub me the wrong way. Then there's the confusing love interest Kiran.. and I just don't really want to dive into that.
The little twists and turns were confusing, again. I just don't understand why they were plotting to kill the prince when they have all of these problems with the king. Yeah, it's cool that he's going to become the king ONE day but.. he's still the damn prince right now. Just go kill the king and call it a day.
Overall, I haven't really connected to anyone so far (except maybe Lilly because she's a god damn bad ass and maybe Jericho) and I'm hoping that the next book will give me someone to like. If not.. then I don't know what I'm going to do without wine because I'm at work.
August 3, 2018
When we initially meet Eden, she has been expelled from several schools after mysterious powers of destruction seem to occur around her. She thinks she is going crazy, but it turns out that she is a powerful witch and just didn't realize that magic was real. Her new school is full of magic wielders including Prince Kiran of the monarchy that rules over all magic wielders. Eden and Kiran seem to be drawn to one another, but Kiran's intentions are questionable. He is supposed to be getting to know his betrothed who also attends the school. Once Eden discovers her place in this magical world, she starts to learn about the various politics within it and the dangers of being who she really is.
This was a good first book to a series. I felt the world building and character development went well. I have mixed feelings about the characters themselves. I am annoyed with Eden's character - she is touted as this very powerful girl, but she is an emotional puppet. I got nauseated every time she talked about her feelings toward Kiran. Kiran is also very mercurial and I am highly suspicious of his true intentions (as designed, I'm sure). I like Avalon, Jericho, and Amory's characters. I'm hoping for a more exciting plot in the next book.
This was a good first book to a series. I felt the world building and character development went well. I have mixed feelings about the characters themselves. I am annoyed with Eden's character - she is touted as this very powerful girl, but she is an emotional puppet. I got nauseated every time she talked about her feelings toward Kiran. Kiran is also very mercurial and I am highly suspicious of his true intentions (as designed, I'm sure). I like Avalon, Jericho, and Amory's characters. I'm hoping for a more exciting plot in the next book.
March 4, 2012
I loved, loved, LOVED this book!
Reckless Magic is a YA Paranormal that should be read by everyone remotely interested in this genre! The characters are well developed and well written. I judge books by how they make me feel while I read them. I read Reckless Magic at every opportunity: in bed, while I was making dinner, riding in the car – could not put it down!! Reckless Magic made me laugh out loud at 2am (my husband wasn’t thrilled), it made me tear up toward the end and the whole way through I was rooting for the main character. What more could anyone want?
I hate to give away the book, but it is about a girl who has been raised “human” only to find out she is Immortal and not just any Immortal, one that the whole Immortal Community has been waiting for. She falls madly in love with exactly the wrong person. It wasn’t a love-at-first sight, it was gradual and felt real.
Congratulations, Rachel Higginson on a fabulously written story. I am your newest fan! I’ve already purchased the rest of the series and cannot wait to leap into it! Thank you so much for the great story!
Reckless Magic is a YA Paranormal that should be read by everyone remotely interested in this genre! The characters are well developed and well written. I judge books by how they make me feel while I read them. I read Reckless Magic at every opportunity: in bed, while I was making dinner, riding in the car – could not put it down!! Reckless Magic made me laugh out loud at 2am (my husband wasn’t thrilled), it made me tear up toward the end and the whole way through I was rooting for the main character. What more could anyone want?
I hate to give away the book, but it is about a girl who has been raised “human” only to find out she is Immortal and not just any Immortal, one that the whole Immortal Community has been waiting for. She falls madly in love with exactly the wrong person. It wasn’t a love-at-first sight, it was gradual and felt real.
Congratulations, Rachel Higginson on a fabulously written story. I am your newest fan! I’ve already purchased the rest of the series and cannot wait to leap into it! Thank you so much for the great story!
October 10, 2011
Awesome in a totally unexpected way!
I downloaded this book on my nook because it was free and it sounded cool. I was expecting maybe 100 pages and a easy decent plot...nothing spectacular, just a cool free book.
