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snoopydoo77's review against another edition
1.0
1 ½ ★
Okay this is one of the example why I should not trust a “rating” on Goodreads anymore.
I requested this book as a review cop, because it has such a high rating on Gooodreads and even better on amazon.
I should have known once I read the prologue and read the word Fu$k at least twice that something is up, considering it is labeled YA. Now I don’t mind, even as a mom, (my kids know better), but I know there are some people that mind it.
Anyhow, the rest of the book was just really awful, and I’m really sorry, because I really hate leaving bad reviews but I have to be honest here and wish more people were when it comes to reviews. I have no idea how this book has such a high rating.
To start with, the author spends a lot of time using big long and over used words to describe things, places .events and character’s feelings. The characters themselves seemed blah and very two dimensional. I found it very hard to connect to any of them.
It sure seemed they seemed to stare and “gaze’ at each other a lot throughout the book.
Here are just a couple examples:
“My eyes were lost in his and his in mine, exploring unknown places, and I feared I wouldn’t be able to contain the emotion that flooded through me.”
“From that distance, the intensity of his gaze almost hurt.”
“His gaze was like a lasso around my heart. Powerful and dark. For a second I thought I was lost in forbidden and unknown realms."
It sure seemed like throughout the whole book the word “GAZE” was used a million times.
But I think what bothered me the most about a book was the second Gemma sees him, not even speaks to him she is completely losing herself. She doesn’t even know yet if he is real or not (her words) and yet she is so fixated on him for weeks. Four in fact, it goes so far that she is pulling away from her best friend over a guy she saw for maybe a minute and don’t know if he is real or she was just seeing things. What kind of “role model” is she supposed to be?! A guy defines who you are and what you do in life. Don’t think for yourself. And it is completely okay for him to show up at night while you sleeping and watch you?! Stalker …. Not boyfriend material.
Overall the book was just not my cup of tea, way to much angst, even for a YA …… way to many overused words. The characters are just blah or can’t think for themselves.
They story leaves much to desired for and often didn’t make sense. Why would the Angle of Death and his buddies have to enroll in High school, just so he can be close to her??? There are plenty of other ways to do that.
I might be just all wrong and am the only one who doesn’t like it but this book was definitely not for me. I also would not recommend it to any of “my” friends.
I rate it 1 ½ ★
readlovereviewblog's review against another edition
3.0
This young adult paranormal fiction has similar tropes to the Twilight Saga. But it is about a reaper with a human lover and defying fate for love. I found the story very surreal and a struggle to get connected with. I did like the author embraced the love triangle, supernatural, and forbidden love all quite clearly. I won't be reading any further in this series.
This book was recommended to me by a Facebook ad, and I noticed it because of the like Twilight advertising. The series seems to be 4 books with a spin-off and some short stories.
This story starts out tragic, with Evan narrating the moments on the bait in the lake where he takes the souls of the teens he drowns. He is the Angel of death. We begin the story from his point of view. He runs into Gemma on his next mission, and it seems she can see him in his ethereal form.
Gemma is an anomaly in Evan's existence. Still, she is a human who lives to read paranormal books and take photos. Evan has a few brothers who stop by Drake, crass, and Simon, who seems to pick up on his emotions. They immediately know something is up with him. The author wraps up his supernatural nicely with grim reaper adjectives and talk of scythes. This gets twisted as she is now his next order.
When we switch perspectives to Gemma, the writer uses a different font, but it is harder to read. This book has. Surreal quality as the main characters jumps between real life and a dream world but doesn't know reality. The high-school scenes at Lake Placid high seem to be building to something, but not much is happening so far.
This book is a half-ghost story and half reality, and sometimes I think Gemma is losing it. We finally switch back to Evans's point of view, and maybe some of these unexplained phenomena will be explained for those of us who are confused.
One second he is resigned to his fate and takes, and the next, his moves are a surprise. But then we are back to the love triangle / forbidden love and the high school immaturity. I'm honestly not sure where this is going and how. I admit the tropes are similar to twilight, but it doesn't have that enchanting quality that sucks you into the story.
