The Unearthly

The Unearthly was a pleasant surprise! Based on the first couple of chapters, I felt like this was just another YA Paranormal Romance where the heroine is super super special and gets the attention of the most popular supernatural guy around and they\’re destined to be together and they live happily ever after after he saves her from some baddies. Well, it is that, plus some interesting twists! Gabrielle was adopted when she was five after her parents died in a fire, so she has no clue what legacy is mentioned when she\’s invited to attend Peel Academy. When she gets there, she learns that it\’s a special school for supernatural teens and it\’s time to be Awakened. Special schools are my weakness, so of course I liked The Unearthly. Peel Academy isn\’t the most original version of this trope, but I still liked it. All kinds of supernaturals are allowed in, but only if they\’re \”good.\” No evils allowed, which basically means those who would use their abilities for bad and all vampires. Obviously this means that Gabrielle has to be a vampire, which causes quite the ruckus! Not just because she\’s deemed automatically evil, but because no one has ever been born a vampire before. Super special! The Unearthly also comes with the requisite insta-love romance. I did not like Andre at all, especially when he literally grabs Gabrielle, throws her over this shoulder, and shoves her in the car when she refuses to go on a date with him. WTF, dude?! I suppose he had his reasons, but still not cool. At all. If you didn\’t guess already, Andre is a vampire, and the most important vampire EVER, so he\’s the one to help Gabrielle learn about her heritage and abilities. Lots of mentoring time leads to falling in love, and saving her life because someone is out to kill the only natural born vampire! Dun dun dun! I probably didn\’t do a very good job explaining why I liked The Unearthly. I just did. I thought it was fun. Vampires and special schools are my favorite, so it was hard to not crack a smile every few pages, even with cliches running amok! There\’s also a pretty interesting twist at the end about someone that Gabrielle thought she had been hallucinating. So onto The Coveted!

For a short paranormal YA, this was pretty good. I\’m interested in the world, and I find the concept interesting. Now, we do see a few cliches mixed in, like Gabrielle being more or less a type of Special Snowflake Girl but I sort of expect these things when paranormal and contemporary are mixed together in a YA with romance, so I won\’t cavil on it much. Despite this, I actually liked this book a lot and am interested in the rest of the series. A lot of the time when I see books with paranormal aspects that aren\’t locked in a high fantasy or historical setting I end up rolling my eyes a lot, but this one held my attention and didn\’t make me snort or scoff or groan. I was interested in this series after reading the author\’s The Fallen World trilogy because I found her to be a good writer and I wanted to see what else she had to offer. Gabrielle is a pretty likeable heroine; I think she protests a little too much in some instances and gives in too easily in others, but she definitely came off as mature and level-headed. I also like Andre a lot (from the description of the book I was actually expecting a teenager, not an adult), though like with this author\’s other series, the immense age gap (and therefore power imbalance) in the relationship bothers me. But I suppose that\’s why the author went ahead and made a point that the the supernatural community sees 16 as the age of legality/adulthood/etc. I didn\’t find the side characters to be all that interesting or dimensional, but we\’ll see how things go. We still have four more books. One of the strongest points of the book is that the supernatural world is set up a bit differently and offers some originality to the classic tropes we all know so well by now. I also like how this book was more focused on action than just having some danger thrown in to make the romance exciting. Gabrielle generally isn\’t too thrilled about Andre and often wants to know more about her parents or why the man in the suit is haunting her than she wants to be intimate with Andre. It\’s kind of refreshing, actually, and that\’s coming from a girl who basically can\’t be bothered with a book unless there\’s a romantic subplot. The weakest point of this book is probably its length and the fact that it dedicated a lot of time to seemingly unnecessary things. When a book takes place at a school or focuses on a school-age person, some school/dorm scenes are inevitable, but there has to be balance. I feel like I read a lot of library and class scenes. Same with the interactions of friends. There\’s at least three or four \”get dressed up to go party\” situations which played out the same way each time. There wasn\’t a whole lot of action and the main climax wasn\’t all that spectacular. It just sort of… happened, then died off. I suppose I wanted more, but seeing as this book was just under 300 pages I guess the lack of content and the fact that there\’s four more books sort of silences that complaint. I recommend only picking this up if you have the ability to read the rest (should you like this book) or can tame your thirst for more since this book doesn\’t read like a solid on its own; it kind of feels like a chunk of a larger story we\’ve only just touched upon rather than something that is structured and formatted well enough to stand on its own as a complete story. You don\’t really read this book and feel satisfied enough to not need the next part; it definitely leaves you in such a way that you want book 2 right away to get answers to the questions book 1 raised. Overall, a decent start to a paranormal romance that will have me looking into the next few books! It\’s definitely not mind blowing or especially beautiful or anything grand like that, but I got through it easily in a single sitting and enjoyed it so it gets 4 stars.

