Let me preface everything that I’m about to say by letting you know that I have read, and reviewed, a LOT of YA fiction, especially for Literary R&R, and so I may be a bit jaded.

I guess I was just waiting for something to happen in this novel, you know? Like, I was hoping that the lake was full of undead zombies, or mutant fish, or just … SOMETHING. Or maybe Will and his family were vampire werewolf hybrids, and Will’s father didn’t want Layla to date Will because her blood wasn’t pure. I mean, look at the cover. It’s ominous, right? It’s a  black and white photo, the font is kind of gothic, kind of creepy. I wouldn’t expect this to just be a teen romance.

The truth is, this novel is just a boring teen romance with very little depth. There’s not much tension in the novel. Layla’s just come to live with her aunt and uncle, and is worried when she discovers paperwork for a boarding school. But then her aunt and uncle are just like, oops, our bad, nope, never mind on that. And it’s pretty much sunshine and rainbows from there on out with them.

It’s great to see functional relationships – truly, it is. But it doesn’t make for great storytelling.

I have problems with the main plot – are we really to believe that this powerful businessman has time to worry about his teenaged son’s girlfriends? Enough to force these girls’ families out of town? His son is 18, as well – old enough to move out on his own. There was a lot of “REALLY???” going on in my head throughout this.

And there were no zombies or werewolves!

Needless to say, although this is a trilogy, there’s no way I would sign on for two more installments of this. What else could possibly happen?

On the plus side, this is a free Kindle download, so if you want to take a trip into the world of teen romance, then by all means, have at it. Just don’t come to me when you want your money back.