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miocenemama's review
3.0
This started out as a typical teenage romance novel with a touch of magic but took an unexpected turn. Dealing with the loss of her father, Anna clings to hope that he might still be alive somewhere. She finds solace in the boy of her dreams and thinks he may help her to cope with all that is going on. He introduces her to a strange world of magic, and her life will never be the same. Just when all she has hoped for seems to be within her grasp, a betrayal so dark and unexpected leaves her wondering if she can ever find happiness again. At the end with the help of her friends, she finds she can be her own hero. I love the message of female empowerment. I was not as fully engaged at the beginning as I would have liked, but I'm glad I kept reading. I really enjoyed the end. I plan on recommending this book to others.
elpisgalaxy's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
3.75
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I have some mixed feelings about this book. The premise of the book sounded interesting which was what drew it to me right away. However, I found that it took a while before the action the premise promised actually took place. It mostly consisted of teenagers doing common activities that happen during winter break such as partying by the lake, or going ice skating.
That being said, Anna's interactions with both her friend and her crush Alex ended up being more important to the story than initially suspected. Alex was an interesting character but he constantly set off my alarm bells and I was glad to see that I wasn't overreacting by the end of the book. The latter half of the book also had a bunch of plot twists that I didn't really see coming at all which overall made up for the slower and weaker beginning part of the story. Overall I'm looking forward to reading more as there are some loose ends that haven't yet been tied.
I have some mixed feelings about this book. The premise of the book sounded interesting which was what drew it to me right away. However, I found that it took a while before the action the premise promised actually took place. It mostly consisted of teenagers doing common activities that happen during winter break such as partying by the lake, or going ice skating.
That being said, Anna's interactions with both her friend and her crush Alex ended up being more important to the story than initially suspected. Alex was an interesting character but he constantly set off my alarm bells and I was glad to see that I wasn't overreacting by the end of the book. The latter half of the book also had a bunch of plot twists that I didn't really see coming at all which overall made up for the slower and weaker beginning part of the story. Overall I'm looking forward to reading more as there are some loose ends that haven't yet been tied.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death of parent and Injury/Injury detail
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