Prophecy Girl by Cecily White
Book stats:
Reading Level: Young Adult
eARC: 360 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Entangled
Release date: April 2, 2013
Series: Angel Academy #1
Source: From Publisher For Review
Reviewed by: Lili
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository
Amelie Bennett. . . . Ending the world, one prophecy at a time.
I was born to slay Crossworld demons.
Big black flappy ones, little green squirmy ones. Unfortunately, the only thing getting slain these days is my social life. With my high school under attack, combat classes intensifying, and Academy instructors dropping right and left, I can barely get my homework done, let alone score a bondmate before prom.
Then he shows up.
Jackson Smith-Hailey. Unspeakably hot, hopelessly unattainable, and dangerous in all the right ways. Sure, he’s my trainer. And okay, maybe he hates me. Doesn’t mean I’ll ignore the wicked Guardian chemistry between us. It’s crazy! Every time I’m with him, my powers explode. Awesome, right?
Wrong.
Now my teachers think I’m the murderous Graymason destined to bring down our whole race of angelbloods. Everyone in New Orleans is hunting me. The people I trusted want me dead. Jack and I have five days to solve the murders, prevent a vampire uprising, and thwart the pesky prophecy foretelling his death by my hand. Shouldn’t be too difficult.
Getting it done without falling in love. . . that might take a miracle.
Unfortunately, this review will be rather quick. I went into this book looking forward to something very entertaining, but a beginning that started out with a bang quickly fizzled out into a less than stellar novel that left me wishing for something different.
I first found this book to be entertaining because it was up to date. There were plenty of popular culture references that teens—the target audience—could easily understand and possibly even agree with. But as I read more I realized that this novel had a plot line that I found to be incredibly familiar. Upon browsing similar opinions on the novel, it did click to me that this book reminded me very much of Vampire Academy. Several series now have reminded me of VA, and it’s hard to hold a candle to such a series. It’s no surprise to me that PROPHECY GIRL can’t. But if you compare both MCs and the overall plot line in both, than it’s quite apparent that there are many similarities between the two. This made the book get old to me pretty fast and leant the novel to predictability. It’s one of those moments that you saw coming from miles away and you just roll your eyes when all of the characters are in complete and utter shock at the big reveal.
Furthermore, my biggest pet peeve occurred in this one—the purely physical relationship that dominates the plot. I’m all for some awesome romance. I love it, really, but my biggest worry in relation to the way that the YA market is turning nowadays is the newfound focus on purely physical relationships and the lesser focus on truly getting to know each other, the camaraderie that leads up to a relationship. You know, the actual relationship that occurs when the two characters aren’t getting physical. Steaminess is fine, but I love the raw emotion and passion behind it all. I can’t say this book had much of it. I felt as if Jack and Amelie’s relationship quickly overran the plot and if this was the case, I think it needed to be better developed. Emotionally I felt incredibly disconnected from them since everything was all over the place. They were either getting extremely hot and heavy or their relationship was near non-existent. There was no connection between the two of them unless they were doing something physical and the relationship really dragged for me because of this. Where is the love, the feelings, the emotions and enviable connection? I can tell you it was not here.
This book is the type of book that will be good for those looking for a quick read that is more entertaining than thoughtful. What it lacks in proper plot points and execution it makes up for in good writing and entertainment value. Those looking for some steaminess in the YA genre can enjoy it as well, but don’t go into this one expecting a proper relationship. As entertaining as this one is, I don’t think it was for me and I do not believe I will be continuing this series. As for everyone else, this is one of those books for you to judge for yourself. While I did not like it, I can see many adoring it.
I'm sorry to hear that this one didn't work out. I hate when a book starts out promising and then from there loses it's steam. I haven't read the VA books so I'm not really sure what they are like, but I've heard a lot of good things so it's disappointing that this is so similar and yet can't compare.
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