2.75-3ish Stars?
Well. That was something. I'm not sure what exactly, but it was something. Honestly the first half of this book and the second half were so far apart I don't know what to think right now. They deserve two separate ratings in my opinion. So you know what.....that's what I will do. With loads of sarcasm, gifs and all around cheesy goodness.
ACT 1
We start out with Daughtry, the MC, having a whopper of a vision. See she, upon touching people, is forced to witness the moment of their deaths. Unfortunately for her, anything that she does to try and help that person typically results in them still dying, only in about 100x worse of a way than they originally would have. Sounds interesting, right?! Yes, yes, this is what I thought too. Give it about 15 more pages. All of the sudden you are thrust in the middle of a whirlwind of an overactive libido and sheer confusion as to what the hell is going on.
Now I am all for getting tossed into some madness in a story, in fact, I quite enjoy that part! BUT if you are going to drop someone suddenly into a world full of monsters, and superpowers and introduce new characters PLEASE don't wait until the halfway point of the book to give us even the slightest idea what is going on.
In the midst of being thoroughly confused we are introduced to some new man meat. Of the hunky, alpha badass, magical variety. We'll just refer to them as Good Cop and Bad Cop. Well Good Cop seemed to have briefly known Daughtry in the past, he delivered a break up note (seriously) to her from his buddy and her fiancé about a year back. But he did stick around to console her for awhile before he poofed out of existence. So he's back now, with a group of nasty magical creatures close on his heels and heading for Daughtry. All the while Daughtry can't help but start mentally drooling all over Good Cop's rock hard body.
So naturally about a half hour after running into her old chum, Good Cop, and in the midst of an attack from these crazy magic wielding beings, Daughtry and Good Cop find time to tongue each other a little. You know, I may have rolled my eyes, but this wasn't my first insta-whatever rodeo, I could have been....eventually.....accepting of it. But no, things couldn't have been that easy. Suddenly, having survived the ambush Good Cop and Daughtry run off to noonewilltelluswhere. Haven't heard of that one you say? It's right next to whatthehellishappeningville.
exactly Charlie Murphy, exactly.
Then we meet up with Bad Cop, another magically delicious alpha. And Daughtry can't keep her dirty thoughts, or anything else away from him. Even as he's being a surly A-hole to her and Good Cop is still there admiring and risking his life for her.
Good Cop's chivalry ultimately removes him from the picture, which makes room for Daughtry to focus all her insta-lust on Bad Cop, no matter how much he acts like she has the plague and begrudgingly helps her not get killed. Did I mention that Dauhgtry is still completely clueless as to where she is jet setting off to and who/what these magical people are? Yet she goes along with it all willingly when there are people right next to her, leading the way with all the knowledge she seeks just not saying anything AND getting annoyed that she has the nerve to ask them about it?! Yeah that's still happening. Naturally Bad Cop starts to come around, meaning that even though he's still surly and seems to genuinely dislike Daughtry, he has moments where he wants to play with her lady bits. All the while between posturing and rubbing herself up on Bad Cop like a cat in heat, Daughtry does continuously pull back once they start something and think about Good Cop and feel the twinges of guilt and wonder if, ya know, he's still alive or okay.
After loads of more of hot then cold and lusty thoughts we finally come upon more magical hot dudes (seriously where is this place and how do I get to there??). Daughtry takes time to drool over them and do some mild flirting, but luckily(?) she's mostly still in lust with Bad Cop. And here is where we reach the second act...
ACT II
YES!!!!! That's right folks, we have finally arrived at the mysterious place, and we finally start to have a grasp on what has been happening. Thank goodness. And you know what? It's pretty cool. All of the sudden the world building that was lacking in the first half is starting to come out and shine in this half! It's pretty interesting, and so is Daughtry and her life once we know more about her than her vagina monologue. She has some pretty awesome gifts, and I enjoyed watching her start to learn about it and wield her own magic. Even Bad Cop starts to look better in the light of Act II. And what they share is pretty damn cool and I WANT to know more about it and see more of it!
Funny enough is that their crazy libidos even take a few steps back while they get to know each other and build a foundation of trust and respect. Who would have thought?! It was hard not to be enamored by this sudden change, and I really found myself excited about turning page after page. It was everything I had wanted this story to be from the get go. Even with as frustrated as I was with Daughtry and her inner monologue, I ultimately started coming around to her. By the end, I wasn't in love with her by any means, but I didn't want to punch her right in the ovaries anymore either. I consider that a HUGE win.
Believe it or not, the last half of the book actually made me want to read the next book in the series. I think that since we are well informed about the world and it's inhabitants now, the second book has a lot of potential to really be great. Without all the floundering and fickleness of attentions, I believe there is a strong story here and I, dare I say, might just look forward to seeing where this crazy train goes.