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young adult book reviews & more

Falling Under by Gwen Hayes

Falling UnderTheia Alderson has always been a very sheltered girl. She’s rarely allowed to go out with friends, let along leave the house often, and boys have never been in the picture. Everything changes, though, when Haden Black moves to town. It’s not just the fact that Haden is undeniably gorgeous and dangerously alluring, but the fact that Theia has dreamed about him—before they actually met. Theia doesn’t know how this is possible, or how she can spend every night with him in an outlandish dreamscape that feels strangely real. And no matter how hot and cold Haden’s feelings toward her run, Theia is finally sure of her own feelings, even when she discovers the truth of Haden’s nature. But will her love be strong enough to save them both?

Falling Under, though yet another paranormal romance, is still a mostly enjoyable read. For all that this novel seems to be the generic tale of “girl meets and falls in love with insert-paranormal-creature-here”, Hayes still managed to surprise me pleasantly on several accounts. Firstly, an early scene in the novel led me to believe that the love interest, Haden, was a fallen angel, so I was actually excited to learn the truth of the matter. Haden’s actual paranormal heritage then led to a new world rich with cruel dangers and possibility. There were many additional surprises that I enjoyed, but most of which are too integral to the plot to be revealed. Although I quite enjoyed Hayes’s plot development and background, her characters fell a little short. Theia and Haden were realistic enough to begin with, but their deeply conflicted emotions from the middle to the end of the story caused them to go back and forth a few too many times. This caused me to become a little detached from the story by the end, which is when a lot of the real excitement happened, which was unfortunate, because I couldn’t appreciate the plot as much. Overall, Falling Under is not bad for a debut novel, and I look forward to more from Hayes.

Falling Under may be enjoyed by fans of 13 to Life by Shannon Delany, Need by Carrie Jones, and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from publisher Penguin

1 munch(es) :

Charmaine Clancy said...

I like the splash of red on the cover.

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