Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Intertwined
(Harlequin Teen - Intertwined Book #1)
by Gena Showalter

Genre: Paranormal Romance | Fantasy | Young Adult

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him: One can time-travel. One can raise the dead. One can tell the future. And one can possess another human. Everyone thinks he's crazy, which is why he's spent his entire life shuffled between mental institutions and juvie. All of that is about to change, however. For months Aden has been having visions of a beautiful girl -- a girl who carries centuries old secrets. A girl who will either save him or destroy him. Together they'll enter a dark world of intrigue and danger . . . but not everyone will come out alive.

Aden has spent his whole life in and out of mental institutions diagnosed as a violent schizophrenic. Now able to control the voices in his head, Aden has moved to Crossroads, OK, to live in a halfway house for delinquent boys. His goal in life is to find a means to free these souls and at last be at peace. When he meets Mary Ann Gray, she miraculously acts as a neutralizer, and for the first time in his life, he truly feels normal. Little do they realize that when they first met, their connection sent a power surge throughout the world drawing every paranormal creature from fairies to vampires to Crossroads on a quest for power. To complicate matters, Aden becomes romantically involved with a vampire princess and Mary Ann with her werewolf bodyguard. Together the teens must figure out a way to protect themselves, and all of humanity.

I expected more from this book and sadly I was let down! It took me awhile to catch on the plot & characters - when I did - I was rooting for Mary Ann and Aden to get together, but no . . . instead the two become fast friends, establishing a sibling-type bond - which I just found strange & displeasing since they only knew each other for a few days/weeks. And this was just at the beginning of the book. They weren't the only characters being "forced" together either. Aden keeps having visions of a long, dark haired girl (who he first thinks is Mary Ann) who turns out being the Vampire daughter of Dracula (lame!), Victoria. So, Aden instantly has these insane urges to kiss her (I didn't get into ANY of their "romantic" time together either!) and the story just got sillier, less interesting, and just had TOO MUCH going on from there. I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. I couldn't even finish reading it. . . stopping on page 372 of a 440 story. I just really didn't care about the ending - SAD! None of the characters were believable. The romance was "pushed" upon the kids, even for a Young Adult novel. The story plot was all over that place and had way too many paranormal creatures, powers, you name it and, for once, I didn't enjoy the story going back and forth between two POVs.

Likes: Ummmm? This is a NO NEED READ!!!!

Dislikes: Don't EVEN get me started!

Rating:

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Gone by Lisa McMann

Gone
(Wake Series Book #3)
by Lisa McMann

Genre: Paranormal Romance / Young Adult

Dream-catcher Janie must decide her fate: continue living in society and helping the police but eventually become blind and crippled, or isolate herself completely. The choice becomes even more difficult when her father, in a coma and on the brink of death, comes into her life for the first time and reveals important information to Janie through his dreams. Cabel remains a steadfast and loving companion, and Janie’s mother, a barely functioning alcoholic, plays a greater role in this volume.

Things should be great for Janie--she has graduated from high school and is spending her summer with Cabel, the guy she's totally in love with. But deep down she's panicking about how she's going to survive her future when getting sucked into other people's dreams is really starting to take its toll. Things get even more complicated when she meets her father for the very first time--and he's in a coma. As Janie uncovers his secret past, she begins to realize that the choice thought she had has more dire consequences than she ever imagined.

I sped through the previous two wonderful books in the series (WAKE & FADE), but was majorly disappointed in this one - the last one in the series,too. I felt each book was great at building up the drama and GONE was just a major let down on all over. The plot felt blah, nothing too exciting, the characters weren't developing as much as I would have liked and it was more depressing than anything else throughout. Sure we meet the father and had some dream facts revealed, but you could almost predict what would happen to her already. I read this quickly just to see if anything got better near the end (nope!) and I felt Lisa McMann really pushed Janie & Cabel's relationship to add something to the story that she wasn't getting from the plot. Most Dream Catcher followers will read this to finish the series, but as a stand alone - just don't!

Likes: Can't really remember . . . ?!?!?

Dislikes: Lets see . . . no definitive climax, no closure, & no new material. Blah!

Rating:

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Lover Mine by J. R. Ward

Lover Mine
(Black Dagger Brotherhood Book #8)
by J. R. Ward

Genre: Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy

John Matthew has come a long way since he was found living among humans, his vampire nature unknown to himself and to those around him. After he was taken in by the Brotherhood, no one could guess what his true history was- or his true identity. Indeed, the fallen Brother Darius has returned, but with a different face and a very different destiny. As a vicious personal vendetta takes John into the heart of the war, he will need to call up on both who he is now and who he once was in order to face off against evil incarnate.

Xhex, a symphath assassin, has long steeled herself against the attraction between her and John Matthew. Having already lost one lover to madness, she will not allow the male of worth to fall prey to the darkness of her twisted life. When fate intervenes, however, the two discover that love, like destiny, is inevitable between soul mates.

For me - this book had a very similar plot to Zhadist and Bella's tale of the female being kept prisoner, tortured, and having a minion fall in love with her & then the head-strong male determined enough to come to her rescue no matter what to only afterwords both realize they are truly meant for each other. It's sad to actually see the outcome of these books before finishing the first chapter, but I feel Lover Mine was a sad spin-off of Lover Awakened.

Like most fans, my favorite book of the series was Book #3 (Lover Awakened) and then the series, I believe, began to all go down hill after Book #5 (Lover Unbound). Being a loyal reader, I followed through and somewhat enjoyed John Matthew & Xhex's tale. It was hard seeing JM as a grown man when not too long ago he was still a weakling in training and I haven't been that big of a fan of Xhex before, but her transition in this book changed my opinion of her slightly. It's nice (regardless the crappy read) catching up with the gang and I think that's the main reason I continue with the Black Dagger Brotherhood in the first place. Sadly, as I've been writing this review, my rating of this book has crept lower and lower due to my disinterest.

Likes: Zhadist & Bella with little Nala.

Dislikes: Where to begin?

Rating:

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