The book gets exciting with quite the action scene. There are sown really suspenseful scenes toward the end of this book. However, I don't blame her for wanting the truth. The truth does finally come out, and of course, Gemma is in life or death danger. However, they do end up living happily for now.
This book was recommended to me by a Facebook ad, and I noticed it because of the like Twilight advertising. The series seems to be 4 books with a spin-off and some short stories.
This story starts out tragic, with Evan narrating the moments on the bait in the lake where he takes the souls of the teens he drowns. He is the Angel of death. We begin the story from his point of view. He runs into Gemma on his next mission, and it seems she can see him in his ethereal form.
Gemma is an anomaly in Evan's existence. Still, she is a human who lives to read paranormal books and take photos. Evan has a few brothers who stop by Drake, crass, and Simon, who seems to pick up on his emotions. They immediately know something is up with him. The author wraps up his supernatural nicely with grim reaper adjectives and talk of scythes. This gets twisted as she is now his next order.
When we switch perspectives to Gemma, the writer uses a different font, but it is harder to read. This book has. Surreal quality as the main characters jumps between real life and a dream world but doesn't know reality. The high-school scenes at Lake Placid high seem to be building to something, but not much is happening so far.
This book is a half-ghost story and half reality, and sometimes I think Gemma is losing it. We finally switch back to Evans's point of view, and maybe some of these unexplained phenomena will be explained for those of us who are confused.
One second he is resigned to his fate and takes, and the next, his moves are a surprise. But then we are back to the love triangle / forbidden love and the high school immaturity. I'm honestly not sure where this is going and how. I admit the tropes are similar to twilight, but it doesn't have that enchanting quality that sucks you into the story.
The book gets exciting with quite the action scene. There are sown really suspenseful scenes toward the end of this book. However, I don't blame her for wanting the truth. The truth does finally come out, and of course, Gemma is in life or death danger. However, they do end up living happily for now.
yodamom's review against another edition
1.0
I wish I never "Touched" it.
I waded through extreme simile hell to get to the end. The blatant similarity to Twilight. They don't makes boots high enough for me not to get soiled in this muck.
What is with these 5 star reviews ? This is the worst writing I've read in a long time. Every page seemed to have at least two similes, and most were so ridiculous.
"....his heartbeat raced like a pacemaker gone haywire."
"...like a ghost that had to come to haunt him, and decided to go back inside."
"... their conversation continued to buzz around in my head like a pesky fly."
"loneliness like a valiant knight."
"..like a termite boring its way into wood."
Deep breath----
Okay let's talk about the idiotic nick names, Squirrelicue, Wild Thing, Pet... AUGH ! Was this supposed to be clever ?
Flat uninteresting characters, ridiculous lines, idiotic story line, overuse of words, similes and Arguh, it was just awful.
I was asked by the author to write an honest review
I waded through extreme simile hell to get to the end. The blatant similarity to Twilight. They don't makes boots high enough for me not to get soiled in this muck.
What is with these 5 star reviews ? This is the worst writing I've read in a long time. Every page seemed to have at least two similes, and most were so ridiculous.
"....his heartbeat raced like a pacemaker gone haywire."
"...like a ghost that had to come to haunt him, and decided to go back inside."
"... their conversation continued to buzz around in my head like a pesky fly."
"loneliness like a valiant knight."
"..like a termite boring its way into wood."
Deep breath----
Okay let's talk about the idiotic nick names, Squirrelicue, Wild Thing, Pet... AUGH ! Was this supposed to be clever ?
Flat uninteresting characters, ridiculous lines, idiotic story line, overuse of words, similes and Arguh, it was just awful.
I was asked by the author to write an honest review
itssimplymegandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ba_'s review
2.0
It was a struggle to finish. The writing got on my nerves and I ended up skimming over some of the longer descriptions just to get finished. Some scenes were wayyy longer than necessary, while others were confusing with not enough detail. The characters were a bit flat. The plot overall was interesting but I couldn't get past the writing to enjoy it.
jenna_rinck's review against another edition
2.0
I really tried to like it
First of all, im confused how these two realised they loved each other so fast after like 3 interactions and stare downs. Not believable- I rolled my eyes when she said it because it was such nonsense.
There was a miscommunication about who dates who that even as one finds out about the miscommunication, still never clears up by 60% through the book. So unnecessary....
