Abandoned by her parents as an infant; seventeen year old Hannah spent her childhood wading through countless foster families until being adopted by the Whitmans three years ago.
Unfortunately, Atlanta’s high society wasn’t quite ready for Hannah…or the strange events that plague her.
Chilling visions of murder, unexplained hallucinations, and a dark, mysterious guy who haunts her nightmares all culminate to set in motion a journey of self-discovery that will challenge everything she’s ever believed; not to mention her sanity.
Sent to live at The House of Lorelei on Bald Head Island, NC for ‘kids like her’, Hannah quickly realizes things are not what they seem. Her fellow ‘disturbed’ teens are actually the descendents of mythical Sea Gods and Goddesses. And so is she.
But when Finn, the ghost from her dreams, appears in the flesh; her nightmares become reality and her dark visions begin coming true. Inexplicably drawn to him, she can’t deny the dangerous hold he has on her heart. The deadly secrets he harbors will ultimately test her courage and push the boundaries of her love.
She must decide if she is ready to embrace the ancient legend she is prophesied to be a part of. The fate of all the descendents will forever depend upon it.
Boarding school for 'special' kids, check. Handsome brooding guy who might be bad, but is irresistable, check. Dark mysterious background and secrets that nobody tells the MC about, check. This book was just a ball of cliches, bouncing between one trope and another. Not that I'm saying Forsaken was bad, but as afar as un-originality goes, this takes the cake.
I was taken aback by the start of this book because everything happens so quickly and before we know it, Stasia is at Hogwarts the magic mermaid/siren/mythology school (I don't know what it was), and we're suddenly thrown into this world of magic and secrets and brooding boys. I felt that the storyline itself was good, if pretty predictable, but the pacing seemed very off - at the start it's fast and then it sort of slows down to a snails pace which makes this book difficult to stay focused on about a quarter of the way in, so as far as feeling engaged with this book I can't say it succeeded with me.
That being said, I did enjoy the storyline - these tropes are popular because they work, so despite the fact that it was clear what Finn was and what he does, and it becomes pretty obvious that Stasia is some sort of chosen one, it was still a decent read for the most part. I don't feel like it met any conclusion though, so I wish a little more thought had gone into the ending.
Would I read the sequel? Maybe, depending of the size of my TBR pile at the time. Would I go out and buy it on release day and devour it right away, definitely not.
Forsaken takes on the typical YA recipe and to an extent it works. That being said, it didn't add much to the mix, so there wasn't a whole lot to set it apart from other similar books.
Book released January 28th 2014 by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
