Mundie Moms

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Book Review- Haven

Published by Simon Pulse
Released on February 22nd, 2011
Source- Bought
3 stars- It's A Good Read

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first (quoted from Goodreads).

Haven has a great mix of paranormal characters, and I liked how they're all brought together to attend the private Winterhaven school for the "gifted". The secondary characters are fabulous! They're "real", supportive and just fun characters to read about it. I had a really hard time with Violet and Aidan's characters. I couldn't picture them in my mind, like I could for Joshua or Cece, Violet's roommate, and I felt more connected with the supporting characters than I did with main ones. I'm not quite sure what is about Violet that I didn't enjoy. With Aidan, I liked getting to know his past history, but I couldn't get past my bias about him to really like him. The way he acts reminded me of another beloved YA character (leaving out spoilers), and had I been able to separate the two I think I would have enjoyed him more and possibly even felt the "Aidan effect", which sadly didn't happen for me. I was also annoyed with how hot and cold Violet and Aiden's relationship was through out the story. I think part of my problem was hearing all this hype about Aiden, and then not feeling it as I was reading about him.

I really enjoyed the setting, Winterhaven, a private school for truly unique and gifted students. Think X-Man, but for paranormals. I liked the mesh up of talent and the variety of characters there. It wasn't hard to picture the school or the beautiful school grounds in my head. I can't forget Aidan's house. I would love to see his house in person.

Kristi's writing flowed well for me and it did keep my interest. I liked that she threw in minor twists to keep the story exciting. Just as I thought I had something figured out with Aidan or Violet, I liked the other twists that were added to make each character's gifts truly unique. I was pleasantly surprised with the direction Kristi took her story. In the beginning I felt that there were too many similarities to some other YA books, which I felt took away from the book having a unique voice of it's own, but with the second half I felt the book grew into it's own and I was more engaged with the story. The only thing I wanted to see more of in the end was a longer fight scene. I felt it was too built up to have it end so quickly.

Haven is a good read and I can see what the draw is about the book. Do not let the cover fool you, though I think I may have missed what it has to do with the book. I'm looking forward to reading more of Kristi's YA books, and the next ones in the series. I would recommend picking Haven up, as I think a lot of YA fans will really enjoy the story. There is some mild language and a reference to a non graphic sensual scene. I would recommend this to teens 14 & up.

Weekly Feature & In My Mailbox

Our Weekly Feature and In My Mailbox- Instead of just posting about what we received in our mailbox each week, we also wanted highlight some of the coming week's features on Mundie Moms. Our Weekly Feature will list some of the things we'll have on Mundie Moms for the coming week, like reviews, author chats, interviews etc (which are also listed on our right hand side bar).


Don't miss the next stops in the The Vespertine blog tour. The tour will be going on through out the month and we will be chatting with Saundra on the 31st here on our blog and Saundra will be wrapping up the tour on the 1st of April on her blog. You don't want to miss her awesome giveaways.

Interviews-
We'll be posting our interviews with Lisa McMann from her Cryer's Cross tour, and our interview with had with Rachel Hawkins and Sarwat Chadda on Friday before their signing in Houston.

This week's features-
* Afterlife by Claudia Gray
* Beautiful Dead (3) by Eden Maguire
* Moon Spell by Samantha Young
* River Crest by Samantha Young
* Divergent by Veronica Roth
* Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

In My Mailbox- (In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren where we share what books we've received through out the week either for review, that we purchased, borrowed or were gifted.
For Review-
* Clarity by Kim Harrington, published by Scholastic, released on March 1st, 2011
* May (Daughters of the Sea #2) by Kathryn Lasky, published by Scholastic, released on March 1st, 2011
* CHIME by Franny Billingsley, published by Dial, to be released on March 17th, 2011
* Illusions (Wings #3) by Aprilynne Pike, published by Harper Teen, to be released on May 3rd, 2011

BOUGHT-
* Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins (bought 2 for signing, one for a recent giveaway winner)
* Haunted by Joy Preble (signed)
* The Hidden Gallery (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, book II) by Maryrose Wood

Thank you to Scholastic, Penguin and Harper Teen for this week's awesome reads. What goodies did you receive this week?

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