I think 10% of the book could have been taken out if we didn’t go into SO much over-explained extra detail about how they felt about each other in dream sequences. I thought i must have been rereading the same pages because it lulled so much saying the same things over and over. They love each other for no organic reason, we get it.
I will nit be continuing my journey. I wanted to like it, i just could not connect to these two.
First of all, im confused how these two realised they loved each other so fast after like 3 interactions and stare downs. Not believable- I rolled my eyes when she said it because it was such nonsense.
There was a miscommunication about who dates who that even as one finds out about the miscommunication, still never clears up by 60% through the book. So unnecessary....
I think 10% of the book could have been taken out if we didn’t go into SO much over-explained extra detail about how they felt about each other in dream sequences. I thought i must have been rereading the same pages because it lulled so much saying the same things over and over. They love each other for no organic reason, we get it.
I will nit be continuing my journey. I wanted to like it, i just could not connect to these two.
thebooktrollop's review
DNF... I just couldn't get lost in this book. I tried, I really did, but when you use every single descriptive word to describe a scene or even a pair of pants, I am over it. Don't do that. It was too much.
lauraew333's review
3.0
Thank you to the author, Elisa S. Amore, and publicist of Touched for gifting me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!
This book just wasn't for me. You may ask why I still gave it 2.5 stars and that's because I could definitely see myself loving this book two years ago. As a more mature reader that's becoming more and more immersed in more complex YA, NA, and Adult books, I think I'm leaving behind these kinds of novels. Let's get into it!
1. The plot. In the blurb, it says this book is based on a Norwegian legend. Now, I'm not an expert on Norwegian legends so I won't even try to go that route. But what I don't understand is why it's always the guy in a heterosexual relationship that has to be the mysterious one with powers. This book also felt incredibly long; almost as long as the Eragon series felt (the first book is 503 pages which this book is 462 pages). With that being said, this book has a very start and go type of flow. There are multiple climaxes and plenty of description in between. This made the book tremendously easy to read in some places and slightly difficult in others. Overall, though, I do like the direction the plot took. While it was slightly typical, I found that it was still enjoyable. The ending is also something I want to address. While I liked it for the most part, I thought it a little strange that it ended without even referencing Gemma's friends. It's like they ceased to exist once Evan came into her life (except for brief cameos).
2. The characters. I did like the characters themselves. While slightly underdeveloped for a book of this length, they aren't inadequate and are quite at home in the setting that's set up. Their dialogue and interactions flow well together (with exception in the romance which I'll address next). I enjoyed getting to know Evan and Gemma as well.
3. The romance. Now this is where my problems come in and where I think someone else would be better suited for this book. The romance was insta-love, true and simple. However, it had that fantasy element in it which makes you think there's some else going on in their relationship, however we never really get any explanation on that front (perhaps in the next book?). Furthermore, Evan's attitude toward Gemma and telling her the truth about him really irked me. It's an important conversation that he just couldn't accept which leads me to believe their relationship was much too advanced, too soon, but again, there wasn't really any information there. Two years ago, I loved these types of relationships with the mysterious guy who swept the girl off her feet. But now, not so much.
4. The writing. The writing of this book reminds me of LOTR because of all the descriptions and the flowery language. I loved how, when I was in Gemma's head (there are two POVs, Gemma's and Evan's), more flowery language was used to illustrate her expanded vocabulary because of her reading habits. I just loved how that was showcased. On the flip side of that coin, however, is the potential for being too drawn out. If you don't like that type of writing, I'm not sure how you'd get along with this book.
The Final Verdict:
While I didn't enjoy the romance of the book, the core building blocks are well installed.
2.5 stars
This book just wasn't for me. You may ask why I still gave it 2.5 stars and that's because I could definitely see myself loving this book two years ago. As a more mature reader that's becoming more and more immersed in more complex YA, NA, and Adult books, I think I'm leaving behind these kinds of novels. Let's get into it!
