 | Title: Haven
 Kissing. References to sex.
My Rating:
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Description
A chilling destiny she can’t escape.
A devastating love she can’t resist.
Violet McKenna isn’t a normal girl with normal teenage issues; she has more to contend with than most people could handle. Violet thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She’s had flashes of other events too–the problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.
At Winterhaven, Violet finally feels like she belongs. She quickly finds a close group friends and discovers that they too have psychic ‘gifts’—as do all the students at Winterhaven. But as soon as she feels settled she discovers the most intriguing and alluring boy she has ever met, and things quickly go awry. As the attraction between them grows, intense visions of the boy’s death start to haunt her. In her premonitions, the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself. And to Violet’s horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a critical–and deadly–way.
“You won’t lose me,” I said, taking a tentative step toward him. “No matter what your secrets are, no matter how terrible you think they are, you won’t lose me.”
He reached for my shoulders and drew me against his chest. “I’ll make sure to remind you that you said that, okay? When you’re running away from me as fast as you can.”
Review
I hate this cover. And not because it’s dull, plain, and uninspiring (I still have no idea why there’s a giant butterfly on the front). I hate it because it completely turned me off of this book so that I almost didn’t read it. And then I would have missed out on a story that is deeply romantic and tragic in a way that pierces your heart and makes you long for the impossible.
HAVEN doesn’t really break new grown with it’s plot, in fact it borrows heavily from Buffy, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, TWILIGHT, FALLEN, and to a lesser degree HARRY POTTER and X-Men. But it does combine some of the best parts of those stories to create a book that plucks at your heartstrings, carries you along a dark romance, forces you to chase after a dangerous mystery, and holds you hostage until the very end.
What HAVEN doesn’t borrow are the clichés that litter this genre. We are spared the vicious beautiful clique at the boarding school where Violet transfers. She doesn’t get a long with everyone, but there aren’t any psycho cheerleaders who get off on torturing people. Better still, Violet isn’t some wimpy waif who needs to be coddled into using her abilities. And her love interest, Aiden…it’s impossible to say what I liked so much about him without giving away anything, but the way his maturity is explained so perfectly sidesteps something that always bothers me in YA fiction that I actually let out a sigh of relief.
Bad cover art can’t really be blamed on the author, and I hope readers will look past it and experience the story and characters inside because Paranormal YA doesn’t get much better than HAVEN. Mystery, romance, and friendship tied up in a neat paranormal package. On her website, Kristi says that HAVEN is the first in a planned trilogy. They can’t come soon enough.
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I keep hearing really good things about this one from a lot of people. I know it's on my wishlist; I only hope I can get myself a copy soon before the curiosity drives me nuts!
ReplyDeleteI've been dying to read this book. Great review!
ReplyDeletexx,
E.J.
From the Shadows
Spirit Guide Series
I wasn't going to pick this up because of the cover either. Glad to hear that you like it though. I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteGreat Review! I'm always one that's lured by a pretty cover. I would have skipped this one too!
ReplyDeleteTea and Tomes - Either way, it will be worth it :)
ReplyDeleteEJ - hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I'd Rather be Reading - Yeah, I do not get this cover. It's a complete miss and it's sad that it will likely hurt sales because the story is great.
BADklv - Don't skip it! It's a beautiful story that deserved a cover like FALLEN.
Sounds like a fun read. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTasha @ A Trillian Books
Tasha - It was fun. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.
ReplyDeleteGoodreads has this book in one of their giveaways. Ends the 21st! Great review. I like the cover, but I love butterflies. ;)
ReplyDeleteTiah - Thanks for the heads up :) I like butterflies too, I just think the whole concept of the cover was a miss for this story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this was a mash-up of a lot of concepts we've seen before in YA, but it just didn't work for me. So much of the plot was rather badly taped together, like that whole sequence where she follows her "feelings" to conveniently fulfill that dream she had about Aidan... And it didn't do anything new. It was all just Buffy/VD/X-Men tweaked.
ReplyDeleteAnd lol, their explanation of Aidan's maturity made me laugh. It was such a quick fix, her way of insisting NO THIS ISN'T CREEPY, lol. It doesn't change the facts that make it creepy.
Anyway, interesting review.
Kayla + Cyna - I hear you. It it very familiar ground, but I didn't mind the borrowing. I liked that the author at least tried to address the maturity issue. So often in YA they never do and it always bothers me :)
ReplyDelete