For eighteen year-old Gemma, life has never been normal. Up until recently, she has been incapable of feeling emotion. And when she's around Alex, the gorgeous new guy at school, she can feel electricity that makes her skin buzz. Not to mention the monsters that haunt her nightmares have crossed over into real-life. But with Alex seeming to hate her and secrets popping up everywhere, Gemma's life is turning into a chaotic mess. Things that shouldn't be real suddenly seem to exist. And as her world falls apart, figuring out the secrets of her past becomes a matter of life and death.(Summary from Goodreads)
While Fallen Star by Jessica Sorensen had several elements that on the surface speaks to its originality in the paranormal genre, there were just too many aspects both major and minor that left me flat and struggling to finish the book.
First, the minor problems. As an English teacher, I get very distracted by typographical errors. When I read an arc copy, I am aware that the book may still have some errors present, but when I read a finished project I expect those errors to be fixed. Unfortunately, the copy I received of Fallen Star was a finished copy and there were lots of glaring mistakes throughout.
Another minor problem was the mishmash of paranormal creatures. While I found the Death Stalkers quite original and accepted that one of the main secondary characters was a witch, when the author threw in a vampire, I felt that it was just too much, and I never fully grasped the reason behind making this character a vampire to begin with.
One of the major reasons that the story fell flat with me were the characters. Gemma was a very annoying MC. She was immature, whiny, and spent most of the book vacillating between hating Alex or swooning at his touch, which was electrical (for real not metaphorical). Personally, Alex was the last guy I would swoon over as he was arrogant and pompous and never really redeemed himself in my eyes. The only character who I actually liked was Laylen, the Keeper turned vampire, and I was disappointed when just as quickly as he was introduced he disappeared from the story.
Finally, while I feel that the plot had some very original aspects I also felt that the execution of these aspects were either overlooked, or dragged out. It took forever to gain answers about who Alex was and why his sudden appearance in Gemma’s life. The attraction Gemma held for Alex was also difficult for me to understand since he remained uncommunicative and secretive with her throughout the story and only showed a vague interested in her towards the end.
Overall, I had a tough time finishing this book. What caused me to see it through, however, was my belief that Sorensen original concept would eventually shine. The ending was quite the cliffhanger leaving the reader with more questions than answers, so I am sure that a second book will be forth coming. Hopefully, Gemma will mature and Alex will redeem himself. I am also in the minority of opinions on this one, so I would stress that you check out a few other reviews on Goodreads.
Source: Received copy of book from author
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