*This title will be released on February 22, 2010*
 | Title: Haven
Author: Kristi Cook
Series: Haven #1
Cover Art: N/A
Genre: Paranormal YA
Excerpt: Yes
Source: Publisher
Reviewed by: Abigail - Reading level: Young Adult
- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Simon Pulse (February 22, 2011)
- ISBN-10: 1442407603
- ISBN-13: 978-1442407602
Sexual Content:
Kissing. References to sex. My Rating: 
Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & pre-order the sequel.
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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.
| Previous Books in Series | Also Reviewed By: |
- N/A
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