Sixteen-year-old Katie Wickliff lives quietly in the small town of Elspeth's Grove, unaware of the troubled past that forced her grandmother to flee Russia with her when Katie was only a child. When people in the town begin to disappear, and Katie's own home is attacked by a terrifying creature, Katie and her grandmother return to Russia to find answers.
Pursuing them is the handsome William - who just might be a vampire. Katie discovers that William is indeed partially a vampire, but he is also one of the Sidh, an ancient clan whose members are gifted with great power - a clan to which Katie's deceased mother also belonged.
Soon, Katie discovers that her mother's seemingly natural death was actually murder, and she is forced to confront the question she wants to face the least: Is William her otherworldly protector, or is he the dark creature who killed her mother eleven years ago?
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Since her mother’s death, her grandmother had always been extremely protective of her, yet there was something in Katie’s past that could not be avoided. Enter the world of Catherine Mesick’s Pure and discover that some secrets just can’t stay hidden forever; they will catch up with you, no matter what. Katie is a teen living in a small and quiet town, an average life, until she begins seeing visions of a man and one by one, people she knows are going missing. When the man in her visions shows up claiming to be Katie’s protector, anything average about Katie’s life has just come to an end. Who is William or should the question be what is William? Is he truly there to protect her or are his intentions much darker? The answers to what is going on may lie in Russia, the country Katie left behind as a child. Something or someone wants Katie dead, but why? What makes Katie so special that she would be singled out? Her grandmother has always kept secrets from her, but the time has come to tell all, or Katie may die. There are monsters after her and Knowledge may become one of her greatest weapons.
Catherine Mesick has brought Katie’s world to life and filled it with creatures from the shadows, dangerous and fierce. Once she takes us to Russia, the tension explodes, the intrigue soars and Katie will discover there is more to the world than meets the eye.
From start to finish, Pure puts an entirely refreshing spin on young adult paranormal reads. Low on angst, high on mystery, dark, yet not terrifying, the moments of lightness are a great addition while the tale itself remains a perfect read for younger YA readers, also. Great main characters and unexpected twists highlight just a few of the reasons I enjoyed Catherine Mesick’s tale. She writes with a flourish of creativity that keeps coming at you, page after page, while spending most of this tale in Russia was like taking a mini trip to a foreign country as legends and superstitions from abroad come to life. Great Dialogue, a well-paced plot and characters that feel real, this is “PURE” entertainment!
I received this copy from Catherine Mesick in exchange for my honest review.
Series: Pure - Book 1 Publication Date: January 14, 2014 Publisher: Scofflaw Publishing Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy Print Length: 275 pages Available from: Amazon For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com
Katie’s your typical teenage girl living in a small town. She lives with her grandmother (both parents died) whom Katie refers to as GM, has her circle of friends who she confides in and lives a pretty mundane life. That is, until people start disappearing and she starts seeing things in the mirror.
What’s happening to me, she asks herself. Am I going crazy? But when she starts to investigate the disappearance of her classmates, she steps into a world filled with vampires, demons and all things supernatural. Is she the Little Sun from the Russian bedtime story from long ago? And who is this mysterious William?
In a nutshell, this is a retelling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with a Russian vibe. I loved the mythology the author injected into the story while still staying true to the lore of slayers. The supernatural scenes were captivating and I found myself nudging Katie along to find out the truth. The plot unfolds at a good pace and there were some terrific surprises I didn’t see coming. I loved the character William.
One thing I had an issue with was the whole GM nickname thing. It didn’t flow when I read it and many times, it took me out of the story. Now, I’m sure this is common slang for teenagers nowadays so I guess I'm showing my age. LOL!
If you’re a fan of paranormal romance and looking for a different spin on it, this is the book for you. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series.
Favorite Character: Katie. I love how real she is. Everything she goes through, from discovering who she is to dealing with her best friend ignoring her, comes across as real. She’s your everyday teenager who’s curious about things her GM keeps from her. When sparks fly between her and William, her reactions resonate with the reader and I yearn to experience first love again. A great role model, too.
The story is told through the eyes of Katie, a young high school girl. She has visions and when people begin to disappear she is thrusted into a mystery. A mystery of ancient secrets and monsters who stalk the night.
