Book Description
Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:
One can time-travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the future.
And one can possess another human.
With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now they're causing him all kinds of trouble. Like, he'll blink and suddenly he's a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he'll change the future. Or he'll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she's going to die.
He's so over it. All he wants is peace.
And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, as long as he's near her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He's a loner; she has friends. He doesn't care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it's too late....
Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own, and a vampire princess Aden can't resist.
Two romances, both forbidden. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger but not everyone will come out alive....
Review
Book 1 in The Intertwined Series
Pick your paranormal poison: ghosts, zombies, werewolves, vampires, faeries, witches. They are all packed into Gena Showalter’s (Lords of the Underworld series) paranormal YA series debut INTERTWINED.
The concept of INTERTWINED is killer; the main character, Aden Stone, has four souls living inside him and each one possesses a different supernatural ability. Unfortunately, the execution of the souls was DOA for me. There’s the mom soul, the horny soul (who says ‘day-um’ every time he sees a hot girl), the pessimist soul, and then the other soul who didn’t even get a clichéd one note personality. Fortunately the souls didn’t have tons of dialogue.
If your not a fan of male protagonists, fear not. The story is told from the shifting POV’s of both Aden and the girl who can quiet the souls inside him, Mary Ann Gray. I appreciate that Gena didn’t make obvious choices in INTERTWINED and kept the mystery of her characters throughout the book, giving both Aden and Mary Ann their own distinct lives and problems to overcome.
I was less of a fan of how complex the story was at times while trying to balance out the multiple story lines and romances (yes, that’s romances as in plural. More on that later). I could actually see it working much better if Aden’s and Mary Ann’s stories had been in separate books.
Another issue I had was that the mythology of Aden and his souls is never fully explained (perhaps that will come in future books). Whereas I found the origin myth for vampires and werewolves to be fascinating in an Underworld sort of way, but tweaked just enough to be unique to this world.
As I mentioned above, we get two romances in INTERTWINED, each couple having their own obstacles to overcome and own pacing. I can’t go into more detail with out spoiling part of the book, but I think both of the male love interests were eminently crushable and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how these relationships grow in the future.
Overall, the plot was complex and a bit complicated, the souls never given more that cursory personalities, but we do get a 2 for 1 romance and a new twist on vampires and werewolves. It’s far from a perfect book, but I still enjoyed it enough to want to read Unraveled when it’s released on August 31, 2010
Sexual Content: References to sex. Teen pregnancy. Kissing.
My Rating (out of 5):
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.
Click HERE to read an excerpt from INTERTWINED
Product Details
Reading level: Young Adult - Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Harlequin (September 1, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0373210027
- ISBN-13: 978-0373210022
- Cover Art: N/A
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