Intertwined

Title: Intertwined
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Source: I won this book several months ago in give away.


I'm bad at scheduling my reading. Just so you know. What does this have to do with the novel? Well, you see it sat on my shelves for months waiting to hop out of the to-be-read pile. Then I was supposed to read it as part of the Blogs With Bite book review, but I didn't start reading until the day the reviews were due. I had other books I wanted to finish. Plus with Halloween, and school, and yeah....busy. But finish it I did! Once I had time I was able to finish it easily. The story's title is a great description for how the various plot parts and character relationships connect. It was a fun and easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed.


Things I liked:

1. The main character, Aden,  has learned to cope with the literal voices in his head. He's seen as crazy or a bad kid because of his strange abilities, but really....what teen ager doesn't feel that way sometimes?

2. I like that the main character is trying to be good. So often we are given "bad kid" books that paint the teen in a negative, never wanting to be or do better light. Not so with this one.

3. Loved his female counterpart! Mary Ann negates his powers, brings him peace, and just by being friendlly attracts the protection and romantic thoughts of a werewolf.  Her story is actually much more interesting to me, even though I know that it is only this way when connected to the rest of the story. I really do hope we get to see more of her and her wolf in the next one.

4. Dracula! Ok, so the Grand Sire of Vamps doesn't actually make an appearance in this one, he is scheduled to. When the girl Aden lusts after is Dracula's daughter....well yeah, that should be a fun meet the family scene.

What I didn't like:

1. Some of the fights our hero goes through with other members of the group home are too easily resolved. They seem to be thrown in just to give the character something other than paranormal stuff to worry about and are treated as such. There doesn't seem to be any lingering conflicts or consequences to any of them.

2. The relationship Aden holds with vamp girl just creeps me out. He doesn't seem to actually do things of his own will when around her. While she says repeatedly she's not doing that, it just seem that way. But maybe things will get better when he's himself.

3. Speaking of becoming himself, one of the key plot points is getting the voices in Aden's head out and into their own bodies if possible. This is interesting, but the end result that I'm fearful of is that Aden won't have any powers or anything to make him interesting if the voices (and thereby all their abilities) are gone. I'm not saying this will happen; it's just what my brain seems to think is a possible end result. Please Ms. Showalter don't let this be so!

Overall:  Loved it! I was instantly drawn into the story and it never disappointed. This is one of those novels that is hard to put down and now I'm impatient to read the next.

** This book is also part of my Fall Into Reading challenge list and I'm counting it - sort of- in my NaNoReadMo list.  Only sort of due to reading half of it before November 1st.**