I wanted to like this book. I really did. The writer just didn't convince me with the characters, especially GM. Everyone and everything felt one dimensional. Everything in the storyline was generalized and glossed over. Ending was too neat and tidy, much like the test of the book.
I feel like while this was good, it was kind of a let down.
Katie and her grandmother moved to the US after the death of her parents years ago. But when Katie begins to see things and strangers come to visit all the way from their small village in Russia, Katie begins to wonder why her grandmother refuses to talk about the past. Vampires, Sidh and monsters that can rip doors off their hinges and leave in a wake of smoke. Just who exactly is Katie Wickliff?
There are a lot of cool details in this novel and Mesick gives us pretty interesting little details to clue us in as to what may happen later on. From a creepy substitute teacher to a friend who definitely has decided he wants to be more than a friend, to visions of a random man every time Katie looks into a reflective surface. There is a lot going on that is good, the mystery and deceit are written well but this lacked something for me. Perhaps it could have been more exciting.
Another reason why I gave this only three stars is because the author sort of forces romance into the picture. How can someone be in love with a person they have met once? Who they didn't even have a real conversation with? It kind of just happens out of nowhere like the author thought all novels dealing with teen girls had to end with the girl dating someone. It kind of ruined the whole mood of the novel for me.
I won this trilogy over two years ago and it took me that long to read this one. The beginning was interesting and the ending was fine, but the entire middle was boring. I didn't like GM.
This book was billed as YA fantasy, but I really enjoyed it. I think the interesting characters, action, and well-written dialogue kept me turning pages. You don't have to be in high school to remain engaged. Kudos to the author for crafting a story that reaches a wide audience.
Mesick's writing style is fast-paced and suspenseful. I read Pure in just a couple of sittings.
Loved the magical elements and exciting journey the characters embark upon. Highly recommend.
It would make a fun book club story for mixed audiences - say a family with adults and teens, or pre-teens, all reading it together.
Pure is the first book in the new Pure series by Catherine Mesick. The book opens with Katie, an average teen girl dealing with nothing more pressing than an overprotective grandmother, a complicated relationship with her guy BFF and and even more complicated situation with her girl BFF. But everything changes for Katie when people start disappearing and strange things start happening.
Katie was a great lead character, as was William, although I wish there had been a little more to him. He was almost a little too mysterious for a lot of the story, which made it hard to like or dislike him. Katie, however, was easily likable, an all-around good girl that didn't come off as too sugary sweet or sanctimonious. The story really moved for me once it moved to Russia, the location for most of the book. The author did a great job of weaving the flavor of the country into the story without making it seem like a lecture on Russian language and culture. There was some predictability here and there with different plot points, but not enough to take away the true suspense of the story. Best of all was the unique twist on the vampire genre and the paranormal themes. 3.5 mugs!
This book surprised me. I went into it expecting a typical cookie cutter teen romance with some fantasy elements thrown in for spiciness, but what I got was a genuinely interesting story. I really enjoyed it!
I got the Kindle edition of this book for free through a promotion in March. It sounded interesting, and it was. I loved all the Russian folklore and details that made the characters and the places feel so authentic. The author did a great job of peppering things in instead of info dumping. I felt like the conflict built slowly, but gained speed toward the climax, and it was a good pace. There was even a twist or two at the end that I didn't see coming, although, looking back, it all made sense.
I will say that some of the beginning and middle felt tedious to read because the author felt the need to account for every minute of Katie's day, day in and day out. A lot of paragraphs could have been cut to keep the momentum of the pace going stronger. Still, there was enough going on in between those bits to keep me reading.
As for the romance, I will say that it felt unrealistic and rushed. Katie had this friend/love interest in the beginning, a boy at school that she just wasn't that into, and that's fine. But then a creepy dude comes out of a mirror and she's instantly in love? I don't buy it, not if you want me to think of Katie as a real person with good instincts who is going to be the heroine of this story. It felt like the author wrote the whole book without a romance, but then a beta reader told her a romance would make it perfect, so she hastily edited a few spots to add one in and called it a day. I really feel like the story would have been perfect without that. It is a series, after all, and a slow burn would've done the characters more justice, in my opinion.
