This is yet another series that I have been coaxed into beginning based on one of Amazon's .99 cent Kindle book deals. I even read a few reviews on Good Reads first, but did not heed the warnings, thinking "But its only .99 cents! How bad could it be for a buck?" Little did I know I was sealing my own fate, and forcing my hand to embark on a 5 book journey of frustration and annoyance. My first mistake was thinking that if I read the first book, and found it shitty, I would have the power to say to myself "I did not like this, I will not buy the next books, I do not need to know what happens, because I know that I am not going to like it and I am just going to be 12 bucks poorer and even more pissed off." I have no such will power.
I read in someone's review of the first book of the series, Ethereal, that it was written like bad fan fiction. I find this to be an accurate description. The main character and narrator, Skyla, is possibly one of the most irredeemable characters in the series. She is shallow and entirely selfish, and lacks any sort of understanding for the consequences to her own actions. Yet somehow the 2 most gorgeous guys in school are in love with her. Go figure.
I found the initial love interest storyline irritatingly straight forward in the beginning. Moore offers no build up whatsoever with the love story, and suddenly they're just making out. Realistic in a teenage world? Yes. Builds an intriguing and well developed storyline? No. Anyway, that is the least of my worries as the story plummets into a gross (and I mean that both ways) amount of lovey dovey, insanely jealous, getting his name tattooed on your butt cheek, writing your name out with his last name and all kinds of heart doodles and shit, teenage musings. Which I wouldn't usually find so irritating if there wasn't a way more awesome and redeeming love interest. Gage, the one that seems to keep getting shit on, is probably the only character that seems to be an actual good person. Not to mention his undying and unconditional love for Skyla makes him even more endearing. I am currently half way through book 4 of the 5 books so far, and Skyla has continuously just been… kind of a ball of shit to him. Although things are starting to mildly look up, I am reading into some foreshadowing that I am not going to be pleased with if it rolls out that way. I cannot stand for this! I promise, I will throw my Kindle across the room if that is how it ends up. For real. Okay… I won't really throw my Kindle… but I will throw something less expensive and important. Perhaps a pillow… or a ball or something. I get to vent my frustration, and the dogs get to have fun… its a win, win. Like I said, it has been a brutal back and forth with the one character I actually like continually being dumped on, so the series has been really difficult to make it through, even though I can't stop myself from reading, because I must know what happens. Also time travel ends up coming into play… and almost anything that involves time travel becomes immediately convoluted. I feel as if this is sucking the life out of me. Usually I would wait to review until I finished all of the available books, but I had to vent some frustration here asap.
I will say though that it does seem like the writing and story line are getting better as the series progresses (either that or I have become accustomed to the awfulness and don't even notice anymore, hopefully not). That being said… I really don't know if I could recommend this series to anyone or not. It is a dilemma. Part of me feels like if I could stop being pissed about how the story is going for one particular aspect, that it may not be that bad. I mean… something has to have kept me reading them so quickly right? Or I'm just a glutton for punishment. I dunno… google it and make up your own mind :P
UPDATE : I probably should have waited to review this series until I finished the most recent book. Had I, I would have given it an even more scathing review. After books 3 and 4 began to get slightly better, my hopes for the series peaked a bit and I thought to myself, hey, this may not turn out at bad as I thought it would. Wrrrong. Book 5 was pretty terrible. There was nothing cohesive what-so-ever moving the plot forward. You know how usually in a book (even one within a series!) there is a primary conflict that propels the plot? Well in this book... there is none. Skyla just makes stupid fucking mistake, after stupid fucking mistake. Somehow, it manages to be the longest book of the series yet make absolutely no progress, with the exception of leaving you on yet another horrible cliff hanger. If this cliff hanger is not like all of the others in the series, i.e. it turns out that the horrible things that we think have happened are actually just some kind of misunderstanding, I am going to be hell of pissed. Just sayin.
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