REVIEW: Life After Theft

Life After Theft, by Aprilynne Pike
To Be Published April 30, 2013
Publisher:  Harper Teen
Format:  Paperback ARC - supplied by Around the World ARC Tours
Genre:  YA Paranormal Romance

Rating:  3 STARS

(From Goodreads) Moving to a new high school sucks. Especially a rich-kid private school. With uniforms. But nothing is worse than finding out the first girl you meet is dead. And a klepto.

No one can see or hear Kimberlee except Jeff, so--in hopes of bringing an end to the snarkiest haunting in history--he agrees to help her complete her "unfinished business." But when the enmity between Kimberlee and Jeff's new crush, Sera, manages to continue posthumously, Jeff wonders if he's made the right choice.

Clash meets sass in this uproarious modern-day retelling of Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

Life After Theft came really close to being a good book. It was an easy read, but there was no real drama or angst. The characters never jumped off the page and came to life. At the end, I felt a little deflated and disappointed. Not a good feeling when you reach the end of a book.
One of the best things about Life After Theft is the fact that it's told from a male POV. Like, the whole book! I don't think I've read a male POV book since Harry Potter, so this was a really refreshing change. And, Jeff is my kind of guy. He's a cool nerd with cool parents and a cool car. He's a nice guy trying to do the right thing. 

Life After Theft fell in the insta-love pit. Insta-love is one of my personal pet peeves. It is only acceptable in Disney movies. The truly amazing love stories are the ones when love doesn't come easy. When the boy and the girl really have to work for it - hard. This doesn't happen in Life After Theft. Jeff sees Sera and instantly falls in love with her. Sera sees Jeff and is instantly drawn to him too. Other than a brief snafu toward the end, their relationship is peachy. No real work involved. 

Kimberlee, the ghost, was a difficult character to get behind. I can't put my finger on it, exactly, but she never quite felt fully developed. She was so blah. She whined a lot and bitched a lot but never once did I feel sorry for her or sad or anything like that. I think I was supposed to. But, I just didn't. 

The Cave of Stuff and how it came to be was pretty cool. But, how all the stuff came to be returned was a bit unbelievable, as were many of the characters. The teacher, Mr. Hennessy - I totally did buy him. No teach I know ever acted like that. And there was never a reason for why he was the way he was. As a reader, it was hard to accept.

I think Life After Theft could have been a really great book with a little more development and a bit more drama. It was close to being something special. But, in the end, it just wasn't.

Book #91 - Destined (Wings #4)

Destined (Wings #4), Aprilynne Pike
307 pages
paranormal romance
Started 8/13/12
Finished 8/14/12
4.5 STARS

This series has come so far for me. I remember completing Wings (Wings #1) and feeling very "meh" about it. The only character at that point that evoked any real emotion from me was Tamani. I felt that Laurel and David were very childish, and I wasn't engaged. I very nearly didn't continue with the series. But, Tamani drew me forward, and I am SO glad I went on. Because Destined was such a wonderful ending to the series.

Avalon and its inhabitants are literally fighting for their lives. And, in the front lines are Laurel, David, Chelsea, and Tamani. Laurel has to reach deep down to harness her powers and all she has learned to help those that she loves. And Tamani and David need to learn to allow her to do so, despite their first instincts, which are to lock her away to protect her. As the war escalates and the final battles are fought, lives end up literally in the balance.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that Laurel finally, FINALLY, makes a choice!! For the past three books, she's been back and forth between David and Tamani, and it's been one of my biggest irritations with the series. Thank the Lord, she comes to her senses and makes a real and final choice. I loved that.

This book was action-packed. It started nearly from the very beginning and didn't end until the very end. It's one battle after the other, and Aprilynne Pike did a fantastic job describing it all to me. I could hear the screams and smell the smoke and taste the panic in the air. I loved those moments that Laurel was able to steal with Tamani and David away from the battles that are raging around them. It softened her and made her much more likable.

As flat as Laurel and David seemed in the first book, they both were that much more vibrant in the fourth. Pike did a great job maturing them and making them more real. And, Tamani - well, he was perfect the whole way through. I love that faerie.

Overall, I would say, this series is the perfect example of why you shouldn't give up after only one book in a series. You never know what the next one will be like. And, you may end up loving it in the end.