1. The plot. In the blurb, it says this book is based on a Norwegian legend. Now, I'm not an expert on Norwegian legends so I won't even try to go that route. But what I don't understand is why it's always the guy in a heterosexual relationship that has to be the mysterious one with powers. This book also felt incredibly long; almost as long as the Eragon series felt (the first book is 503 pages which this book is 462 pages). With that being said, this book has a very start and go type of flow. There are multiple climaxes and plenty of description in between. This made the book tremendously easy to read in some places and slightly difficult in others. Overall, though, I do like the direction the plot took. While it was slightly typical, I found that it was still enjoyable. The ending is also something I want to address. While I liked it for the most part, I thought it a little strange that it ended without even referencing Gemma's friends. It's like they ceased to exist once Evan came into her life (except for brief cameos).
2. The characters. I did like the characters themselves. While slightly underdeveloped for a book of this length, they aren't inadequate and are quite at home in the setting that's set up. Their dialogue and interactions flow well together (with exception in the romance which I'll address next). I enjoyed getting to know Evan and Gemma as well.
3. The romance. Now this is where my problems come in and where I think someone else would be better suited for this book. The romance was insta-love, true and simple. However, it had that fantasy element in it which makes you think there's some else going on in their relationship, however we never really get any explanation on that front (perhaps in the next book?). Furthermore, Evan's attitude toward Gemma and telling her the truth about him really irked me. It's an important conversation that he just couldn't accept which leads me to believe their relationship was much too advanced, too soon, but again, there wasn't really any information there. Two years ago, I loved these types of relationships with the mysterious guy who swept the girl off her feet. But now, not so much.
4. The writing. The writing of this book reminds me of LOTR because of all the descriptions and the flowery language. I loved how, when I was in Gemma's head (there are two POVs, Gemma's and Evan's), more flowery language was used to illustrate her expanded vocabulary because of her reading habits. I just loved how that was showcased. On the flip side of that coin, however, is the potential for being too drawn out. If you don't like that type of writing, I'm not sure how you'd get along with this book.
The Final Verdict:
While I didn't enjoy the romance of the book, the core building blocks are well installed.
2.5 stars
georgilvsbooks's review
5.0
"What are you willing to sacrifice when the only person who can save you is the same one who has to kill you?
Gemma and Evan.... A forbidden love. Doomed from the start.
"He looked like an angel, yes, but one of darkness"
I have so much love for this story, from start to finish I was intrigued. Evan and Gemma reminded me of "Edward and Bella" from the Twilight series. And "Romeo and Juliet"
There was quite a few freaky bits that made me shiver.
And I swear I was having palpitations over Evan and Gemma's fate!
I loved Evan and his beautiful charm. His way with words got me every time.
A really good read. Can't wait to get my hands on book 2.
5*****
If you love reading about angels and romance, this is the book for you.
Gemma and Evan.... A forbidden love. Doomed from the start.
"He looked like an angel, yes, but one of darkness"
I have so much love for this story, from start to finish I was intrigued. Evan and Gemma reminded me of "Edward and Bella" from the Twilight series. And "Romeo and Juliet"
There was quite a few freaky bits that made me shiver.
And I swear I was having palpitations over Evan and Gemma's fate!
I loved Evan and his beautiful charm. His way with words got me every time.
A really good read. Can't wait to get my hands on book 2.
5*****
If you love reading about angels and romance, this is the book for you.
ayshin's review
2.0
I could not finish the book. As I was reading it, it felt familiar somehow. I couldn't place why it did.
Then it hit me... it made me think of Twilight...
So instead of vampires, it's the Angel of Death. And it's all about how one couldn't live without the other. It's like everything goes away when one is thinking of the other. Evan James seems like a stalker and keeps telling Gemma how he isn't good for her and so forth. It felt repetitive, not only concept-wise, but the characters' behavior. For example, Gemma kept sensing him but he was nowhere to be found and then he shows up mysteriously and he tells her that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings.
Then it hit me... it made me think of Twilight...
So instead of vampires, it's the Angel of Death. And it's all about how one couldn't live without the other. It's like everything goes away when one is thinking of the other. Evan James seems like a stalker and keeps telling Gemma how he isn't good for her and so forth. It felt repetitive, not only concept-wise, but the characters' behavior. For example, Gemma kept sensing him but he was nowhere to be found and then he shows up mysteriously and he tells her that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings.