Book Review: "Torn" by Ashley S. Morgan

I was sent this eBook by Ashley S. Morgan to read and review. I started it almost straight away but it took me a while to finish as I was reading it at the same time as a couple of other books. Right now it only seems to be available on Amazon U.S. on the kindle for $5.13, I'm not sure if they'll be putting elsewhere or in other formats.

Synopsis:

Isadora Rivers feels trapped. Her small town high school is suffocating her.
Another day of wannabe gangsters, dumb jocks, and Barbie clones, and she'll just lose it. Her keen emotional sensitivity is to blame. She sees through all of the poser behavior to the pain and insecurity simmering just below the surface, and it's overwhelming. She feels like she's literally drowning in other people's emotions.

This same sensitivity, however, makes her a great actress. Suffocating or not, her high school is one of the top arts schools in the country. Acting is not only her passion, but it also looks like her way out. If she can just score the lead role in the school play, she might get herself noticed by a Hollywood agent. But she's got a strong reckless streak, and it keeps getting her in trouble and jeopardizing her chances.

Riding her bike at top speed, she swerves in front of a car and nearly gets hit. The driver, Tristan Blake, turns out to be the mysterious new boy at school. He's rebellious, broody, and wise beyond his years. He's also devastatingly gorgeous. From the moment their eyes meet, Isadora is irresistibly drawn to him. But as soon as he enters her life, things go horribly wrong. She begins having disturbing visions full of unimaginable glamour and unbearable darkness. He knows things about her he shouldn't. And he's somehow so familiar. As he at turns pulls her close, and then pushes her away, Isadora feels like her heart is being twisted and torn.

She soon discovers that her whole future is in jeopardy, and her only hope is to stay away from Tristan. But how can she turn away from the only boy she has ever loved? As a harrowing event looms closer, one that threatens to rip apart her psyche, Isadora must reach deep inside herself and find the strength to change her own destiny. But is she strong enough to do it?

The following review doesn't contain any direct spoilers, but if you want to go in reading it cold turkey, I'd skip to the last two paragraphs just in case!

The synopsis gives you a lot of the story line to the book which is off-putting in my opinion. I like to be surprised (sometimes) with my books so after reading the story line beforehand I didn't feel much suspense whilst reading the actual book. My first impressions were pretty good when I started the book though. In fact, I found the beginning chapters to be the most enjoyable part of the book. Ashley Morgan is gifted in her ability to describe abstract moments between her character and nature. Her descriptions are vivid enough for me to be able to feel the same experiences as Isadora riding her bike, within just the second paragraph. Written from Isadora's perspective, we're taken into her average teenage life of highschool classes and highschool problems. A lot of the information we get in the story is from dialogue between the characters which both helps to put us in Isadora's shoes but also minimalises Morgan's use of description - which is something that upset me throughout the book. To begin with, Torn actually reminded me of the first Wicca book (which I absolutely loved!) so I was floating on air in the first few chapters.

Yet once my honeymoon period at the beginning was over, the chapters started to become repetitive and very quickly I found myself bored. There was a lot of unnecessary detail which didn't actually add to the story, to the relationships or to anything at all.  It was irrelevant and frankly infuriating for me as I was constantly hoping for movement and action at which point I took a break and stopped reading. Thinking back, I realise that the book is very much a "the beginning", "the middle" and "the end" story. Additionally, the love story itself lacked any sort of build up. We all know the boy and the girl end up together in the end, but I enjoy reading the process of them falling in love more than anything else. Sadly, Isadora falls for Tristan instantly so their love often felt artificial. Just like her parents, I felt like she experiencing teenage lust more than an emotional connection to Tristan.

