Scan barcode
deniserjack's review
4.0
I started off really enjoying this book. I did find the details of the care of their dog on the trip to Scotland unrealistic. I find it hard to believe that one person could carry a crate with a husky in it very far. Also, after a long flight the dog would be taken out of the crate and walked on a leash yet in the story they continue to carry the crate. A minor detail, I know, but it disrupted the flow of the book for me.
I'm a little disappointed that so many supernatural creatures are being introduced. I liked the fact that it was a ghost story. That's what made the story different. It's still very good, but by complicating the story it is becoming more like the average YA book.
Overall a good read. If the next book were available I would read it immediately to see where the story goes.
wildflowerz76's review
2.0
Holy hell. This is going to be long and full of spoilers later on.
First off, I got this book because someone on my FB FList posted CONSTANTLY about it for months (and evidently grew up in the same county with her, so I did also, though I'm much older) and it finally came up as either really cheap or free on Amazon for the Kindle, so I d/l it. I do MOST of my Kindle reading at the gym or at home on the treadmill. So when I finished my previous Kindle book, I started this one early this week and just read it at the gym until last night when I finished the PB book I was reading. So, I made more notes on the last 1/4 of the book than the beginning.
So, an overview, before I get picky: The story is a girl and her brother who are rich and neglected emotionally by their parents are barely introduced when their parents die in a car crash. The parents leave a house in Scotland to their daughter, making her guardian for her slightly younger brother. They move to Scotland where there are all sorts of supernatural creatures. This book could seriously do with a good editor. Some of the language was misused, both in grammar and in context. The plot is so full of holes I could use it as a strainer in my kitchen. Both main characters are incredibly annoying and not sympathetic at all. In fact, none of the characters were all THAT interesting and they all continually made stupid decisions. Let's get to the random points I noted, shall we? Spoilers will be from this point on:
-Overall, it annoyed me how these kids were on an island that was only reached by a ferry that went to several islands, but people seemed to show up instantly all the time, as if the ferry was always at the dock on the main island waiting for them and went directly to the island, though it was explained in the beginning that this wasn't the case.
-In the beginning, the will said "oldest daughter" and "youngest son" even though they were supposedly the only 2 kids. Maybe that's alluding to something to come, but it didn't make sense.
-Why aren't they questioning why the parents gave everything to the daughter and nothing to the son?
-There was a ballet term in the beginning that was completely incorrect and I know NOTHING about ballet. (I looked it up because it sounded wrong.)
-The ballet detail served no real purpose and wasn't talked about enough to just make it a defining characteristic of Nora, so it was un-needed.
-Ezra tells them as they're leaving her house that they should "fiend" for themselves? Maybe she's going for the Scottish accent here, but it didn't make sense.
-When they get to Ezra's, they're there for several hours. But when the vamps show up, Ezra says they must have followed them? And sat there for hours?
-They say every time, even from a vamp, that anyone can kill a witch, but then later on say that vamps can't because of the witch's blood.
-I think it was Andrew that was telling Nora about Hunter's past and he referred to Hunter's mom as the Lady Hunter or something similar when Hunter was the son's first name, not the family's last name.
-Why would that drained witch get on a ferry and come all the way to Na Mara when she was dying? And why would the ferry driver LET her when she was so bad off?
-When the vamps showed up at Ezra's, they had to run for it. Really. The humans are going to run from the vamps? And they do!
-Also when the vamps showed up at Ezra's, she knocked out Kieran so he couldn't be controlled, but when they run away from the vamps, he runs too.
-Nora's a dumbass. She falls for the Kodiak thing TOO many times.
-When Max shows up, she talks to him like she knows him well when she only met him that one time.
-So, Max says that he doesn't age past 18. Then I thought, well where did he get the shifter thing from? His dad knew about it, so it seemed like maybe from there, but wouldn't they notice that his dad wasn't aging either? But then I realized that he could just shift to be older. But if he could do that, why didn't he? And if he could shift and look like someone else, why wouldn't he have done that when he came back so Hunter would think he was someone completely new?
-The Governess just LEAVES behind a really valuable knife? Bullshit.
-Even if Andrew had shamed his family by killing himself, wouldn't they have redressed him to bury him and found the knife?
-Sure. Hunter would let only 2 people in on the secret of the knife and one of them would be the best friend of his enemy who was buried with it. Makes perfect sense.
-New vamps can't enter the area or risk starting the second war. And Max was in America when that happened. But he came in to the area pretending to be a vamp and didn't start another war.