Boy was I wrong!
This book is a whirlwind of all that makes reading awesome! The characters were amazing, especially Eden, the main character. She was so relatable and awesome! She had me laughing out loud quite a bit! Her best friend Lily was so sweet, I really liked the way she was described, she wasn't a main character but she didn't feel as two dimensional as most more minor characters do. We were seeing her as Eden saw her. Not as the author described her but as how Eden actually saw her which was different and just really neat.
Avalon was one of my favorite characters, I have to admit that I guessed who he was but it was still neat to read the coming out of it!
And I really loved Eden's commentary about Talbot! So funny!
Actually Eden's voice in general was fantastic. She wasn't one oft owe characters you felt like screaming at for her idiocy because she acknowledged her faults and well, they're just part of her character.
She says she's not the most observant and scares easily and she does. I liked that about the way she was portrayed, she was so brutally honest with herself, sometimes in a misguided way but she never sugar-coated things just to make herself feel better. She was determined and strong and easily one of my favorite lead characters I have read lately!
Now let's talk boys.
Kiran. Oh my goodness I loved this guy! But here's the cool thing, he didn't walk into the book perfect either. No, he definitely had his faults and again, thy made sense for his character. I found myself liking him slowly, right along with Eden. He really was extremely annoying in parts but as I, and Eden, started to understand him better I started to realize that he really did mean well. It was just his way. Or the way he was forced to use. I'm pretty sure he never had to work for someone's respect and trust like he had to work for Eden's! Ha!
Overall an amazing and fantastic book that there's no excuse not to read! I mean, it's FREE for crying out loud. Download it and give it a go! You will not be sorry!!!
I downloaded this book on my nook because it was free and it sounded cool. I was expecting maybe 100 pages and a easy decent plot...nothing spectacular, just a cool free book.
Boy was I wrong!
This book is a whirlwind of all that makes reading awesome! The characters were amazing, especially Eden, the main character. She was so relatable and awesome! She had me laughing out loud quite a bit! Her best friend Lily was so sweet, I really liked the way she was described, she wasn't a main character but she didn't feel as two dimensional as most more minor characters do. We were seeing her as Eden saw her. Not as the author described her but as how Eden actually saw her which was different and just really neat.
Avalon was one of my favorite characters, I have to admit that I guessed who he was but it was still neat to read the coming out of it!
And I really loved Eden's commentary about Talbot! So funny!
Actually Eden's voice in general was fantastic. She wasn't one oft owe characters you felt like screaming at for her idiocy because she acknowledged her faults and well, they're just part of her character.
She says she's not the most observant and scares easily and she does. I liked that about the way she was portrayed, she was so brutally honest with herself, sometimes in a misguided way but she never sugar-coated things just to make herself feel better. She was determined and strong and easily one of my favorite lead characters I have read lately!
Now let's talk boys.
Kiran. Oh my goodness I loved this guy! But here's the cool thing, he didn't walk into the book perfect either. No, he definitely had his faults and again, thy made sense for his character. I found myself liking him slowly, right along with Eden. He really was extremely annoying in parts but as I, and Eden, started to understand him better I started to realize that he really did mean well. It was just his way. Or the way he was forced to use. I'm pretty sure he never had to work for someone's respect and trust like he had to work for Eden's! Ha!
Overall an amazing and fantastic book that there's no excuse not to read! I mean, it's FREE for crying out loud. Download it and give it a go! You will not be sorry!!!
June 4, 2012
O.M.G this book had me feeling all kinds of aggravated. Not in a bad way at all...just with the characters. They drove me batty; absolutely wanted to knock some heads around. And you know those dreams where you are screaming at the top of your lungs but no one is listening? That's Eden to a T. Poor girl is over looked and unwanted. The teachers treat her with disrespect and the students are cruel and mean. I will say the girl has an iron tongue, cause if it was me I would have told each and every one of them off.