When I came back to the book, the synopsis had long ago become a blur in my mind. At almost exactly the half way point, I started to put all of the pieces together and figure out what was happening and felt thoroughly disappointed. The premise of the story and the paranormal aspects are pretty damn awesome, but for some reason they took a back seat for more or less the whole of the first half and only became sort of important in the latter half. The paranormal aspects of the book are not explained to the reader, though Tristan does seem to understand it. I wish we'd been able to meet Selma or Louise and see their characters in action because it would have made my connection to the story a lot stronger. For example, Isadora could have spontaneously stalked Tristan - out of jealousy or maybe even curiousity - during one of his visits to Selma and had one of her "visions" shortly after. The whole scene would have so much more interesting than Tristan simply telling Isadora what to believe.

Honestly, I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more when I was in highschool. I know some YA books are appropriate for even adults but this one I think is aimed more at highschool age group. There were a lot of funny and realistic school moments, I loved the fact that the students re-named Dick the security guard to Dickhead because I know it's something that would have happened back when I was in school. At the same time though, the book made references to up-to-date technology and celebrities so it could easily be relevant to any teenager now. My favourite character was definitely Sarah, who seemed like a breath of fresh air during Isadora's more immature moments. To me, Isadora only became bearable at the end once she'd figured out who/what she wanted to be - which may say more about my lack of patience with immaturity more than anything else!

This book had so much potential and I feel like it could have been a lot better than it was. I don't know if the book was rushed (I got that impression when I read a reference to Kim Kardashian's divorce which happened just last November) but I think it could still go through revisions and become an amazing book. That being said, it's still an interesting story of the journey of a young girl trying to find herself in an adult world, so I'd still recommend it to a teen interested in YA fiction.

Rating: 

Edit: The cover of Torn has been updated since my book review! Here's the new cover:

I have to say, I prefer the old one since it was a lot cleaner but I understand the concept behind this one more so I guess it makes sense!

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Book Review: Julia Karr's "XVI"

Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world - even the most predatory of men - that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past - one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

This book was suggested to me by a follower on Novel Nerds and took me a while to figure out if it was worth buying. I read the synopsis online on Amazon and whilst it seemed interesting, nothing really grabbed me enough to want to buy it really badly.

I did eventually end up buying it as a side purchase, but as my initial thoughts suggest I didn't fall irrevocably in love. The synopsis pretty much tells you what happens in 70% of the book, which is a shame because I had hoped for a lot more but on the other hand the book is definitely a quick read at 272 pages.

I enjoyed the romance aspect of the novel - first loves are always adorable to read! It was especially interesting since as you can tell from the synopsis; any non-family relationship between a teenage girl and boy is an extremely big deal in the world of XVI; especially for Nina who is completely against turning into a traditional sex-obsessed sixteen year old girl. I also liked the use of "media" and "advertisements" as brain washing instruments used by the Government. It's not something unique since a lot of writer's use the media as a form of control in dystopian fiction, but I felt like it worked really well here.

On the other hand, I felt like there were too many coincidences in the book. The problems in the book all got solved ridiculously easily and because of this the events in the book all happened rapidly. I guess rapid pacing should be seen as a good thing, but it annoyed me because I felt like the author could have spent time on telling us more about the other characters. I was also surprised by the ending - which I hated. Everything happened in a matter of pages and whilst I just found out that XVI will have a sequel called Truth (which will be released January 19th) I'm still not happy. Most of the loose ends were tied in the ending, leaving nothing for your imagination whatsoever. I'm guessing the author will be introducing brand new problems into the sequel but I don't really see the need for it considering the ending.

All in all, I'd recommend the book if you're bored and want to kill a few hours without thinking too much. I'd also suggest buying it from Amazon because in no way would I have been happy to pay full price for it.

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Book Review: K. J. Wignall's "Blood"

For a book called "Blood" I have to say, the contents aren't so bloody...

I was given this book by my sister a couple of weeks ago and didn't expect much. Sure the cover looked interesting, but Vampire fiction is so common these days I didn't even bat an eye. This is another quick read which I managed to finish in less than a day. Once I'd finished it, I felt conflicted. At some points Wignall's writing was like a breath of fresh air, at others I was asking myself why I was still reading.

I liked..

