Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they’re doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.
But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas.
As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren’t always clear or easy. And as for “good” and “evil” – it all depends on how we choose to act.
As with most paranormal romances that I read these days, I'm kind of torn over Thrall. On one hand we have an original premise (I haven't seen Lilitu done in YA before, though I have seen succubi in adult PR books.), we also have awesome action scenes and good, though simplistic writing. However, on the other hand we have the execution - not bad, but I did feel like I was reading a retelling of like most books of this genre. Bear in mind that I read well over 100 books a year, and a large number of these fit in this genre, the whole 'reading the same story' thing gets old. I understand that it's difficult for a paranormal romance author to separate itself in such a overflowing genre, but this whole new guy/girl in town has secret, secret ends up being something to do with our MC, MC end sup being responsible for the fate of the world as we know it!! Yeah, I must have read that hundreds of times.
Then there's the romance, which was very shallow and underdeveloped. I did like that this book takes place over a longer timespan than most YA books, but even that couldn't save the lack of chemistry. Also, Braedyn was very selfish even getting involved with Lucas when he doesn't know shes Lilitu since she could, ya know, kill him with her kiss... I'd like to see more development in Lucas in the sequel if I have any chance of liking the couple in this book.
That being said, I didn't NOT enjoy this book. This was a good read and I got through it pretty quickly. Quintenz's writing is good, if not a little simplistic at times, and whilst there were a few small editing errors that must have slipped through the net, there wasn't anything bad or offensive about the writing. I was particularly impressed by the writing scenes, I never seemed to get lost in the action because Quintenz managed to describe what was going on whilst keeping the pace high, particularly in the climatic battle.
I really enjoyed watching Braedyn battle herself - she has these awesome powers that could be used for good or evil, and that's the choice she has to make here. Sure, she makes some stupid decisions (Parker!!) but that just makes it more believable, and I am looking forward to seeing what she chooses in Incubus.
Overall, this book is a pretty evenly balanced book. there were some annoying flaws such as the execution and the romance, but the writing and character development of Braedyn seemed to even it out, so I'm going to give this book a pretty even rating.
Book released 16th May 2012 by Secret Tree Press
Book received from the author in exchange for an honest review
No comments
Tell me your thoughts on the post, the book, the world. I like volcanoes, feel free to tell me about volcanoes.