In the annals of dysfunctional families, the Chisholm’s are working their way to the top. Drug abuse, an unwed mother with multiple fathers, and the questionable cash flow for the 'pretty one'. All this from a seemingly normal, two parent middle class family. But were the choices truly made of their free will?Bad choices are a Chisholm family trait, one that confounds the youngest child, Ellie, who's trying to separate herself by making smart decisions. And falling for Oscar Jeffreys, the hottest guy at school, would be number one on the list of Chisholm family disasters. Yet the crazy part is it’s not a one sided attraction. Somehow Ellie has caught Oscar Jeffreys’ eye. Sure she could see the barriers between them. Race, age, popularity. They were at opposite ends of the spectrum. But a demon set to destroy her family? She can't see that.
Oscar provides security and acceptance Ellie never imagined she deserved. As the passion of first love grows, Ellie honestly believes she has a chance to beat the odds and live a happy, normal life. Then her world collapses around her. With the help of a guardian angel, Ellie learns of a world that has unknowingly surrounded her for years. And she'll have to find strength buried deep inside to save not only her future, but flush out and stop the demon in her midst.
And Ellie will have to learn that sometimes the hardest lesson about growing up is accepting that you're worth more.
The cover throws me...really, there's not that much centered around Ellie playing volleyball. At least, not enough to make me think the cover works. I suspect it's to draw in a certain set of readers. I also feel like the high school age/setting is moot. It doesn't feed the actual story. Does that make sense?
(I happen to think if you're going to use "high school" as a setting and "16" as a character age, then it needs to matter to the story. It doesn't in this book.)
Ellie and Oscar are an interesting pair, but far too grown up for high school. Granted, they've dealt with more mature issues in their futures, but they don't behave the way I think high school kids behave (and since I spend 187 days a year with high school kids...). I also felt like Prince got too descriptive in the physical scenes...it bordered on light erotica, and I'm really not that okay with that in this book. I like my YA romance to be less descriptive.
The first part of the book is contemporary romance with some crazy things thrown in. Then, you get to why the story is paranormal. And then everything is driven by that. Oh, and teenagers struggling with sex too much for the rest of the story to be important.
Oh..and then the story ends. I see that it's set to be the first of a trilogy, but it's not even really a cliffhanger, it just stops. I even read the last couple of chapters twice to make sure I didn't miss the cliffhanger.
Overall, this would've been fine as an adult paranormal romance. It doesn't work as a legitimate YA story line for me.
What do you think??
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