Review – Falling Under by Gwen Hayes (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 324 pages
Publisher: NAL
Release Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0451232687
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Falling Under series
Source: Won
Rating: 3/5 stars
I have had this book on my to be read pile for quite a while. This book ended up being exactly what I thought it was going to be. It was a very typical YA paranormal romance. The writing was okay and so was the story; but nothing all that interesting or creative. This is the first book of a duology, the second book is called Dreaming Awake.
Theia leads a very sheltered life with a very strict father. However, things start to change when she sees a boy fall flaming from the sky. Then the burning boy Haden starts appearing in her dreams, followed by his appearance at her school. Theia finds herself drawn to Haden but she knows he’s not normal…probably not even human. Haden is determined to protect Theia from the danger he represents, but is he strong enough to push her away?
Everything about this story was very typical paranormal YA. Theia is your super uptight repressed heroine that has a hidden wild side. Haden is your dark and dangerous yet sensitive bad boy. Right away you know he’s not human but has something to do with demons.
The first part of the book was pretty bad; Theia is constantly making puppy dog eyes at Haden even though he is emotionally abusive and a bit of a stalker (super unhealthy relationship between these two). The second half of the book was more interesting, this is the part where they visit Haden’s home…however I won’t say more than that because of spoilers.
I did enjoy the irony at the end of the story (which ends on a pretty bad cliffhanger). I wish I had known that this was the first book of a duology when I started the book.
Overall this is an okay and very typical YA paranormal romance. The first half of the book is flat out bad and boring, but the second half was more interesting. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading this book, there is much much better YA PNR out there. I won’t be reading the second book in this duology because I just don’t care.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
