Review: Paranormalcy

Title: Paranormalcy
Author: Kiersten White
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 335
Series: Paranormalcy #1
Rating: 4.5/5
From the book jacket: 
Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

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So much for normal, indeed. Paranormalcy is about as far from your normal paranormal romance as it gets while still being a YA paranormal romance, and I mean that in a good way.

The idea of IPCA, the International Paranormal Containment Agency, is brilliant. Because really...if paranormal creatures existed in large numbers, wouldn't the government know about it and have a department for it? It's such a creative spin on the whole thing. I love it. And the story built around it...wow. It will keep absolutely keep you turning pages wanting to know what happens next.

And the characters! Evie is a wonderful character. Her narration is funny and genuine (although I will admit that her obsessions with pink clothes and boys reeeally got on my nerves at times; that was really my only problem with the book - too much pink!). She is so much fun to read about and her voice is incredibly real. The other characters are great too, although I wish we got to see more of them. I wanted more Lish! I could feel Evie's reactions to Reth, and Lend...well, he's just awesome.

Also, I loved that the romance developed normally. Evie and Lend become friends, based first upon their personalities, and that friendship develops into a romance at a normal (if expected) pace. And there was no sex and no swearing, and Evie sticks to one boyfriend. Hooray for an awesomely written story that actually has some semblance of morals! Not that I have a problem with most paranormal romances (I love the genre), but this one was just such a nice change.

In short, Paranormalcy is a delightfully entertaining, refreshing, and all-around fun read that will leave you wanting the sequel. (*tries very hard to wait calmly for Supernaturally*) Absolutely worth your time.

Links: 
Kiersten White's website
Kiersten White's blog

Review: Prophecy of the Sisters

Title: Prophecy of the Sisters
Author: Michelle Zink
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Pages: 343
Series: Prophecy of the Sisters #1
Rating: 4 stars
Description from Goodreads: 
Sixteen-year-old Lia Milthorpe and her twin sister Alice have just become orphans, and, as Lia discovers, they have also become enemies. The twins are part of an ancient prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. To escape from a dark fate and to remain in the arms of her beloved boyfriend James, Lia must end the prophecy before her sister does. Only then will she understand the mysterious circumstances of her parents' deaths, the true meaning of the strange mark branded on her wrist, and the lengths to which her sister will go to defeat her.

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I've had a copy of Prophecy of the Sisters on my bookshelf for ages now and just hadn't picked it up. All the hype for the second book made me think that maybe I should read it, and I think on the whole, I'm glad I did.


I didn't realize when I started that this novel is actually set in the year 1890. I'd been expecting something a bit more modern, so that was kind of a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, because it worked perfectly. The novel opens with Lia and her family at her father's funeral. The circumstances of his death were strange, and the night he died, a strange circular mark appeared on Lia's wrist. Not long after, her boyfriend James shows her a book he found in her father's library: a book with all the pages missing except one. This page contains a prophecy about Lia and her twin sister Alice. Her father and the mark on her wrist have more to do with it than Lia understands, but she's determined to find out.


I love the premise of this book. The idea of the prophecy of the sisters is really awesome, and putting it in a historical setting just makes it better. I like the characters, too - I wish we had gotten to see more of James, and I love Luisa and Sonia's characters too. I wish there had been more Henry, too!


I will admit that for a lot of the book, I was really annoyed by how predictable it was. I figured out what the keys were (part of the prophecy mentions keys) within a few pages of the first mention of them, but it took Lia a good fifty or a hundred pages after that, which is never a good sign. I like reading to discover new things, and if I know what's going to happen within fifty pages, then why read past that? But there were still a few questions that I hadn't guessed the answers to, so I kept reading, and I'm so glad I did.


By the end of the novel, I was blatantly ignoring everything else I needed to be doing (such as feeding the cat. He was not pleased) so I could finish. I didn't realize until the last few chapters how much of an emotional connection I'd made with Lia! Oh, and another random thing that I really loved about this: it was not all about boys! Lia already has a boyfriend who she loves, and the focus of the story is not on that romance, it's on the plot. Hooray for plot variation!


Long story short: I do recommend this, with a warning attached: It's a little slow and predictable in places. Still, though, I did enjoy it, especially in the second half once it really got going. And definitely check it out if you like paranormal in a historical setting.


Links: 
Michelle Zink's new website (which you should definitely visit, as it's awesome)
Michelle Zink's old website (also awesome, although her new posts are on her new site)
Prophecy of the Sisters series website