Swoon

Main Characters:  Candice (aka Dice), Penelope (Dice’s cousin and her body ends up possessed by Sin), Sinclair (aka Sin, and a ghost driving Dice to get revenge against those that killed him under/from the tree Penelope falls from).

Main Premise:  From goodreads (because here was a book that I liked so little, I am not spending the time writing it myself):

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut…until Dice’s perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She’s intensely drawn to him — but not at all crazy about the havoc he’s wreaking. Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent — and irresistible — adversary, before the whole town succumbs to Sin’s will. Only trouble is, she’s in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?

Locations:  Swoon Connecticut.

Other Important Things to Remember for Later:  Sinclair used to be a ghost and is now a Golem.  And I don’t know what else.  And I refuse to re-read it.  I don’t even know if I will read Swear.  But I thought I would be prepared just in case.  I think a sequel will be a stretch, so I think we’ll just have to wait a see how the second book comes about.

Review:

I thought it was well worth the read – for about the first half.  I stuck with it though because I was so eager to see how is was all going to work out. And then I realized there were only a few pages left in the book. So, I thought: Ok, being set up for the sequel. And I guess, the author might be able to get a sequel out of it (well, lets face it, it’s virtually impossible to not be able to get a sequel out of most books in this genre). But, I read the last 3 pages and then said to myself “WTF?” and I said it adamantly.  I mean, for real? That’s how it’s going to end? I loved that the writing was pretentious – and that they were attendees at a public high school. Although the freedoms that the characters enjoyed seemed a little ridiculous at times, it was still pleasant to read. But, the threat of Sin’s maliciousness was really just a looming threat, with no substantial meat to it in the end. I had visions of some great nasty revenge with a twist like in Sweeny Todd (or even without the Sweeny Todd twist, just some good ol’ fashioned behind-kicking revenge) – or of some great redemption. But did I get it? No. Was the mushy middle of the road, not really resolving anything, but somehow Sin and Dice are in love and so someone lives happily ever after, I guess – really the way to go? I didn’t appreciate it taking that direction. I felt let down. I didn’t wish I hadn’t read it (like another book I finished recently, where I want my $ back!) but I do feel pretty “gipped” with the way it ends. And Pen – what happened to her? I am also not sure I get the whole time travel thing – that wasn’t really explained. Well, neither was anything about the Golem – which might have given more depth to the book on the supernatural front (and therefore I would have enjoyed it more; I like books where I get context and the “rules” of the supernatural world we are working with, but didn’t get that here). 

The profanity was used sparingly – which helped get the point across when needed. And the author nicely didn’t shy away from the realities of teen sex – but it wasn’t graphic and doesn’t need to go on the “trash” shelf in my book case. Malkin gave me enough for a nice mental picture – and I got to know and really feel for Dice and Pen.

So, I was torn between 1 and 2 stars. Because I won’t donate the book to the local library but keep it in case I ever think I might get more out of re-reading it, I will go with two.