Falling Under - Gwen Hayes (Review)

Paperback, 324 pages
Published March 1st 2011 by New American Library
Source: Library

Synopsis:

Theia Alderson has always led a sheltered life in the small California town of Serendipity Falls. But when a devastatingly handsome boy appears in the halls of her school, Theia knows she’s seen Haden before- not around town, but in her dreams.

As the Haden of both the night and the day beckons her closer one moment and pushes her away the next, the only thing Theia knows for sure is that the incredible pull she feels towards him is stronger than her fear.

And when she discovers what Haden truly is, Theia’s not sure if she wants to resist him, even if the cost is her soul.

Review

The writing was beautiful in the first three quarters of this novel. I am one who prefers poetic prose so it was right up my alley. It was somewhere in the last bit that both the prose and the plot went haywire. I am not sure what the author intended and whether the finished product was an accurate reflection of her intentions but as a reader, I found myself unbalanced.

Let’s begin again.

The characterizations were strong. The friendships were dynamic and a pleasure to watch unfold. The relationships… I think this is where things started to go a bit wrong. The protagonist and her love interest offer nothing different or interesting to the genre. She is a pure lily while he is a demon. She is all goodness and he wants her for himself only he doesn’t. Since he, too, was bitten by that bug that all YA love interests (males, in particular) are helpless against. You know, the one where they forget that the girl is perfectly capable of protecting herself and so it doesn’t require your sacrifice… well, actually, maybe in this case, the sacrifice would have been nice. It’s difficult for a girl (even a badass girl and Theia is nothing like a badass girl) to defend herself against Hell and its minions. And what was up with this Love Interest (his name I can’t remember for the life of me, sorry) using other girls to touch Theia. Confusing? Well, he touches other girls and Theia feels it. Kinky, huh? I thought so too. Anyway, so he’s littering the dance floor or whatever with girls he keeps on pawing since for some reason he can’t touch Theia. Only he does touch her and there are no lightning flashes or earthquakes (except perhaps in their heads, the hormones, you know?).

So this total Patch-ey guy turns into a pussycat somewhere north in the narrative and the pure lily also known as Theia turns into a Princess of Hell and things are reversed. Usually, I would have loved this reversal but the set up and the plot leading to it has debilitated the former pace and writing of the novel so much that I am left very unimpressed.

Obviously there’s going to be a second book in this series. Obviously. And I hope Ms. Hayes sorts out her plotting because as I said, some of the writing is totally gorgeous. But the sequel is not one that I am going to be checking out. Do I recommend it to you? I don’t know. I wasn’t too impressed but if you are into your potential boyfriend trying to kill you, you might like it.

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