The fact that the main character is written well. The smaller extracts written from Will's perspective are probably my favourite parts of the whole book. I felt like I could understand him and relate to him a lot easier because of them. :) There were a few times when I forgot that he was living in the body of a sixteen year old and had to remind myself. But I don't mind: I  like that Will doesn't try to act like a regular teenager.

Another thing I liked about the book was the fact that not everyone can be made into a Vampire. I'm so sick of reading books where the male Vampire is fighting his girlfriend to make sure she stays human when she really wants to be a Vampire like him. Although the book does use this idea as a plot point, to my delight it doesn't last for long! :)

Superficial point but the cover is awesome. Especially when you're taking a picture of it with flash! ^^

Look at how much the title stands out. It looks friggin' awesome.

Okay so I used a cool camera app, but even with a regular camera + flash the title stood out the most.

I didn't like so much:

The fact that the story line reminded me a lot of Prophecy: Child of Light. It's familiar - at the end of the day both books hold common ground: Vampires - but familiarity was not what I wanted. But I guess that's what happens when a mass of authors write about the same thing - ideas get recycled. On the other hand, if you've read and like either of these books, you'll most definitely like the other one. :)

Another point to note, is that nothing really happens. 288 pages and I'd say 150 of those pages contained anything significant. On the other hand, the book is easy to read so it's easy to read it all fairly quickly. The fact that nothing happens means the book is easy to forget. I'm straining to remember what happened in the book even now and I read it a week ago.

I also feel like the romance between Will and Eloise is a bit forced. It isn't written as naturally as it could have been.


[SPOILER ALERT] Especially their first kiss.. seriously, what was that? From what I can see Wignall is aiming for a fate/meant to be love story but their relationship comes across more like teenage lust for the majority of the book. Even when Will holds her hand and describes their relationship as fate, I felt like the whole scene was really artificial. [END SPOILER]

Lastly, I really really really wish the book had been written completely from Will's perspective. The small extracts written in first person are so much better than the mass of it written in third person. I honestly believe it had all been written from Will's perspective I would have enjoyed reading it a lot more.

-

To conclude, I am very conflicted. I liked reading the book but I'm glad I didn't pay for it myself. Yet, I probably will buy the rest of the series to see what happens because I've already read the first book. It's expensive at RRP £6.99 (definitely not worth that much!) so I'll be buying the next book(s) from Amazon which has it for almost half the price!

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Book Review: Jodi Picoult's "Second Glance"

Before I get started I just wanted to mention that, I bought the hardback of the book and I honestly don't like the cover at all. I'm not really sure who the girl on the front is supposed to be (Lucy?) but even so, I think it was a poor choice. I took the paper cover off whilst I was reading so it wouldn't spoil and I was pretty surprised since the plain blue seemed a lot nicer to look at in my opinion.

ON TO THE REVIEW!

The book is just over 450 pages long and it took me just less than a week to finish this book. I would have finished earlier if it wasn't for the fact that the first half of the book had me awake at night in fear. I don't often tend to read thrillers much less books about ghosts so to begin with, this wasn't a good book for me. I was tempted to drop it simply out of fear, but I really wanted to know if Ross would ever meet Aimee so I stuck around. So if you like being scared for entertainment purposes, this might just be your cup of tea.

The books is made up of 3 parts and I really enjoyed reading part two which was strictly about Lia. Whilst reading it I kept thinking "it all makes sense now!" "I remember that through Ross' perspective!" "Oooh they're explaining one of the clues!" I think it was well written on Picoult's part and she did a good job maintaining the suspense by using this technique.

I also loved that all of the characters were so easy to empathise with. None of them were perfect and all had flaws. Most importantly, there were no real "bad guys". Okay, so you could probably argue against that but I think Picoult justified everyones actions in a way that allowed us to understand their motives. As far as I can see, (name removed to avoid spoilers)'s actions aren't selfish - inhumane maybe - but not selfish as he tries to look for the "greater good". I mean we all have our flaws, some people lack confidence and others find it difficult to draw the line between good and bad.

