I bought this book on Amazon a while back. It took me a while to get around to reading it, and now that I have read it, I am kicking myself that it took me so long!
Publication Date: September 27, 2011
Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this one, with a few reservations.
In a nutshell, I loved:
The plot! When I read the description of this one, I thought it had potential because the premise seemed really fresh and interesting, and in that respect the book delivered. The flashback scenes with Mara and her now-deceased friends were deliciously creepy, and I definitely stayed up way too late reading on more than one occasion because trying to figure out what happened in the accident was making me crazy.
Big, big fan of the cover - it's beautiful and stark and creepy and it really fits the tone of the book. Generic covers are a pet peeve of mine so I appreciate when a cover really works, as this one does.
And I really was not a fan of:
Noah, at least in the beginning of the book. He had some pretty cringe-worthy lines, and I know he was supposed to be all badass or whatever, but honestly it just wasn't working for me. Every time he opened his mouth I rolled my eyes, hard.
I also wish secondary characters had been better developed. Most of Mara's family felt pretty one dimensional to me and that was disappointing. Her father was never around, so I kind of understand not knowing much about him, but her mom was very present and I feel like she was still pretty flat. Maybe that will change in the next book.
Also, I don't quite know how to address this without being totally spoilerish or incredibly vague, and I really try hard to avoid spoilers here, so I apologize in advance but this will make sense after you've read the book.
There is a scene toward the end of the book involving Mara's younger brother that is just... really not well incorporated into the rest of the book, at all. It kind of felt like a chapter that the author wanted to include somewhere, could never quite find a way to make it truly fit, and finally just shoved it between two chapters and moved on. I understand why she included it, but she needed to find a way of accomplishing her goal that was more organic to the story. This just didn't fit, at all, and it really pulled me out of the story.
Reading over this review I feel like I touched on a lot of negatives, but this was a really enjoyable read for me. The romance was a little lackluster but I thought the premise was really different and that held my interest. I will definitely read the next book in the series, and I'm looking forward to it. Though I must admit, if Noah sticks around I am sincerely hoping that he gets a personality rehabilitation.
What did you think of this one? Am I the only one sort of hoping a new love interest shows up in the second book?
Recent Comments