Saturday, January 5, 2013

From the Stacks: Born at Midnight by c.c. hunter

Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, faeries...and a girl who doesn't know what she is. Welcome to Shadow Falls camp with Born at Midnight, the first in the Shadow Falls series.


Summary:

"Don't miss this spectacular new series that will steal your heart and haunt your dreams. Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen...

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls-a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren't just "troubled." Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, and fairies train side by side-learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie's never felt normal, but surely she doesn't belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn't complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek's a half-fae who's determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin' hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn't be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear-Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs..."

My Thoughts:

So, it was an interesting read. I saw the book in stores for a while and kept gravitating over to it, picking it up, looking at it, and then putting it down and walking away. The premise sounded interesting enough, but there always seemed to be other books that just grabbed my attention more. However, a couple months ago, I noticed that Born at Midnight was one of the Daily Deals or Spotlight books, whatever, on my NOOK. Priced at $1.99, I could not pass up the opportunity, especially seeing as how I always told myself I would read the book eventually.

We are introduced to Kylie Galen, a "normal" girl who has broken up with her jerk of a boyfriend because she didn't want to have sex and he clearly did. So, right off the bat, I'm a fan of Kylie because she is only 16 years old and really, I don't think teens (girls and boys) should be having sex at that age, and yet that seems to be what most YA books cover nowadays. Anyway, Kylie goes to a party with her friend Sara, and while Kylie doesn't drink, Sara makes her hold a cup filled with alcohol so she doesn't stand out. Bad idea. The party is broken up by the cops.

Anyway, that opening there leads Kylie's mom to send her to a camp for the summer, a camp she is told is basically for juvenile delinquents. But, hey, not so fast...come to find out it is actually a camp for supernaturals and Kylie is told that although they have no idea what she is, they know she isn't human.

Naturally, Kylie doesn't believe this, and so the whole book is spent with Kylie first trying to come to grips with the fact that she isn't human (thought through most of it she still insists that she is normal) and also trying to figure out what she is. Oh, and spoiler alert, SHE DOESN'T FIGURE IT OUT. We reach the end of the book and still have no idea what kind of supernatural Kylie is. All we know is that she can see ghosts. 

I feel that this was very much a first book for a series, setting things up for later books and introducing readers to the characters and the setting, etc. But I don't feel like there was all that much action. There was a basically minor story line where animals from the nearby zoo/wildlife preserve/whatever are being killed and authorities think it has something to do with this supernatural camp, and that conflict fills the last 30 pages or so, but other than that there is practically no action or threat or anything. Even Kylie's main ghost, whom she calls Soldier Dude stops feeling creepy early on and just becomes annoying and I hate to say it, predictable.

I will say that I am interested enough in this to read the next book, but it may be that I try to find it in my library to read before I consider buying it. Still though, Born at Midnight gets a 4/5 from me.

Born at Midnight at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/born-at-midnight-c-c-hunter/1100354530?ean=9780312624675

Born at Midnight at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Born-at-Midnight-Shadow-Falls/dp/0312624670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357417874&sr=8-1&keywords=Born+at+Midnight

Other Readings:

Well, I am feeling so drawn into Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins, so I'm probably going to finish that up today, and then I actually need to jump into Trance by Kelly Meding since I planned on it being my From the Stacks next week. Depending on how things go, I also plan on losing myself in Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes and Tempest by Julie Cross. So, that's all for now. I'm going back to my books.

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