Lailah

This review contains SPOILERS. Read at your own risk. This is going to be another one of those difficult three-star "I didn't hate it but I didn't love it" kind of reviews. I have some mixed feelings about this book. I liked it well enough, but it left me a little unfulfilled in some areas. First off, this did not feel like a young adult book. It's labeled young adult, but the main character is about 200 years old. Sure, she's stuck in her 17-year-old body, but she has lived much more than that. Her mindset was not that of a young adult in my opinion. I felt that some of the things that happen in the story are just too coincidental and unlikely to seem realistic. For instance, the main character happens upon a vampire in distress and she helps him for no reason at all. Then she proceeds to offer up her own blood to help heal him since there are villains after him. She doesn't know him from a hole in the wall, but there she is risking her life for someone, a vicious vampire mind you, for no good reason at all. It was completely unconvincing. Then in the same scene, she proceeds to further the unbelievable when she takes a bullet for the vampire. For NO REASON AT ALL. Yes, that's right. And it gets more unbelievable when the one person that she has been having visions about for the entirety of her existence just happens to be one of the friends that were on their way to help this vampire. So there's that. It was just so far-fetched that I almost didn't continue reading since all of this plays out at the beginning of the book. This book has a really bad case of telling the reader instead of showing the reader. What this book does well is change things up with a compelling take on angels and vampires. I can honestly say that their histories in this book are unlike anything I've read before regarding either angels or vampires. I have to applaud the author for the originality. And the background on these creatures in her story is actually quite convincing and definitely piques the interest. Another great quality of this book is the character development. The main character goes from being completely alone to having some semblance of a family and has the desire to protect them in the end even if it means her demise. The only thing that was iffy for me in this area was that I really didn't feel much for the main character. I could see her growth as the story progressed, but I didn't really feel a connection to her. The best thing about this book for me was the romance. There is a love triangle in this one, and it was actually rather enjoyable to watch unfold. As long as love triangles are written well, they are okay in my book. I had a lot of issues with this book but overall it was an okay read. I have enough interest to want to read the next book in this series, but as to when that will be, I can't say. If you are a fan of paranormal then this might be something that wins you over. It has enough good qualities that I would recommend it.

Loved this book and am a big fan of Nikki's. Such a talented writer!

Started there and it was amazing. Nikki Kelly is talented, amazing, and original in all aspects. I HIGHLY recommend this.