After Christmas, I went a little crazy with the more adolescent-type books. Dash and Lily and this book were both read on my new Kindle, and books can be pretty cheap at the Kindle store. Also, teen books fast reads and usually still entertaining since I am still technically a teenager... I figured that since I'm currently (STILL) in the middle of a Tale of Two Cities AND I haven't finished the last 200 pages of my summer re-read, Anna Karenina, it's probably a good idea to stick with simple reads if I start any new books.
Yes, I am aware of how often I used the word "still" in very few sentences.
This week's book: Providence, by Jamie McGuire.
This book is about a college freshman, Nina, whose father has very recently passed away. Immediately after his funeral, she shares a cab with a random stranger (Jared) who seems to show up everywhere after that. Being a teen fiction novel, it was pretty clear how it would play out. Boy and girl fall in love, they're in love, something gets in their way, they get back together in the end. But I don't want to spoil it for you... Also, in the summary of the book we discover that Jared is actually (dun Dun DUN!) Nina's Guardian Angel, and their love is quite frowned upon. Whilst trying to juggle her love for Jared, her deceased father's uncovered secrets, and a friend who wants to be more than friends, Nina also fights for her life! There is action, adventure, love, and divine intervention.
Ok, this book was pretty cheesy. And pretty predictable. Also, the story is STRONGLY reminiscent of Twilight... even down to the girl wanting to have sex really badly while the boy is against it for his own reasons. It was entertaining enough, but the beginning was rather slow for me. I found the dialogue kind of dry and not realistic. Nina and Jared seemed to fall in love without any sort of background whatsoever. After one date, Jared began calling her "sweetheart". I just don't think that's very real, and the author didn't account for enough space in the book for the romance to grow. Most of Nina's relationships in the book felt like that. Her friend who wants to be more than friends, Ryan, is strangely protective of her and claims a close, intimate friendship as opposed to Jared, whom she "barely knows". The funny thing is that Nina met Jared BEFORE she met Ryan. At least in Twilight, Bella and Jacob had a legitimate friendship and bond grown. Heck, Stephenie Meyer gave them an entire book. Mostly, I just think the author rushed the connection between her characters and it weakened the credibility of the relationships between them. Up until the last quarter of the book, the plot seemed a bit forced and there wasn't very much intrigue. If there was a question, it was usually answered right away. It left really no room for guessing, which is one of my favorite parts.
The book was only 2.99 on the Kindle store, and I (perhaps rashly) bought the second book in the series for 1.99 before I had read Providence. It was better by the end, so I'm hoping Requiem will be a bit better as well.
As for my new blog series and New Year's Resolution of reading a book a week, Reading Riot is a success as of week two! What will be next week's book? You'll just have to wait and see :)
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