And then there is Kiran. I tried to like him when he is first introduced in the beginning of the story but his arrogant attitude kept holding me back. So throughout the majority of the book I was on the fence about him. One second he is Mr. Debonair and the next he is a heartless a$$ hat. (YES..I.Went.There!) But thanks to a desperate act and one amazing ending I can proudly say I am Team Kiran!
Reckless Magic has a definite page turner that I was eager to return to when having to put it down. I was enthralled and had to know more about Eden and the secrets of her kind. I predicted a few characters to be who I thought they were and mentally gave myself a high five for figuring it out before their identities were disclosed.
I enjoyed Reckless Magic immensely and look forward to getting started on the next book, Hopeless Magic. So if you’re a fan of magic and fantasy encased and hidden from the real world…Reckless Magic is the book for you.
March 5, 2016
Reckless Magic is LITERALLY one of the best books out there! Or at least, in my opinion it is haha Rachel Higginson wrote an amazing story that just left me speechless...and crying...and screaming...mostly crying though. I was really emotional during these books. This series deserves 5 stars and so many more!
August 10, 2015
I HAVE FEELINGS!
When I read the synopsis for this story I neither expected what I was in for, nor how completely and utterly in love I would fall with it. I finished it like 5 minutes ago and I'm still dealing with the amount of emotion flooding through me.
I consider this one of the best books I have ever read so I made it my mission to convince you to read it as well. Here's why:
THE PLOT
Meet Eden, a typical teenage girl who just has a couple of probblems: she's a witch, she doesn't know it and she has no clue how to get her magic under control. In fact she's been asked to leave three schools already after mysterious incidents. Her last chance is Kingsley. But already on her first day she meets Kiran, a new student just like her and who won't leave her alone, making the magic inside her totally spin out of control. With his help, as well as her headmasters', she learns about her true identity and what it means to be an Immortal, someone who carries magic inside of them. Things get complicated rather quickly when Kiran becomes the center of attention of a group that's out for blood.
THE CHARACTERS
Eden Mathews
Bonus points for a cool name. I've been reading a lot of stories in which the characters have real strange names and it's been irritating me a lot but I really like Eden.
Eden is a heroine you quickly connect with. She's very likable as her biggest wish is to just fit in. Even though she's clueless at first, she quickly catches on. She's brave, determined and driven. She uses her brain but doesn't look too rational at things. Sometimes you just gotta listen to your heart and that's what Eden does. Deep down she trusts what her heart tells her.
Kiran Kendrick
Kiran is the Prince. Yes, you got that right. He's a freaking prince. Born into an age old kingdom. But, while he enjoys his status and welfare, he doesn't necessarily agree with all the commodities.
Kiran is the typical highschool boy. A smartass, always a smirk in place, living by his own rules, a brat really. But you can't help but fall in love with him at first sight. You instantly know that there's more underneath this arrogant fascade. And underneath, he's loyal, got his heart in the right place, knows what's right and wrong and is not afraid to stand up for those he cares about.
Avalon St. Andrews:
Avalon is Eden's twin brother. They grew up apart from each other, differently. While Eden was raised human, Avalon got to perfect his magic from the early years on which leaves him very skilled at his abilities and always on high alert.
Maybe it's because he already knows everything that he is almost as arrogant as Kiran. He takes his job as brother very serious and tries his best to keep Eden away from Kiran. Because of the way Avalon was raised he has his own beliefs which he stands by no matter what. He's a skilled fighter, committed to the cause and loyal to his family.
Otherwise alluring facts:
The story is written chronologically in 1st person narrative.
At the beginning it had a Harry Potter-ish kinda vibe to it before it started to display its own rules.
The name of the series is what you can expect. While I've always hated the star-crossed lovers premise I was surprised to find that I was charmed, mesmerized and deeply touched for the first time since Romeo and Juliet. The author manages to draw you so skillfully into the story that even though you might hate star-crossed love stories I am confident that you will not mind the concept here. Because Kiran and Eden do not let Fate play Cupid but fall in love with each other on their own terms, considering all the facts.