-Max said Hunter didn't tell anyone about the dagger but him and another vamp lackey. Then he says that he told all the vamps during the first war.
And that's just stuff I noted in the last 1/4 of the book. There were plenty of those moments in the beginning that I didn't make a note of because I was on the treadmill and reading. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was because I did manage to finish it. I had to...it was like a train wreck.
First off, I got this book because someone on my FB FList posted CONSTANTLY about it for months (and evidently grew up in the same county with her, so I did also, though I'm much older) and it finally came up as either really cheap or free on Amazon for the Kindle, so I d/l it. I do MOST of my Kindle reading at the gym or at home on the treadmill. So when I finished my previous Kindle book, I started this one early this week and just read it at the gym until last night when I finished the PB book I was reading. So, I made more notes on the last 1/4 of the book than the beginning.
So, an overview, before I get picky: The story is a girl and her brother who are rich and neglected emotionally by their parents are barely introduced when their parents die in a car crash. The parents leave a house in Scotland to their daughter, making her guardian for her slightly younger brother. They move to Scotland where there are all sorts of supernatural creatures. This book could seriously do with a good editor. Some of the language was misused, both in grammar and in context. The plot is so full of holes I could use it as a strainer in my kitchen. Both main characters are incredibly annoying and not sympathetic at all. In fact, none of the characters were all THAT interesting and they all continually made stupid decisions. Let's get to the random points I noted, shall we? Spoilers will be from this point on:
-Overall, it annoyed me how these kids were on an island that was only reached by a ferry that went to several islands, but people seemed to show up instantly all the time, as if the ferry was always at the dock on the main island waiting for them and went directly to the island, though it was explained in the beginning that this wasn't the case.
-In the beginning, the will said "oldest daughter" and "youngest son" even though they were supposedly the only 2 kids. Maybe that's alluding to something to come, but it didn't make sense.
-Why aren't they questioning why the parents gave everything to the daughter and nothing to the son?
-There was a ballet term in the beginning that was completely incorrect and I know NOTHING about ballet. (I looked it up because it sounded wrong.)
-The ballet detail served no real purpose and wasn't talked about enough to just make it a defining characteristic of Nora, so it was un-needed.
-Ezra tells them as they're leaving her house that they should "fiend" for themselves? Maybe she's going for the Scottish accent here, but it didn't make sense.
-When they get to Ezra's, they're there for several hours. But when the vamps show up, Ezra says they must have followed them? And sat there for hours?
-They say every time, even from a vamp, that anyone can kill a witch, but then later on say that vamps can't because of the witch's blood.
-I think it was Andrew that was telling Nora about Hunter's past and he referred to Hunter's mom as the Lady Hunter or something similar when Hunter was the son's first name, not the family's last name.
-Why would that drained witch get on a ferry and come all the way to Na Mara when she was dying? And why would the ferry driver LET her when she was so bad off?
-When the vamps showed up at Ezra's, they had to run for it. Really. The humans are going to run from the vamps? And they do!
-Also when the vamps showed up at Ezra's, she knocked out Kieran so he couldn't be controlled, but when they run away from the vamps, he runs too.
-Nora's a dumbass. She falls for the Kodiak thing TOO many times.
-When Max shows up, she talks to him like she knows him well when she only met him that one time.
-So, Max says that he doesn't age past 18. Then I thought, well where did he get the shifter thing from? His dad knew about it, so it seemed like maybe from there, but wouldn't they notice that his dad wasn't aging either? But then I realized that he could just shift to be older. But if he could do that, why didn't he? And if he could shift and look like someone else, why wouldn't he have done that when he came back so Hunter would think he was someone completely new?
-The Governess just LEAVES behind a really valuable knife? Bullshit.
-Even if Andrew had shamed his family by killing himself, wouldn't they have redressed him to bury him and found the knife?
-Sure. Hunter would let only 2 people in on the secret of the knife and one of them would be the best friend of his enemy who was buried with it. Makes perfect sense.
-New vamps can't enter the area or risk starting the second war. And Max was in America when that happened. But he came in to the area pretending to be a vamp and didn't start another war.
-Max said Hunter didn't tell anyone about the dagger but him and another vamp lackey. Then he says that he told all the vamps during the first war.
And that's just stuff I noted in the last 1/4 of the book. There were plenty of those moments in the beginning that I didn't make a note of because I was on the treadmill and reading. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was because I did manage to finish it. I had to...it was like a train wreck.
More...