A review by emleemay
A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

2.0

On the plus side, I have managed to complete one of my winter challenge books on the very first day it started. And no, I didn't cheat, I listened to all seven boring hours of this thing - sorry if you liked it, but this book is just dull.

It wasn't the cheesy romance, it wasn't the whole angels and emphasis on religion thing, it wasn't even the annoying voice of the audio narrator... it's just that this story is so blah. So very very blah. Haven't I read this story a million times? Don't I know these characters from nearly every other paranormal romance book? The lovestruck heroine, the hunky love interest, the supposedly quirky but mostly uninteresting best friend?

Apart from a few small annoying things that can be said about a lot of young adult novels (particularly of the paranormal kind), there isn't anything really awful that I can pinpoint specifically, hence the rating of two stars instead of one. But I will have forgotten everything about this book tomorrow. In fact, I'm already in the process of forgetting it... I just had to go back and check up on a couple of names to remind myself of the characters. Not good.

The audio narrator in this case does not do the protagonist any favours. She plays upon her whininess, and makes her sound all the more immature and completely (ridiculously) in love. I can only guess that she thought this sounded cute but, unfortunately, it did not. Also, she never changes her voice for different characters, even though several are male and one is meant to have a British accent. I'm not very experienced with audiobooks but aren't you supposed to be able to tell which character is speaking?

The best part of this book is when Charlotte's skin is peeling off - which should tell you a great deal about my interest in this story. As for the rest, her "steamy" encounters with Harlin, the discovery that she is one of the Forgotten... I really just didn't care.