When I read the synopsis for this story I neither expected what I was in for, nor how completely and utterly in love I would fall with it. I finished it like 5 minutes ago and I'm still dealing with the amount of emotion flooding through me.
I consider this one of the best books I have ever read so I made it my mission to convince you to read it as well. Here's why:
THE PLOT
Meet Eden, a typical teenage girl who just has a couple of probblems: she's a witch, she doesn't know it and she has no clue how to get her magic under control. In fact she's been asked to leave three schools already after mysterious incidents. Her last chance is Kingsley. But already on her first day she meets Kiran, a new student just like her and who won't leave her alone, making the magic inside her totally spin out of control. With his help, as well as her headmasters', she learns about her true identity and what it means to be an Immortal, someone who carries magic inside of them. Things get complicated rather quickly when Kiran becomes the center of attention of a group that's out for blood.
THE CHARACTERS
Eden Mathews
Bonus points for a cool name. I've been reading a lot of stories in which the characters have real strange names and it's been irritating me a lot but I really like Eden.
Eden is a heroine you quickly connect with. She's very likable as her biggest wish is to just fit in. Even though she's clueless at first, she quickly catches on. She's brave, determined and driven. She uses her brain but doesn't look too rational at things. Sometimes you just gotta listen to your heart and that's what Eden does. Deep down she trusts what her heart tells her.
Kiran Kendrick
Kiran is the Prince. Yes, you got that right. He's a freaking prince. Born into an age old kingdom. But, while he enjoys his status and welfare, he doesn't necessarily agree with all the commodities.
Kiran is the typical highschool boy. A smartass, always a smirk in place, living by his own rules, a brat really. But you can't help but fall in love with him at first sight. You instantly know that there's more underneath this arrogant fascade. And underneath, he's loyal, got his heart in the right place, knows what's right and wrong and is not afraid to stand up for those he cares about.
Avalon St. Andrews:
Avalon is Eden's twin brother. They grew up apart from each other, differently. While Eden was raised human, Avalon got to perfect his magic from the early years on which leaves him very skilled at his abilities and always on high alert.
Maybe it's because he already knows everything that he is almost as arrogant as Kiran. He takes his job as brother very serious and tries his best to keep Eden away from Kiran. Because of the way Avalon was raised he has his own beliefs which he stands by no matter what. He's a skilled fighter, committed to the cause and loyal to his family.
Otherwise alluring facts:
The story is written chronologically in 1st person narrative.
At the beginning it had a Harry Potter-ish kinda vibe to it before it started to display its own rules.
The name of the series is what you can expect. While I've always hated the star-crossed lovers premise I was surprised to find that I was charmed, mesmerized and deeply touched for the first time since Romeo and Juliet. The author manages to draw you so skillfully into the story that even though you might hate star-crossed love stories I am confident that you will not mind the concept here. Because Kiran and Eden do not let Fate play Cupid but fall in love with each other on their own terms, considering all the facts.
October 20, 2018
Stayed up all night reading - yes!
read while I cooked - yes!
Read while my husband drove the car? -yes!
What can I say ALL I wanted to do was read this book! So the main reason why I loved this book was because I love when a girl has some attitude! Like when a boy wants the girl to do one thing and she makes sure she goes out of her way to do the exact opposite. Yap that is this girl! She does what she wants! The set up for the romance for this book was so well thought up it seems like something you would watch in a movie! This should be a movie! All I can say is I am trying to decide should I read the book again??? Or should I read book 2?? Idk because this one was so good I kinda want to re-read it again!
read while I cooked - yes!
Read while my husband drove the car? -yes!
What can I say ALL I wanted to do was read this book! So the main reason why I loved this book was because I love when a girl has some attitude! Like when a boy wants the girl to do one thing and she makes sure she goes out of her way to do the exact opposite. Yap that is this girl! She does what she wants! The set up for the romance for this book was so well thought up it seems like something you would watch in a movie! This should be a movie! All I can say is I am trying to decide should I read the book again??? Or should I read book 2?? Idk because this one was so good I kinda want to re-read it again!
