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Romance was not part of Nora Grey’s plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.
But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.
For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

This is the kind of book I would have probably loved as a young teen, but I couldn’t help but pick out a lot of problems with now. I read this mostly on audibook (I actually only read 2 chapters of the physical version in the end), and I did enjoy it. I feel like if I’d have read the physical version I would have found it very addictive and hard to put down, and I think I’ll find out as the last two books in the series don’t have audiobooks on the app I use. The only problem I found with the audiobook was a bad Irish accent….

I found the characters not so great, although for the most part Nora was okay, thankfully. I struggle to enjoy books when I don’t like the main character, but Nora was just a troubled, confused teenager. She did annoy me a few times with her desperation for a character who was quite obviously bad news, but I managed to push it away for the most part.

All this time I’ve hated myself for it. 

The plot was really interesting and I definitely wanted to keep reading and find out what was happening. I did guess who the killer was, but it still retained a lot of mystery. Patch was an up and down character, I definitely grew to like him more as the book went on, but there was a lot of problematic scenes that made me cringe with discomfort for Nora.

I also found a lot of problems with gender and sexuality in this book. It just isn’t diverse at all. And I know this book was written in an era which was less diverse, but after reading some amazingly diverse books recently I did struggle with it. The writing was simple but addictive – definitely what I expected from this book and I wasn’t disappointed. It was kind of cringey and cheesy, and I definitely wanted to roll my eyes at some points. But if this is the kind of thing you enjoy, you’ll love it!

I thought I’d given it up for nothing. But if I hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t have met you.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, go for it! It’s one of those books that is quite cheesy but really easy to like.

★★★
3 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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