All that being said, it was a quick, easy read that I really did enjoy. The Russian folklore gave a fresh new spin to tired old fantasy icons like vampires, and the promotion was definitely worth it because I'm interested in checking out the rest of the series.
It was a nice story the plot was mysterious, here and then predictable. I have to say that I didn't like the GM shortcut for her grandmother, it drove me nuts, there could have been different words to use instead. It was used to much in many sentence, that it was annoying. Katie seems to be like nice girl, but she is not open at all regarding to her friendship with James. And her other friends, not once she mentioned them when In Russia, no comments at all. Then I found the conversation not enough with all the characters, Galina and Alexander ( the Leshi) no conversations after, no questions ask. Why didn't she saw Galina at the end? Why did the Leshi not get back to Katie, it's a quick and rushed ending, like the half is missing. Same with Odette, why has no one seen her? Then her love or relationship with William, not really many conversations at all, and they kissed very quickly, she didn't trust her Granny to speak about everything but she speaks to Galina quite openly about everything. And she didn't trust Galina either. So I find her behaviour just don't fit, she lacked personality. I would have liked more conversations between the characters, it leaves so many open questions. So I don't think there will be a next one for me.
Katie Wickliff's family left a little town in Russia to hide out in the United States. But when people start to disappear in her hometown, her family is forced to face their past... even if it means admitting that strange things might exist.
"Pure" was a quick, brain-candy read. The plot was linear and didn't really have many twists and turns. Nor did it really have anything thought provoking in it. It was patently obvious-- even the attempt to pin the poisoning on another character.
The plot did tie up loose ends. It ends at a nice enough point between books to keep the reader interested in the story.
I did like the smoke element-- though, supposedly the miasma was supposed to effect William and, at the end, it felt like this bit of foreshadowing was neglected in order to defeat the main foe. Also, the Odette element ended somewhat flat-- I'm not sure if that was to keep things open for later installments in the series or because she'd served her purpose. I just felt that the execution was somewhat lacking in the storytelling-- please don't think this is me saying the book was terrible-- it was pretty good. I just feel like it could have been done a little better. It felt rushed, almost like the author was trying to meet a sales quota and get people reading the next book.... a lot of these free-on-Facebook books have that feel to them.
So, it's a decent story. Not great, though... so if you're looking for a quick paranormal story without a bunch of raunchy sex but with a romantic undertone-- this is a good book. It's safe for young adults. Actually, that'd be a good audience for this, since it's pretty straightforward. So in those terms, it's not a bad read.
Mysterious unnatural events control this dramatic novel. Katie, a young USA high school girl, describes her daily life, which turns disastrous, leading her guardian grandmother to decide to return to Katie's birth country immediately - Russia.
But, the suspense does not stop there. Katie's nemesis follows her back to Kyiv. But, she is the Pure one, and it is not.
She has William, her savior, with who she has a teen crush. He has been in the background helping Katie with her conflicts back at high school. But what is he?
The story ends with a clash of good against evil in the castle near the PURE WOODS. Dramatic but predictable.
Ms. Mesick's writing is 'straightforward and fast pace' at times. However, the lulls in the story outweighed them.
But, because of the exciting storyline, which includes vampires and a first love encounter by Katie, I believe it is an excellent Young-Adult series. I recommend the series as so.
It was originally going to be a 3-star rating, but the slightly unexpected twist bumped it up to a four.
Overall it was a decent book, I wasn't expecting much as I believe it was a free series starter on Amazon. I started reading it just because it was the first book on my kindle I hadn't so why not. The story was decent and kept me interested, though I felt the romance was forced and the information dumping from random characters that fell out of the woodwork was a little...I wouldn't say cliche, but meh. I don't know how else to describe it, it felt like a cheap way to get information across quickly.
However, I enjoyed the story enough that I plan to continue the series and I will probably be slightly disappointed if this isn't a finished series. Hopefully the relationship aspect of it will grow on me in the next books.
So, it started out okay? And then it got progressively more... flat. It’s a very wordy book with characters dumping information all over, but it’s not very well done. Character relations aren’t well developed at ALL, especially between Katie and William. I didn’t buy it at all.