February 5, 2021
I first read this series in 2014. It was one of the first YA books I read as an adult. It was the last book series I was able to read before I had to turn to audiobooks. I'm so happy it is now available in audio. I loved being able to hear the accents and return to characters I really enjoy.
The story was just as good the second time around. Yes, there were a few problems. The MC played a little dumb at first, but it was entertaining. I'm putting my other audiobooks on hold while I finish this series.
The story was just as good the second time around. Yes, there were a few problems. The MC played a little dumb at first, but it was entertaining. I'm putting my other audiobooks on hold while I finish this series.
January 14, 2021
At 50% in I had to DNF this one. This is one of the YA novels that truly reads like a YA novel so "older" readers may not enjoy it as much. At 50% the only thing that stands out was the constant feeling of electricity every time our two main characters touch and it keeps going on and on like this with no explanation of what is really going on. And all of the looks at each other. I just couldn't keep reading, there isn't a really story line other than two people who are drawn to each other but also kind of hate each other.
April 10, 2013
I can't. I can't. I really can't finish this one.
Maybe some other time, I'm pretty sure that this is a good series but my mind, heart, body and soul is not ready for this one. I am so sorry Rachel Higginson.
It's not the book, It's me. :(((((((((((
Till we see each other again.
March 14, 2020
I'm torn.
For plot it gets 4 stars--I liked it. But due to some word-choice/spelling errors this rating should be considered a 3.5. Reckless Magic had a really interesting/enjoyable story line, but had its fair share of issues. It would benefit greatly from an editing once-over. I would gladly read the next installment in this quartet.
For plot it gets 4 stars--I liked it. But due to some word-choice/spelling errors this rating should be considered a 3.5. Reckless Magic had a really interesting/enjoyable story line, but had its fair share of issues. It would benefit greatly from an editing once-over. I would gladly read the next installment in this quartet.
April 6, 2015
Very very, very interesting.
January 8, 2021
The first quarter of this book was sooo whiny. I almost stopped reading. I wanted to shake the MC (who is a high school girl) and scream STOP WITH THE MOPING ALREADY. Because, seriously, school sucked & she was unpopular & she liked this guy who was betrothed to someone else & girls were mean to her & school was hard & on & on & on.
But then it got better. Not enough to get me past a meh review, but the second half was significantly better.
Also, some of the characters actions don’t make sense. I get it why the author did it, their behaviors are required to move the plot forward, but it feels a little forced.
But then it got better. Not enough to get me past a meh review, but the second half was significantly better.
Also, some of the characters actions don’t make sense. I get it why the author did it, their behaviors are required to move the plot forward, but it feels a little forced.
May 5, 2019
https://celebrityreaders.com/2019/05/...
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:
5 stars — OK, OK, maybe the narrator is more like 4-4.5 stars…but I’m just so in love with this series, that I can’t help glossing over everything. Ms. Carr did a pretty solid job narrating. I felt so many emotions, I felt the urgency, I felt the whining, I felt the confusion… The pacing was great. Honestly the only thing I wasn’t solid on was her voices…and not even all the voices, it was just a couple. I wasn’t keen on Talbott (though at least that accent was solid). And I could be here and there over Kiran. Since his sexy British accent is kind of a big deal, it really needed a male voice IMO. And the only other thing was super small: the French teacher did not have a French accent as was proclaimed, but sounded Russian. It was the silliest thing, but if you can’t do a French accent, don’t do an accent at all.
Everything else I have to say would just be shameless fangirling that’s unlikely to convince anyone. I can never quite figure out why this series got under my skin, but I just love it so much. It’s not as though the characters aren’t flawed. I mean, I love Eden and Kiran and so many others, but they’re actually kind of brats a lot of the time, and the romance is just swimming in uncertainty…and heck Kiran isn’t even always a super nice guy. But I think Ms. Higginson does a great job of showing us these vulnerabilities that have him get under my skin. It doesn’t hurt that I also know how it all plays out, and how much they both grow over the series, so I’m willing to wave away their immaturities.
