Friday, December 28, 2018

Born at Midnight by CC Hunter ~ Review



One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…





This story is almost eight years old.  The same age my blog turns next month.  As a matter of fact, I bought this book almost eight years ago.  And it sat on my shelf waiting it's turn.  And I really wish it hadn't have had to wait so long.  Because it's a really good story.  And I'm not the only one that feels that way.  There are over 75K ratings and over 4K reviews on Goodreads for this book.  It averages above 4 stars after EIGHT years.  That's amazing.  But I'm also glad I waited to read this story.  Why?  Let me tell you.

First, I've been in slump.  I'm not sure it was slump so much as a streak of reading meh books.  I began to think it was me that had the issue and not all the really bad books I was reading.  So I called it a slump.  And I hid in the pages of old favorites to deal with my reading need.  I was afraid to read a new book for fear it would be just as bad as everything else I'd read lately.  Then I was wondering through the bookstore looking at YA books.  And I found this book.  This book that's eight years old.  And I remember that I owned this book.  And I went home and found it.  And I got stuck in it's pages.

Second, I'm really glad that the whole series is out and I can just beige read it.  AND there's a spin off series I can dig into after that.  

Finally, it's clear I've just been reading the wrong books.  I need to refocus my book choices to the things I really enjoy.  

You might wonder why this book is good.  I'll tell you.  It's got great characters.  I love the struggle that Kylie is facing as she tries to deal with who she really is.  I even love her indecision as she tries to decide which boy she likes.  I actually really like both Derick and Lucas.  I have a preference but I could be okay with either choice.  Derick is there for her a lot.  A good friend.  Lucas has the mystery about him and he's not everything Kylie thinks he is.  There's enough of a difference between them for her to be confused.  I like that struggle.  It feels real despite this book being paranormal.

I'm a very character driven reader so it's important that I see the characters as real.  But the story needs to be there too.  It's not just the beginning of a story.  There is a whole story here.  Yeah, I want more.  I have questions and the next book I read will be book two but this one ends in a good place.  And the important threads of this book have answers.  The mystery of who Kylie is evolves slowly and while there is no answer yet, a big question has been answered.  There's nothing left that I'm growling about not being answered.  It's clear they will be answered.

The pacing felt like it was right for this story.  Things unraveled as the characters could handle it.  I had a hard time putting the book down and read it over just a couple of days.  And like I said, I definitely want the next book now.

It's nice to stumble upon a book, a series that can draw you in and make you happy.  This one has that effect.  Books don't need to be just released to be good.  And I'm really glad I found this one at the exact time that I found it.  Maybe you need this book now too.



                                  

2 comments:

  1. I loved your review. This book has been at the top of my TBR prospects since the fall, but I still haven't read it. I am going to have to fix that in the new year. I think that I should start reading older books that I have been wanting to read forever. I'm glad that you enjoyed this one. I hope I will too! =)

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    1. I really hope you love it too! I think I miss so many good books chasing the new releases. I'm stopping that. Thanks for stopping by.

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