by Jamie Magee
Before that fateful summer night, Willow had balanced the insight of emotion, and the vivid images. That night, the figure in her nightmare marked her wrist with a star, giving her father no choice but to tell Willow a family secret that would abruptly change life, as she knew it, forever. Before Willow had time to absorb the shock of her father's secret, her soul mate that had shared every stunning dream with her, found her, and darkness captured her closest friends. In order to save them, she must weave through broken myths and the undeniable power of the Zodiac. In the end, Willow discovers that at the moment of our birth we are all given a divine gift.
This was probably more of a two and a half star rating. I had a hard time getting through this one. It just couldn't seem to grab my attention. Over and over I found myself a bit bugged by a missing factor. The author had all the parts but the transition was missing. It was just too easy to keep my distance. I am not sure exactly how that could be fixed. I am sure you know what I mean. There is a huge difference between a book that follows the rules and a book that pulls you utterly into its pages. I have read so many outstanding books that make sleep or eating seem unimportant. This wasn't one of them. Perhaps, a bit more editing would have done the trick. Or maybe everything just seemed to perfect and the crisis too weak.
In some of the reviews I have read people didn't like that Landon and Willow were so suddenly completely in love with no follow up. While it wasn't my favorite, I felt the author did a good job of explaining why this was. At the same time the author has created a so called perfect world in which things sometimes tend to go astray. For instance the fight between Landon and Willow was just awkward. It seemed to me that this should have been impossible. This book did also remind me a bit of Personal Demons. Not in the way you are probably thinking, however. Mainly, I got tired of hearing about how everyone smelled in that book. Similarly, in this book I got tired of hearing how everyone felt. There is a point when something has been repeated a bit too much. The same thing happened in Leven Thumps. I get it he is a toothpick you don't have to keep saying it. You have to read it to understand. So yeah a bit irritating.
As the book progressed I found it a bit easier to stay focused. Whether this was due to better development or my sheer will I couldn't say. I did grow almost fond of some of the characters and will be interested to see if they get developed a bit further in the books to come. Maybe other things will come together as well.The book was a clean read although a bit off from the beaten track. Marriage is not practiced and the parents go from overprotective to completely okay with their little girl moving in with a teenage guy. That was hard for me to swallow but I was used to it by the end of the book.
