EDIT TO ORIGINAL REVIEW
This is a paranormal young adult book, and I do think that it would be enjoyed more by the younger end of the young adult spectrum. There is very little kissing, and not really any touching at all. There is a lot of melodrama that seems to be a requirement of anything written for younger people, and for the most part, the situations they find themselves in are reminiscent of high school. Not to mention that Shayne IS in high school. Sometimes the feel of the characters is more mature, but I felt like Shayna was on par with her age group.
I'm not sure how to write a review without giving any spoilers and not sound trite. The reader really isn't given any inkling of what sort of PNR this is until about a third of the way through. It's a fairly fresh idea but with well used elements. The paranormal aspect isn't new, but the way its put together made me wonder what was coming next. The ever present teen love triangle....aaaah! It's here! It's here! Thank goodness I love love triangles. There's just something about the idea of having two hotties fighting over me (err, the heroine) that makes me feel all girlie.
One thing that bothered me was how there just wasn't much description. Example: during one scene, Shayna is on horseback and is nearly accosted by a "bad guy". She runs through the forest and ....goes home. What? No leaves slashing at her face or adrenaline pumping through her veins? No chase scene? I just didn't get the feeling that I was a part of the story. The thing I love about books vs movies is that you are inside the characters head instead of watching from afar. I just never connected with Shayna in that way. There wasn't much inner dialogue. I was always being told what she was feeling instead of feeling it myself.
I'll say that I wasn't nearly as confused during my second go round with this book. There has been some editing done. I would say that if you are someone who hiccups whenever you see misspelled or misused word...the book is still full of them. But it was definitely smoother this time.
A good debut novel for this author! Again, my thanks to Nicole Williams for the opportunity to (re) read for an honest review.
ORIGINAL REVIEW 8-19-2012
I would absolutely love to read this book when it has been thoroughly edited. At the very least, read over by a good friend or some beta readers and changed. The story itself is great and exciting...at first I got little butterflies of anticipation, but then I just got confused.
First off, the point of view often changes without notice. The story starts off being told in third person, and then it randomly switches to some sort of narrative, present tense thing. Often in the middle of a paragraph, with no paragraph breaks.
There were numerous spelling mistakes, and weird errors such as using 'incent' instead of incense. It's used correctly a couple of pages later, and even my spell check picks up on the error. I'm not sure how things like that get overlooked. There are commas instead of periods, periods instead of commas, a noticeable lack of quotation marks...you get the point.
I am usually not one to care if an indie author's book is poorly edited. In fact, I've gotten into some verbal spats with some Good Reads readers who bash indie authors because of a lack of editing. I think the story is often enough to let me overlook a few run on sentences. But I found it hard to even follow the story line in this book. What I DID follow was very good, and I like I said in the beginning, I would LOVE to finish this after it has some major editing work done. I would also LOVE to change my review and rating. I think that when this has a little more time spent on it, it could be a fabulous addition the the YA paranormal cache. As it is, I don't feel like I am getting anything out of it other than frustrated.
This book was sent to me by the author for an honest review.