Goodreads Description:
“Mara cannot remember anything about the night her friends did. All she knows is what she’s been told: they went to an abandoned asylum, the building collapsed, and only Mara survived.

Two months later, Mara is eager to move forward with her life in a new town, but that’s easier said than done. A boy at school named Noah Shaw seems to know more about Mara’s tragic past than she does. And to make matters worse, Mara is beginning to see people and things that can’t possibly be there. Or can they?

When Mara goes searching for answers, she discovers a secret about herself that is most unbecoming. A secret that promises a future full of destruction, pain, love, evolution, and ultimately, retribution.”

Okay so let me start with that fact the I devoured these books! I read all three in a matter of days, I spent a whole Saturday reading (and finishing) Evolution. That being said I did greatly enjoy these books… Despite the reviews I read on Goodreads. Yes I do think that this series had some flaws, but in general I’m glad I took the time to read them. Alright so the good….

The Good…

1. NOAH SHAW… I just can’t… Oh my god… Enough said! Now I am someone who falls in love with fictional characters easily, but I don’t think that I have been this in love with a character since, I don’t even know when. The part separated on Retribution almost killed me, even though I did feel it was nessecary for the development of the book, but still 300 some pages without him…ahhhhhhh…

2.This book kept me on my toes. Not one of my predictions came true. I feel like in this day and age it’s hard for an author, especially a YA Author, to do this and for me to be completely sideswiped by things. Michelle Hodkin did this very well.

3. I liked the evolution of Mara as a character. From waking up in a coma and not understanding what was happening to her to evolving to a character that is willing to sacrifice herself because she know this is what is right. As she pieces memories from the past and present from her eyes and her grandmothers eyes together to form the image of what happened to her. I find her reactions and actions to things happening to her down to earth and normal, she isn’t overdramatized, like some of the other over popularized female leads in YA novels.

4. The science in this book, although completely unrealistic (come on now, how realistic can the idea of a “superhuman gene” be) I felt like Michelle Hodkin covered most of her bases pretty well.

5. I loved the fact that in the end Noah and Mara represent opposites, the hero and the villain, the destroyer and the healer…actually this might be my favorite part of the story. The whole series Noah is trying to help Mara figure out what is happening to her and how to deal with it, while she knows that in the end she will only end up hurting him. Noah and Mara come learn to fight the bad in their life, Jude and Dr. Kells mostly, but while fighting not only the common enemy but Mara’s ability as well they come to discover that each one of them is a little bit more messed up then they thought. However, despite this in the end even though they both know it will destroy them they choose love.

The Bad…

1. I think the only thing that I didn’t particularly like about this series was that the first book, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, started out great had some very strong moment to draw you into the book (the dog and her owner and Morales). From this the story line looses steam and the rest of the book is about Noah and Mara and their romantic relationship…now I’m not saying this isn’t and important part of the story however, I don’t think that the story line needed to focus solely on that for the rest of the book. More events or something could have added to the excitement of the first book.

Overall, this book series is definitely one I would recommend to anyone who likes YA, romance, and supernatural reads. I really did enjoy reading them, and the series is very intricate and has so many ends that tie together it is hard not to provide spoilers. Anyway go out and read them yourselves I don’t think you will regret it!

~Kaytlyn

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book from NetGalley.

I was very excited to receive a copy of this book, the description was fascinating and Lisa Lutz is a well known author, so to say I was excited going in was an understatement. I really did enjoy this book, however, I felt like it was missing some of the spark that all the other thriller/mystery novels that are so big lately have.

This book opens up with they death of Tanya Dubois husband, he has fallen/been pushed down a flight of stairs, and Tanya on the run even though she states her innocence. This beginning is strong and had me hooked from the get go, I like nothing more then a nice death to start out my thriller novels, however as the story moves forward it looses quite a bit of that momentum.

The characters Lisa Litz creates in this book are all fascinating, from all the identities that Tanya travels through during her journey in this book to the people she meets such as Blue and Domenic. I also loved the writing style Lutz brought into this book.

Where this book fall a little flat for me is that throughout Tanya’s journey the storyline loses a little bit of its thriller quality and it becomes a little more focused on just Tanya, or whatever identity she is using at the time, living her day to day life on the run. Yes, there are points where the story picks up, and I genuinely enjoyed these parts, but overall I felt that they were far and few between and it was hard to keep me engaged in these lulls. On top of that throughout the story you have added in communication between Tanya’s character and a mystery many from one of her past life’s that drops hint on why this whole story began. I felt that these did add an element of suspense to the story, however, I felt that the overall ending was not as climatic as I would have liked.

Overall, like I said I did enjoy this book and it was an interesting read, I just don’t think that it will be jumping to the top of my favorite thrillers list anytime soon.

View all my reviews