First of all, I found it hard to read this bookit was HARD TO PUT DOWN! I started and finished reading it in ten hours. Would have been less if I didnt need to eat, drinkbreathe! When I started reading it, I thought to myself: This sounds very much like Harry Potter. Orphan, check. Magical school, check. Two funny sidekicks, check. Main character clueless about own power, check. Only difference would be its about a teenage girl rather than a little boy. Then as I read on, all comparisons disappeared and I was taken into a completely different world. Both magical, both captivating but oh so different. Gabrielle is an ass-kicking, fighting machine who can hypnotize you with her glamour and convince you to let her drink you dry. And everyone wants her dead. My only issue with it was Gabrielles level of maturity. Maybe Ive never been around a lot of sixteen year old girls but she seemed far too mature in the book. Able to hold her own against a 700year old vampire and the likes. However, it didnt deter the pleasure of reading the story. Yes, this book is just another teenage paranormal where the main character turns out being the most powerful person on the planetjust another story with vampires, fairies, werewolves, shape-shifters, etcjust another doomed romanceBUT OMG! It is so much more than that! The author had spun a common story into something else. I enjoyed it so much I bought the next book in the series! I cant wait to sink myself into the next one.

Dear God save us from books like this. Having read Rhapsodic, I became interested in Laura Thalassa and thought I would try out her other work. Rhapsodic was not amazing but it was a fairly enjoyable, well-written book that I would recommend highly. The Unearthly? Utterly, mind-numbingly appalling. From the attempt at character development in the first few pages that falls fully on its face to the hurried and atrocious development of her identity and powers at the school, this book proves itself to be a masterwork of poor writing and forced love. Her quote unquote \’relationship\’ with the vampire demeans you as a reader and highlights the base problem with this book, you can\’t tell the reader how the characters are feeling, you have to show them. trying to force that love story down our throats by describing how hot he is over and over does not suddenly make us think, \’wow, these two are really in love and meant to be together\’. No. It irritates and demeans you as the reader. This is only accentuated by the brazen creepiness of his attitude towards her. When will authors realise that the qualities of a stalker/sexual predator and the qualities of a love interest need not be synonymous? I regret the day I wasted money on this turd of a novel and BEG you do not make the same mistake as I. It is too late for me, I cannot unsee the truly horrific writing I have seen, but it is NOT TOO LATE FOR YOU.

This didnt quite pack the same punch as other books I have read by this particular author. I did like it to a point but the story did also feel slightly underdeveloped and the characters a bit flat and one-dimensional. It\’s a shame as I am usually a big fan of this authors books. I also found the heroine Gabrielle slightly irritating and very immature, She constantly jumps to conclusions with no actual proof and youd think considering her unfair treatment from others shed lay off all the judgmental opinions and Keep then to herself but nope. So yeh liked not loved this as it just had too many cliches that had me rolling my eyes a bit. I also thought there were times the flow felt slightly off with this as well. I dont even think that this being more YA was what bothered me either. Rather I think it may have been that this was quite an early work from this author when she was still honing her craft somewhat I could definitely see the developing talent here but it was still quite raw in places and this reflected in the finished story. This one was very YA and quite tame in content, its set in the same world as the bargainer series but separate and also at the supernatural Peel Academy where Gabrielle a Legacy is now enrolled. After her Awakening, our girl finds herself in an unprecedented position both as the last of the sirens and now the firstborn vampire. She also has the eye and attention of the king of the Vampires Andre hes her new protector and mentor which is actually excellent as someone is trying very hard to kill her. Andre is also Gabrielles destined soulmate. So I did find this to be quite instalove and also a bit predictable and theres also a bit of a potential love triangle at the centre as well. its only slight though and I hope it stays that way as love-triangles in romances are a pet hate of mine I actually abhor them. I also didnt find the side characters that interesting either there was only Oliver that I was slightly intrigued by the others just felt flat and didnt seem to add much. I think Im going to try reading the next book here but Im also crossing my fingers that Gabrielle is going to grow up a bit and be less annoying and judgy. Or at least stop putting herself in danger by acting without thought. I also think she owes Andre an apology shes behaved very unfairly toward him and shes still acting like judge and jury, so not cool. So yep this one was somewhat interesting time will tell if it manages to win me over.

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