As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?
Basically I picked this book up because it was in the YA section and it was published by the house that I'm looking to get an internship with. Don't get me wrong, it's totally my kind of thing in terms of genre and stuff like that, but it did seem a little "tame" for what I'm used to.
You can definitely tell that this is a new/debut novel. It wasn't bad by any stretch, but there were definitely parts that could have used a good editing. There was a lot of the "we went here, and then we did this, and then we went there" kind of thing, and while the reader definitely became accustomed to the sense of "routine" that these characters were going through, it was harder, later on, to get the sense of shock when something totally busted up that routine and they learned something crazy! Like, i don't know, that they're boss is the freaking DEVIL.
It just seemed like Haven was a little too...cool about everything. I didn't feel her freaking out about the whole "my co-workers are literally demons from hell" thing, and she took the information about her being an "angel candidate" very well. I thought it was also a little strange that, for someone who wanted to get this angel person on her team, Aurelia didn't really try very hard to give Haven the whole "life can literally be everything you've ever dreamed" treatment. Especially for someone who didn't trust her, I would have thought she'd try to have her literally like glued to her side to make sure she's not off doing her own thing and figuring things out.
Things I Liked:
1. I liked the character of Dante, even though he sort of goes AWOL for a majority of the book. He seems the most emotionally and personality charged character in the whole piece.
2. Lucian. I liked the idea of him, but that's kind of all we get for him -an image and an idea. The main character doesn't spend enough time with him to get to know what's actually going on in his head, though.
3. The Lexington. I wish we could have explored it a bit more, because I LOVED the bits of history thrown in, as well as all of the cool passage ways and secrets that it seemed to have.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The Prince and his noticeable absence. I feel like when both Aurelia and Lucian were failing in getting Haven on their side, Satan totally should have stepped up and tried to, like, charm her or something.
2. The Outfit. I wished they'd been more nasty to Haven or something. They needed personalities, otherwise it was just really super boring whenever they were in the scene. I liked when Haven tried talking to Raphaella and Calliope in the beginning though, because that at least let me know that they could actually speak.
Overall Impression:
This was a good first novel. It definitely could have been edited a bit more (it totally didn't need to be 500 pages), but it was a really cool idea and I think it has some good potential for a series. I just want more Dante...and Lucian. I'm really glad he's coming back in the next book. You totally saw Havance coming a mile away, but I kinda want to know more about Lucian. (Not that there's anything wrong with Lance, it was just too obvious).
The Blonde's Rating: 3 of 5
Amazon's Rating: 3.5 of 5
Goodreads Rating: 3.7 of 5
Thanks for reading!
The Blonde
Don't forget to check out the second book in the series, Infatuate, out now.
