I was given this book for an honest review. I give this book 3 stars.
There is a lot of hit and miss with this book for me. I think that the concept is fascinating and original. One thing that really bothers me about the YA or New Adult genre is that many times, the main female character is so whiny with that “woe is me” attitude. You know the one right? Where only her issues are the most important? Where if any other person in her life has any similar issues, she mistreats them, or gets angry or just flat out whines? Well, Raven Stone is just like that. The entire book I felt Raven was constantly nagging or whining because she “just didn’t understand…” and “why aren’t these pills helping the hallucinations?” etc. For the first third of this book, I was genuinely confused. I felt that some concepts could have been explained a bit more, rather than Raven and the reader figure it out together. Even at the end, I was left with a “wtf” look on my face….because, seriously, WTF?
I don’t want to give a book report. Anyone can read a book and give a synopsis. I think the synopsis given with the book, suits it well enough. What I will give you is this:
Damian is WOW….I would take some of that any day of the week! The tension written into the book between Raven and Damian is spot on if you love romance in your reading. It was that hot tension that you feel when you watch Bones, between Bones and Booth…or Dr. House and Dr. Cuddy…you know the tension right? Where you are ready for them to just give into their primal urges and knock boots already? (Yeah, yeah…I know…this is a 16 yr old girl and a 17 yr old boy…but let’s face it, we have all been there at that age…it doesn’t make it any less real!). The entire time I read Beyond, I was waiting patiently to see what would happen between these two. I was so caught up in them, that my confusion didn’t matter. I read this book rather quickly, simply because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I didn’t necessarily love the book enough to give it a 4th star, but I believe that a lot of YA/Paranormal Romance readers will enjoy this book.
I enjoyed this book, but I have a hard time with Raven’s character type. I just wish, for once, that the female characters would be stronger, and more take charge, and not this damsel in distress. I would devour any book that gave me that (Like the Graceling Realm series…). I think too many books these days are writing weak female leads, it is atrocious! Girls that age should be reading about strong female characters, that yeah life might suck sometimes and ‘shit might get real,’ but we can do this! That age is confusing for girls, it is difficult…so why not have a character faced with the same adversity, that has a stronger character structure? That is why I gave it 3 stars.
I also feel that the story line itself could use just a bit more fine tuning. It is a little rough around the edges, but it was still enjoyable, and as I said before, I think that a lot of readers of this genre will enjoy it. It was nice to read a different kind of YA/Paranormal romance other than wolves, vamps, and even though I love me a good fallen angel read, it is nice to implement something that is more real, like ghosts (I live in Ghost Capital…so yeah, I believe…). It makes you think, can these ghosts really hurt us?
Happy reading! And based on that ending, I will be moving on in the series because I want to know what happens between Damian and Raven! (yum!)
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