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Charity Moon by DeAnna Kinney.
Title: Charity MoonAuthor: DeAnna Kinney
Genre: Young Adult,
Goodreads summary: Charity Bell is eighteen, beautiful, and has an unyielding chip on her shoulder. The loss of her father and betrayal of her stepfather have left her angry and confident that no man will ever win her trust, or possess her heart. She wears that declaration proudly--on her countenance, as well as her sharp tongue.
That's all tested when the enchanting Levi Drake transfers from her rival school across town. In a town divided by intense rivalry this should mean trouble, and yet the school is quickly won over by his alluring charm. When a strange encounter with the mysterious young man leaves Charity bewildered, she's convinced he's hiding something and sets out on a dangerous plot to discover his secret. What she uncovers, however, will leave her both grasping for reality and hanging onto the tattered shreds of what's left of her declaration. As she faces the demons of her past, and present, she must decide if she can live, or die, with his.
{ Review }
To be honest, when I first read the synopsis I didn't think that this book was going to be amazing, I just thought it would be fairly good, but I was surprised to find an engaging and page turning story that had me gripped from the very beginning. It was clear that this book was going to include some sort of paranormal or mythical creature - I assumed werewolf from the cover, and I was right. However, I wasn't sure about anything else really.
The first section of the novel is brilliant. The writing is detailed and capturing, the characters are engaging and the plot is fast paced. I was very impressed by this as I believe Charity Moon is Kinney's debut novel and I believed it to be a really great piece of fiction for young adults. I was less impressed by the second half simply because I thought there was a little bit too much going on. If I were to make a list of all the major plot elements from this first book, I'm sure I could easily separate each one and write and entire novel on each. There were some parts which I felt were very important or shocking that were only mentioned in passing and I don't think enough detail was dedicated to these parts. Nevertheless, there were many twists and turns that I couldn't predict, some of which I was truly amazed at and I commend DeAnna Kinney for her ingenuity. It is very easy to simply copy typical supernatural traits from popular myths and stories, but I think that Kinney has created her own
I would say that this is a great book for Christian teens as the protagonist, Charity Bell, clearly displays some very religious beliefs. I really admired the character Charity because she was strong and independent. It was truly refreshing to read about someone who had such a great sense of morality and a unique take on the world. As the story went on I felt that Charity may have lost some of the fire in her that she had at the beginning which is unfortunate, though necessary in order for her character to develop in other ways. The 'enchanting' Levi Drake with the 'alluring charm' is a character that I think any teenage girl will fall head over heels for. I believe the characters Levi and Charity had such a great chemistry between the two that would've sent sparks flying. Occasionally, it got a little too sappy for my liking, but for the most part, they were simply electric.
There were certain sections which spoke of sex and children which I found thoroughly awkward, though quite funnily so. Ordinarily, I'm all for talking about sex in upper YA novels just for a bit more excitement, but some of the scenes in this book really made me cringe and I couldn't imagine anyone in real life genuinely having such a conversation. That said, later on in the novel, the reader is rewarded with less awkwardness and more sexiness.
All in all, this was a fantastic read that I absolutely flew through. The first half is superb and is brilliantly written, and my only wish is that the second half had been more detailed because this was the section where the plot was at its most exciting. I definitely recommend this to all fans of young adult fiction, particularly fans of romance and the paranormal.
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