Review: Shattered Secrets by Krystal Wade

Shattered Secrets

by Krystal Wade

(Book of Red #1)
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: March 2014
Page Count: 300
Format: E-Book
Source: Netgalley (thank you!)

Goodreads Synopsis: After being kidnapped, hogtied, and stuffed in the trunk of a car, seventeen-year-old Abigail Nichols' boy problems seem unimportant.
She couldn't be more wrong.

The boy who saves her holds her heart.

But Derick Crawford also holds secrets.

Magical beings who guide human emotions are fighting an invisible war dating back to the dawn of time, and Abigail's one of them. The more she learns of her heritage, the less she wants to know. Armed with a very old, very massive book to teach them about their history, Abigail and Derick run away to a place where they think they can be safe and happy, only to have their troubles secretly hitch a ride.

Her history book is in a sharing mood, and it tells her to keep a secret of her own.

But has she put her trust in the wrong place?

And will the world survive if she has?

GOODREADS . AMAZON

Review: This is a book that I requested on Netgalley quite some time ago, and I feel bad that it took me so long to get to it. I am trying to be much better about getting caught up on my Netgalley books though, so this is my first step! When I first requested this book, I was definitely drawn in by the cover first before anything else (I can be pretty bad about this, after all). However, then I read the synopsis and decided that it sounded great as well. I am not one to usually read things with a lot of paranormal elements, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give it a try. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I had hoped to. 

I had a lot of problems with the characters from the very beginning. Abigail was the exact kind of main character that I do not enjoy reading in my novels. The perfect, beautiful girl with the wonderful family and all of the friends and guys who just love and fawn over her. For the most part, that is not realistic at all (it certainly was not for me growing up, at least). Also, I did not like that Abby was such a Damsel in Distress. There was so much room for her to be an awesome independent and strong female lead, but she just never got there for me. She made a lot of naive choices, and she tended to go back and forth with her thoughts and views quite often.

Her love interest, Derick, was really no better either. All of his thoughts and actions seemed to revolve around Abigail and his feelings for her instead of allowing him to be his own character. Sure, he was likable and seemed like a nice guy, but I really hoped that things would become more than that. It was interesting to find out that he had some special abilities and had something very important in common with the main character, but it did not make me like him too much more.

I did think that there were some nice, unique elements that went along with the story. I certainly would not say that it was all bad at all. However, I do think that it could have been so much more amazing. The pacing seemed to be very hit or miss with this book. There were some moments when the plot was incredibly slow and things were boring, but then there were times when things picked up and were exciting, and I could not wait to read the next page. Unfortunately, it would have been much better if it could have stayed the latter the majority of the time.

Overall, this certainly was not the worst book I have read, but I was not blown away by it, either. I may continue the series in the future just to see if it improves at all, but I doubt that I will be rushing to the bookstore to pick it up or anything. I do think that it is likely that paranormal fans will enjoy this much more than I did. I think it would be worth a try if you do get your hands on it at some point. To each their own!

Rating: 2.0 / 5.0