Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Review: Haven by Mary Lindsey

Book info:
TitleHaven
Author:  Mary Lindsey
Genre:  YA Paranormal
Release Date:  November 7, 2017
Publisher:  Entangled Teen
Source:  Finished copy received from publisher
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
"We all hold a beast inside. The only difference is what form it takes when freed."

Rain Ryland has never belonged anywhere, He’s used to people judging him for his rough background, his intimidating size, and now, his orphan status. He’s always been on the outside, looking in, and he’s fine with that. Until he moves to New Wurzburg and meets Friederike Burkhart.
Freddie isn’t like normal teen girls, though. And someone wants her dead for it. Freddie warns he’d better stay far away if he wants to stay alive, but Rain’s never been good at running from trouble. For the first time, Rain has something worth fighting for, worth living for. Worth dying for.

My Review:
So I first saw this book at Apollycon last March, and it had a totally different cover:





So when I received the awesome box of cool stuff that you see at the top of this post, you can understand why I was a little unsure what the book was, and possibly why I was receiving it.  Now don't get me wrong, as surprise packages go, this was one of the best!  But at first I did not connect the book in the box with this cool cover I had seen earlier in the year.  However, while I do really like this cover with the girl on the front, in all honesty, the final cover probably is a better fit, as well as a more lasting, less trendy cover.  

This was my first book by this author, and I am pretty sure I am going to now be going back to get my hands on all her past titles, as I was very impressed with this one.  I was barely over 20 pages in when it sucked me in so that I was hard-pressed to put it down when I had to go back to work at the end of my lunch break.  There was a part that was reminiscent of one of my favorite movies from the 80s, The Lost Boys, which only sold me on the story even more.  I loved that the characters were not just perfect people.  They had their definite flaws, and there were definitely reasons that you could see them not getting their happy ending.  In fact, there is a point in the book, where all the signs, including a prediction from a psychic character in the book, show you that there will be death where things are ramping up to the final conflict.  

In the end, there are the ones you thought could not be forgiven, would be the ones you hated and wished would stay out of the way, that will earn redemption.  There are those that you don't see coming, both on the side to help our heroes, as well as those who will be in the end to try to keep things from going the way you want.  

Such a great read that now I'm torn between donating the copy I received in the mail to the school library where I work, like was my original plan, and keeping the copy for myself, to get signed when I get to see the author again at ApollyCon this coming March.