Which is why, even though I have a gagillion other things I’m supposed to be reading right now, I can guarantee that as soon as I close this laptop I’m going to be starting on Hopeless. *sigh* Heart, prepare to get decimated.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
5 stars — It’s the kind of book that I raced to finish b/c I couldn’t put it down b/c I was completely absorbed in the story and characters, and then once I did finish, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Actually, not quite true — I was supposed to be napping. But instead I was going over all parts of the book, sighing in enjoyment, and trying to figure out what it all meant and where it was going, and hoping my paranoia about “the other shoe dropping” is just that….. So yeah. I enjoyed it. And have now downloaded Hopeless, which is how I feel…;)
REREAD now that the series is all written so I can be totally absorbed in the world and it was as good as I remember…I’m getting nervous though…I’ve only read the first 2 so far…
REREREAD — ok, after effusively recommending this book, I noticed that others have major problems with the typos and stuff…and yeah, I guess it can be bad at times. But for me, it was so freaking good story/character/emotion/etc wise that I completely overlooked that part. So I guess be warned about that part, if that’s something that seriously grates on you as a reader.
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:
5 stars — OK, OK, maybe the narrator is more like 4-4.5 stars…but I’m just so in love with this series, that I can’t help glossing over everything. Ms. Carr did a pretty solid job narrating. I felt so many emotions, I felt the urgency, I felt the whining, I felt the confusion… The pacing was great. Honestly the only thing I wasn’t solid on was her voices…and not even all the voices, it was just a couple. I wasn’t keen on Talbott (though at least that accent was solid). And I could be here and there over Kiran. Since his sexy British accent is kind of a big deal, it really needed a male voice IMO. And the only other thing was super small: the French teacher did not have a French accent as was proclaimed, but sounded Russian. It was the silliest thing, but if you can’t do a French accent, don’t do an accent at all.
Everything else I have to say would just be shameless fangirling that’s unlikely to convince anyone. I can never quite figure out why this series got under my skin, but I just love it so much. It’s not as though the characters aren’t flawed. I mean, I love Eden and Kiran and so many others, but they’re actually kind of brats a lot of the time, and the romance is just swimming in uncertainty…and heck Kiran isn’t even always a super nice guy. But I think Ms. Higginson does a great job of showing us these vulnerabilities that have him get under my skin. It doesn’t hurt that I also know how it all plays out, and how much they both grow over the series, so I’m willing to wave away their immaturities.
Which is why, even though I have a gagillion other things I’m supposed to be reading right now, I can guarantee that as soon as I close this laptop I’m going to be starting on Hopeless. *sigh* Heart, prepare to get decimated.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
5 stars — It’s the kind of book that I raced to finish b/c I couldn’t put it down b/c I was completely absorbed in the story and characters, and then once I did finish, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Actually, not quite true — I was supposed to be napping. But instead I was going over all parts of the book, sighing in enjoyment, and trying to figure out what it all meant and where it was going, and hoping my paranoia about “the other shoe dropping” is just that….. So yeah. I enjoyed it. And have now downloaded Hopeless, which is how I feel…;)
REREAD now that the series is all written so I can be totally absorbed in the world and it was as good as I remember…I’m getting nervous though…I’ve only read the first 2 so far…
REREREAD — ok, after effusively recommending this book, I noticed that others have major problems with the typos and stuff…and yeah, I guess it can be bad at times. But for me, it was so freaking good story/character/emotion/etc wise that I completely overlooked that part. So I guess be warned about that part, if that’s something that seriously grates on you as a reader.
July 12, 2012
"I understood the purpose of the Resistance, but the battle I chose to fight would be the one that brought me closer to the man I loved with every fiber of my being."
