~3.5 stars~
I liked this story. I’d been looking for an insta-love story, but of the paranormal kind. I really liked this one.
I really liked the premise of having a significant, who is your soul mate and your perfect match. In many stories now-a-days, when a person finds their “mate,” “true love,” or “soul mate” you get couples who try to fight it because they don’t want to be with that person, etc. and it annoys me. This is the person who you are meant to be with! But not here. Maggie and Caleb can’t stand to be apart from each other—quite literally, because otherwise they’re in pain.
Maggie isn’t a stupid weakling, but she understands why Caleb is sometimes a bit protective of her and is smart enough to cooperate and listen. Caleb isn’t an over-protective caveman, he listens and he pays attention. Everything he does is for Maggie—she’s the only one that matters to him right now. Caleb is sensitive and listens and I really, really liked him for Maggie—they really complemented each other well.
Kyle… Kyle annoyed me. A lot. I realize that this was probably what was supposed to happen with this character, but I just wanted to keep him away from Maggie for ever and ever. Seriously. He needs a slap upside the head.
One thing that I really didn’t like in this story was Maggie’s father. His sudden recovery from being a bad father for a year is solved by seeing his daughter be with a boy she’s serious about? And then he acts like he cares and like he wasn’t a complete ass-hat for a whole freaking year but he forced Maggie to work her butt off in high school so she could pay for clothes and food! What? And then Maggie forgives him because she knew he was having problems?
I had to stop reading for a bit. He is her father. He shouldn’t have been an ass for the past year and then “whoops, sorry, everything’s back to normal now.” I had a hard time accepting that.
Once I got past his speedy recovery into fatherhood, I just tried to pretend like it never happened and that he was just a normal father. Once I did that, I was able to continue reading (though I did get really mad at him throughout the book). If I pretended like that whole year of ass-hattery didn’t happen, he was actually a good dad who cared about his daughter.
Another character I didn’t like was Bish, Maggie’s brother. Where does he get off on acting like Maggie’s father? Finally, when Maggie’s father is on board and everything, now he decides he’s going to be telling Maggie what to do. No. Nope. Not happening. I understand he’s concerned about his sister, but maybe there is a reason her father and Caleb’s family isn’t worried. It’s 50-ish against one for a reason, jerk.
(The ending, by the way, left me mad at Bish and Kyle, for many, many reasons.)
Phew. Rant over.
I loved the whole idea of this story. Having a significant, getting special powers, it was all amazing. I loved the two ‘clans’ and everything. Even with Maggie’s father and Bish, I still enjoyed this story and all of the obstacles Caleb and Maggie had to go through, and I liked the main characters immensely. I am looking forward to reading the next book.
(review of free book)