If I had to pick favourite characters, I'd pick Lia and Ross for sure. Personality wise, they're a pair of downers. But I can't help but love the way Picoult describes their pain and anguish. Neither character is able to deal with death and loss in a healthy way and the result is an ache that I found oddly familiar.

As much as I enjoyed reading this book, there were some things that I disliked. I liked being able to empathise with the characters, but I found it easy to empathise too much. It reminds me of something one of my lecturers said about people committing suicide because of their intense empathy whilst reading The Sorrows of Young Werther. Not that Second Glance made me want to commit suicide at all, I just found myself feeling extremely sad and depressed in real life whilst I was reading this book.

Which brings me on to another thing I disliked: I felt like the book dragged a lot of things on unecessarily. Ross' depression in particular began to annoy me by the last part of the book. I felt like jumping in and slapping him out of it towards the end. As horrible as this might sound, there's only so much of a downer that I can take before getting fed up. I feel like all the excess time she spent on his depression could have been put to better use. More time spent on the ending or the whole novel would have been useful. The conclusion was written rather and sloppily and felt rushed. I feel like most of the things that took place just happened for the sake of tieing up all the loose strings.

I could suggest alternative endings... but it's been a long day.

If asked, I'd recommend this book to someone looking for an emotional book to read or someone who likes reading thrillers and isn't afraid of ghosts! I don't recommend it for anyone who is overly emotional and overly empathetic *cough* like me *cough* :)

Originally written and posted on 10/09/2011 @ Novel Nerds

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Book Review: F. E. Heaton's "Prophecy: Child of Light"

After receiving my kindle I decided to find myself a nice cheap eBook on Amazon to test it out. At the time, I was about to embark on a week of writing essays to meet my final deadlines at uni. The book I would choose would of course be read after it was all over so when I saw Prophecy: Child of Light I was sold. It was cheap (69p!), from the fantasy section and above all about vampires: it was perfect.

The majority of the blurb, the rest that got cut off:

Prophecy: Child of Light is part one in an epic tale of love and war that is sure to capture your heart and leave you craving more.

“A vampire unlike any other" and an "epic tale of love of war": fighting words if I’ve ever seen any (coming from a blurb anyway..) At this point, the blurb alone leaves you full of expectation. Luckily for me, I didn't care too much for the blurb and went in expecting nothing. So when I reached 100% read on my kindle and Heaton had failed to live up to the hype of the blurb, I wasn't surprised.

Prophecy is unique to her world alone; in the real world, Prophecy is just one of many. Vampire novels not only run in abundance in book shops worldwide, within the past few years hundred of authors have spewed out even more following the "vampires are cool" bandwagon. As a result, a unique vampire book had to be something new for even the averagest of joes. My own love (bordering on obsession) of vampires was at it's peak during highschool. So, to me Prophecy’s story felt very familiar and predictable. Heaton like many other authors recycles general plot and story points. As a result I found myself able to prophesise (haha I couldn’t help myself ^^) what would happen next.

The book is written from the perspective of the main characters: Prophecy and of Valentine. Despite being the protagonist of the novel, I couldn’t relate to Prophecy at all. Sure, she’s a vampire and I'm a human so there's not much to relate to at first glance, but any good protagonist (whatever the species) should be able to draw the reader in. I found her to be an annoying character and only continued to read the book because I was rooting for Valentine. His past and history seemed much more interesting than Prophecy's story. I can’t help but wonder how much better the book could have been if written entirely from his perspective.

On a positive note, I did find myself moved slightly by our main couple’s passion towards each other. I wouldn’t call this much of a feat though considering that I’m a pushover when it comes to fictional romance.

All in all, the book fulfilled the task I had for it: it was an easy read. It’s not a must read and in no way is it a must own but if you’re looking for something to simply pass the time, or you want a mindless read to take your mind off a heavier book –perhaps a classic or better yet, a real epic– it’ll do the job.

Originally written and posted on 30/07/2011 @ Novel Nerds

Rating:  

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