Eden Matthews knows that she's going crazy. She has to be. There is no one else in the world that can set fire to a school, flood another and magically produce huge tropical bees. Little does she know that she isn't going crazy. She's about to find out that she's different but not in the way she thinks.When she is given a final chance to finish school she goes in without any hope. And when she meets Kiran Kendrick the unexplainable happens. Her "electricity" magnifies.
Kiran is one gorgeous, irritating, arrogant jerk. He brings out the worse in Eden with his snarky comments and smirks. But Eden can't get him to leave her alone. There is something about him that makes the "electricity" she has in her ignite.But Kiran, Eden is about to find out, is much more then she bargained for.
After a camping trip goes terribly wrong, Eden must come to terms with what she is.After realizing and being told what the "electricity" really is Eden suddenly accepts it quickly. But things turn even more crazy when she learns just who Kiran is and the rules of the world she now is part of.
Eden is destined for much more then she wants. She is thrust into the new world around her and has a hard time accepting. When she has to fight for much more then herself she quickly learns that being who she is is not easy. And being in love with someone who is forbidden is not what she expected. Being star-crossed sucks.
Reckless Magic is book 1 in the Star-Crossed series and it starts off with exactly what you need! I couldn't put this book down the first time I read it as well as the 2nd time. If you want to read about star-crossed lovers, kick ass Immortals, and magic this is the series for you! This book as well as the rest of the series is unique and should be read by every YA Paranormal Romance lover! Rachel Higginson brings us a book chuck full of AMAZING boys! I swear to you, you will love every guy you encounter! I want myself a Kiran, Jericho, Avalon and even an Amory!:-)
Pick this up! I promise you will LOVE it!
http://christinabookreviews.blogspot....
Eden Matthews knows that she's going crazy. She has to be. There is no one else in the world that can set fire to a school, flood another and magically produce huge tropical bees. Little does she know that she isn't going crazy. She's about to find out that she's different but not in the way she thinks.When she is given a final chance to finish school she goes in without any hope. And when she meets Kiran Kendrick the unexplainable happens. Her "electricity" magnifies.
Kiran is one gorgeous, irritating, arrogant jerk. He brings out the worse in Eden with his snarky comments and smirks. But Eden can't get him to leave her alone. There is something about him that makes the "electricity" she has in her ignite.But Kiran, Eden is about to find out, is much more then she bargained for.
After a camping trip goes terribly wrong, Eden must come to terms with what she is.After realizing and being told what the "electricity" really is Eden suddenly accepts it quickly. But things turn even more crazy when she learns just who Kiran is and the rules of the world she now is part of.
Eden is destined for much more then she wants. She is thrust into the new world around her and has a hard time accepting. When she has to fight for much more then herself she quickly learns that being who she is is not easy. And being in love with someone who is forbidden is not what she expected. Being star-crossed sucks.
Reckless Magic is book 1 in the Star-Crossed series and it starts off with exactly what you need! I couldn't put this book down the first time I read it as well as the 2nd time. If you want to read about star-crossed lovers, kick ass Immortals, and magic this is the series for you! This book as well as the rest of the series is unique and should be read by every YA Paranormal Romance lover! Rachel Higginson brings us a book chuck full of AMAZING boys! I swear to you, you will love every guy you encounter! I want myself a Kiran, Jericho, Avalon and even an Amory!:-)
Pick this up! I promise you will LOVE it!
http://christinabookreviews.blogspot....
May 18, 2013
I was told by several of my friends what a great book "Reckless Magic" was. It was freaking fantastic!!! Just when I thought I had this book figured out, Rachel threw in a curve ball I never saw coming! From the first page to the last word, I was gripping my iPad unable to tear myself away from the heart pounding excitement of "Reckless Magic".