I’ll be honest that the main reason I entertained this book is because of the guy I’ve got the feels for (he’s also named William), but we have WAAAAAY more chemistry than Katie and William. I’m sure it’s obvious but I have no intention of continuing the series. If you have enjoyed this, I hope you enjoy the rest! Please don’t let me dissuade you.
I liked it, despite some weirdness. I was secondguessing characters a lot of the time. I like how it wrapped everything up but still left opportunities for more; I'll probably at least consider going for the next book. The characters were excellently developed, and the intrigue was held onto for a remarkably long time. For once, it also included a romance that didn't feel rushed or forced in any way. I came to it because it was free at least for a time, so I grabbed it for kindle, then I was looking to read something a few months later, so I picked this one to try, and I definitely didn't DNF it!
more of a 4.70(that's rounded up). I just feel like there was something I didn't get or something that I am supposed to have but don't have. l do like the strangers-to-lovers forbidden love trope, but I just feel like there was something I don't understand abt the book, maybe the whole superstition-supernatural thing. I love the romance between the characters. I don't like those that their love came out of the actual nowhere, like the character after meeting him only one was like 'oh I am thinking abt him lately.' Like hello you met the dang guy once and your love legit came out of nowhere. That's the only part I did not get/like in the book.
The only person i liked was katie Gm i wana have a gm lyk that she reminded me of that actress from the movie red with the sport car ,any way the story was Okaaaay its a light reading but I wasn't attached to the mc that much don know why -_-, katie was a good girl and she had depth, and i learned new stuff about Russian culture so yeah if you want to read something light and fast based you should try Pure....and the romance was cute !
This was an exciting read! You'll find well developed characters and go on a journey with them complete with vampires and evil spirits!
You'll travel from the U.S. to Russia and back to the U.S. on this page turning thrill ride!
The book was well written and edited, and the story kept my interest throughout! I look forward to reading the next installment as well as other work by this talented author!
The pacing of this novel made it very hard to read. Throughout the whole manuscript, there are two moments of 'excitement'. Otherwise, the novel is flat. The dialogue is uncompelling, and our MC lacks agency. The characters lack personality - they're just names on a page.
I thought I was going to read a cool paranormal story, but instead it's like I'm stuck in another book. I don't care about Simon's brother. I could care less about Charisse and Branden. What the heck is up with GM throwing out her friend's who came all the way from Russia?
I want to know more about them and mirror boy and her parents. Not her whiny, annoying high school friends.
This book just wasn’t for me. I think when I originally snagged it, I knew it involved vampires, but this was one of the few times in my life where judging a book by its cover really didn’t go well. I didn’t feel like the cover matched what the story was about.
I may be able to do some vampire stories, but this dealt with a lot darker stuff than just vampires. Meh.
Just found this on Bookbub, so I gave it a try. Great paranormal story, fast moving story, interesting characters. I’m looking forward to seeing Katie grow & develop and also to learn more about William. Favorite for me, it’s not a cliffhanger!! The story comes to close though you know there is more to happen.
The story has its twists and turns, very intriguing and puzzling. It was a bit slow in the beginning but had a deep turn in towards the end. Cute paranormal with a bit of romance.
A most interesting and involving book! With all the different kinds of people it gets quite attention grabbing. Dark and creepy places and dark creatures capture you and hold you captive.
I’m curious about the rest of this series now! I like Katie - she’s got some spunk, and is age-appropriately naive, but not oblivious. Maybe a bit too Twilight-y with the relationship, but I’m intrigued enough to keep reading.
Really fun read. Though the characters didn't have as much depth as I like, it was fine for the age of the targeted audience. The book was unpredictable and kept me guessing.
The first half of the story delves into the mysterious visitors and the strange visions. But the second half of the story takes us deep into the new world and the characters are beautiful and very well etched out. Very interesting read.
Please don't take my one star to mean this is a terrible book. This is my way of indicating that this is a first person book, which I absolutely cannot stand to read. My own opinion and quirk, I guess. Never have been able to enjoy first person books. If you do, ignore my rating, please.