**Read on FictionPress. I know from reading A Whole New Crowd VS The Original Crowd that there can be two totally different stories written from one original storyline. Reading the notes at the bottom tells me there is a chance a lot is going to be different from now until the final published version. So for now, this is my review based on the current FictionPress version.**
Maya's personality is an interesting contradiction. She's half free spirited/hippie and half calculated con. She reads people and knows how to manipulate their interpretation to fit what she wants them to know but comes off as light yet aloof.
"I get a sense of what goes on inside sometimes. I have to for my job. And besides, trust me - I've been there myself. There's a part of you that stops giving a rat's ass about anyone or anything except the ones who matter. Life hands you some truly horrid people or events and ... it changes someone . A part of you is able and willing to do just about everything to protect those people that are your life-rafts."
"I was like that too. I had a brother who left home pretty young and parents who were never around. Sometimes I used to think that words were empty, you know, but the truth was that I just never knew what to say. Like what I could say to people and not have their opinions change about me or something. A part of it was just because I didn't want people to care about me or worry about me. That was just pride and it nearly ended me. Sad, huh? It's just words and yet - I think it's sad when people either don't respect words enough or they respect them too much."
"I think sometimes swear words are the only words that really express the extra inside of us. They don't cheapen what's inside of people, but they do alter how they're heard by other people."
"A part of my wondered briefly if that was inherited with the same genes of my brother, if that was necessary for survival, or if part of myself enjoyed finding the invisible puppet strings and pulling them."
She calculates and analyzes people like no one you've heard of...
"You come off all bad- ass, but I know where that came from. You had to survive and so you go on the attack, like did just now. That tells me that you came from a home or many homes where it was pretty shitty. You were probably ridiculed, maybe beaten, maybe even worse like abuse. Mental, of course, but probably physical or even sexual. You make people prove to you that they're worth knowing or even loving. If they screw up, that's it and they're out. Which isbn'y healthy, by the way. And as tough as you come across, that just means you're just as vulnerable inside. There's a reason for what surface you deliver to people... and you're not as invincible as everyone talks how you are. You need people. You need Tray. You need someone to love you and reign you in at times. That's Tray's job. And you enliven him. That's where he needs you."
"You're a bitch.' 'I can be if I need to be, but I'm not generally a bitch. I'm a girl who's dreams of being loved were shattered a long time ago. I just recently realized that, but I've survived some pretty awful things too. The difference between you and me is that I didn't deflect the pain. I absorbed it and I buried it."
The dynamic between Maya and Jace is lethal...
"I didn't know if you were a gift from god or a poisoned apple."
"I took your blade... Are you going to take it back? Try again? What are you going to do Maya?' I felt it near the curve of my lips and as he slipped it just inside my lips, I flicked my eyelids up and met his gaze, full-force and head-on. Jace smiled again and my throat dried. He was an angel that had been denied the gift of mercy."
"I was a con with a conscience for a higher purpose."
This is definitely not like the first book. This is more thriller/mystery with hints of romance that has a supernatural twist. After finishing the book and looking over even the quotes I have above, I have a completely different perspective. Tijan didn't waste her words, they all had a purpose. Although they fit perfectly in it's original interpretation, after the twist, they take on a whole new meaning.
My Playlist:
Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care, Irresistible, Just One Yesterday, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark
Three Days Grace - Chalk Outline, Break, Riot, Not Too Late, Pain, I Hate Everything About You,
Staind - So Far Away, It's Been Awhile
Three Doors Down - Be Like That, Let Me Go
Linkin Park - In The End, Numb
Nickelback - Savin' Me, Too Bad, Gotta Be Somebody, I'd Come For You,
Theory Of A Deadman - Out Of My Head, Bad Girlfriend,
Papa Roach - Last Resort
Fort Minor - Remember The Name
Switchfoot - Meant To Live
Seether - Broken, Remedy, Fake It
Yellowcard - Only One
Cold(Metal) - Stupid Girl
Sum 41 - With Me
Story Of The Year - Until The Day I Die
Breaking Benjamin - I Will Not Bow
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Your Guardian Angel
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Good Charlotte - Dance Floor Anthem
Saving Abel - Addicted
Trapt - Headstrong
The Used - I Caught Fire
Boys Like Girls - Learning To Fall
Finger Eleven - Paralyzer