Rachel hits the ground running when she introduces the reader to Eden Matthews. Due to her special "abilities" Eden has been kicked out of several schools & feels like a freak & therefore keeps to herself. As a last resort, Eden's aunt enrolls her into Kingsley Preparatory a very exclusive & bewildering school. On her first day, Eden meets the handsome & elusive Kiran. The pair are immediately drawn to each other despite the danger that perpetually follows them. On a school camping trip, Eden is forced to face the reality of what she truly is when her best friend, Lily is thrown into a foreign prison for a crime she didn't commit.
Suddenly, Eden is thrust into a world she thought only existed in fairy tales. She begins a long and dangerous journey to rescue Lily. Little does she know, Eden is putting herself in jeopardy..........now the only person that can save her is Kiran. Will he defy the one man that holds Eden's fate, or will he risk his life to protect Eden's?
Rachel hits the ground running when she introduces the reader to Eden Matthews. Due to her special "abilities" Eden has been kicked out of several schools & feels like a freak & therefore keeps to herself. As a last resort, Eden's aunt enrolls her into Kingsley Preparatory a very exclusive & bewildering school. On her first day, Eden meets the handsome & elusive Kiran. The pair are immediately drawn to each other despite the danger that perpetually follows them. On a school camping trip, Eden is forced to face the reality of what she truly is when her best friend, Lily is thrown into a foreign prison for a crime she didn't commit.
Suddenly, Eden is thrust into a world she thought only existed in fairy tales. She begins a long and dangerous journey to rescue Lily. Little does she know, Eden is putting herself in jeopardy..........now the only person that can save her is Kiran. Will he defy the one man that holds Eden's fate, or will he risk his life to protect Eden's?
July 30, 2019
So happy this was my 100th read of the year. Obviously it’s a little dated. But reading this is 2019, I was surprised to still be so sucked into this book. I’m not a huge fantasy reader. Also anything with magic is hard for me to like or understand, but I think I’m learning to love YA fantasy. This book contains love, magic, secret family members and so much more. If I would have read this when it was released in 2011 I am sure this would have been a five star book. I loved Eden and a character. There were times when I hated how clueless she was, but it was nice because as she learned things we learned with her. I loved Kiran too. He was such a nicely written ya boyfriend. I hate that he’s in this relationship but I understand how the monarchy works. Amory was a nice character and so was Avalon. If I could change anything I would simply add to Avalon and Eden’s relationship. They became friends very fast, which I didn’t mind, but I would have preferred more time to get to know him. For example, we get super in detail when Eden is in the airport, but when she is spending time with Avalon for the first time we just get a small flash of what happen. Like, we did this.....Avalon said.... But not real details. Overall this was a great read. I will definitely be picking up the next book.
October 26, 2012
I picked up this book and really didn't think much of it at first, but needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised. This is one of those rare books that I just couldn't put down. There is no testing of waters as you are plunged in head first into a riveting world of romance, magic and adventure.
One of the best things about the novel is the complexity of the characters - you come to love them while watching them struggle to find their selves. You laugh when they laugh. You cry when they cry. You become immersed in a fairy tale that you just don't want to see the end of!
In Eden you find everything you expect of a heroine. She's someone who is somewhat shy yet outspoken when it matters most. She is suspicious at times but fiercely loyal to her family and friends; she all but becomes your best friend. Kiren was a bit more tricky in this respect. He was a tad annoying at the start but I found myself warming up towards him towards the end.
This is a beautifully crafted book that has it all - a thrilling plot, captivating characters and effortless continuity.
My last thought: amazing!
One of the best things about the novel is the complexity of the characters - you come to love them while watching them struggle to find their selves. You laugh when they laugh. You cry when they cry. You become immersed in a fairy tale that you just don't want to see the end of!
In Eden you find everything you expect of a heroine. She's someone who is somewhat shy yet outspoken when it matters most. She is suspicious at times but fiercely loyal to her family and friends; she all but becomes your best friend. Kiren was a bit more tricky in this respect. He was a tad annoying at the start but I found myself warming up towards him towards the end.
This is a beautifully crafted book that has it all - a thrilling plot, captivating characters and effortless continuity.
My last thought: amazing!
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