It took a bit to get to what was going on but it was interesting. ( )

My most FAV book so far this year. Which is weird for me cos I don't do paranormal. (Unless its all things JR Ward, of course)

Read this without spoilers. Didn't know what I was getting myself into and I'm glad I did. Totally unexpected. Nothing like I've ever read before.

MY FAV EXCERPTS FROM MY NEW FAV BOOK:

RYDER:
“His gray eyes were heated in the low lights of the bathroom but full of excited adrenaline from being on stage. The ends of his hair were damp from being under the hot lights and curled around his neck and over his ears, slick with sweat. His shirt clung to his body, sticking to him from the performance. He was full of feral energy; his presence was completely intrusive and demanding. His energy was infecting the room, reaching every molecule and atom around me, making the air bounce off the walls in excited frenzy.
He was overwhelming.”

RYDER, ABOUT IVY, THE HEROINE'S TATTOO:
“My soul is free,” he whispered into the silence with the reverence the phrase was meant to hold. “My soul is free.” He repeated the words and my heart expanded at the incantation. The words I had chosen so carefully held the deepest meaning of my existence. I loved the way they sounded out loud, how they fell out of his lips and off his tongue with care.”

HE'S JUST HOLDING HER HAND:
“I felt every small connection of his skin to mine, the pads of his fingers, his joints that bent to curve around my hand, the heel of his hand as it pressed into mine. I closed my eyes against the sensation. The feeling was so profound, so all consuming that it intensified until my fingertips tingled and my toes curled. I closed my eyes and prayed this was all that Ryder was, just a rush of feeling, of sensation, that the only pull I felt to him was the rush.”

THEIR CONNECTION:
“All of a sudden the space between us was filled, brimming over with emotion and tension. There had been some of that before; the space between us had never been empty. But now it was completely full, atoms and particles and molecules and whatever else occupied the space between zinged around in a wild frenzy, charged with the growing something that enveloped everything separating us.”

HER LIFE:
“My stomach erupted in nerves. Not nerves like the butterflies Ryder gave me, unless these butterflies had strapped razor blades to their wings and were flying about with the sole intention of shredding me from the inside out until I bled to death.”

THEY SAY SHE'S NOT GOOD FOR HIM:
“Fun fact,” Ryder smirked at me. “Tanner blames that on your terrible influence. Turns out your poison to a good boy like me.”
“Huh, imagine that,” I sighed. “And what do you say to that.”
“I say it’s less like poison and more like kryptonite.” His steady gaze held mine and my heart thumped in my chest, responding to his words, even if I wouldn’t let any other part of me."

RYDER'S RAGE:
"He was a man possessed by rage and retribution.”
“Ryder’s whole body tensed when he realized Taylor was the one that hurt me. It was like he followed that bloodied fingertip up the length of his arm and to his face and put the entire night together in his head.
And then Ryder snapped.
He launched himself forward, onto Taylor and his fist connected with Taylor’s face like a branch breaking off a huge tree during a lightning storm. I heard the crunch of bones from even inside the car and then watched the splurt of blood soil Ryder’s face, hands and chest. My hand flew to my mouth and I gasped against the horror of the moment.”

THE TITLE:
“The way he played his guitar.... the way he drank his coffee.... the way he didn't bother with his hair, the way he laughed at me, the way his silver eyes cut to me from across a room and he could determine in once glance if I was alright or if I needed to be rescued, the way he protected me from everything, even myself.... but most of all the way he made me feel when we're together, when we're not together, hell the way he made me feel anything at all.... the butterflies and blushing.... the rush of it all. Damn it. I'd fallen for the rush.”


Firsts for me:
- Never have I welcomed a hero who is slow to love his heroine like Ryder is. What a relief.
- he has a gf and I was fine-ish with that.
- I was ok with the long wait for the bottom line (I'm sure readers of Paranormal got it waaay before I did.)
- never been exposed to this Siren phenomenon before.

I love the writing style. Truly a gift. I can't explain it so I'm gonna paste some beautifully written quotes here. I hear the YA voices but its not too simplistic or too heavy. Powerful yet young and fresh. A perfect balance.

I didn't want this book to end. I wanted to bask in the intense scenes she depicted. The emotions, the descriptions, the characters. How does she create a hero who says so much without actually verbalizing his feelings? Its entirely in the heroine's POV but I can feel his intensity and how he is drawn, unwillingly, to her, NOT because of who she is but because of a pull within himself and a bond between them that has NOTHING to do with what she is. Maybe it helped that I read a chapter in his POV on the author's blog. Either way, it kept me reading even when my body protested at its lack of sleep, even when I was nauseous with worry and hatred and disgust and wallowing in the bittersweetness.


1 star short of 5 cos:
- its too long
- its an installment read. I prefer closure and a follow up in the form of a series not a cliffhanger with installments to follow
- There isn't enough "together" time for the H and h. (Although I get this, cos its probably a YA Paranormal read before its a Romance)
- it needs some editing although it didn't distract from the impact of the story.
- and it bothered me very much that *****SPOILER******
The h didn't contact the hero's family when he got in a helluva lotta trouble for defending her. She has so many intense emotions and I needed her emotions to be concentrated on HIM and HIS wellbeing when she saw the enormity of the situation he found himself in, because he cares about her.



( )

Unfortunately I did not like this book much at all. It started off very well written, and quite intriguing. Ivy was a perfect stunning girl with a seemingly perfect life coming back to school after some sort incident with a boyfriend that ended tragically. I found it quite fascinating at first to see Ivy hating this perfect shell of a life she lived in, exquisite looks, fabulous apartment to live in.

Something about a curse and a desperate yearning to be free when she reached adult hood.

Her mother and her friends all seem to live in the same life of luxury and it has something to do with a man introduced as Nix, a friend of the mother's who is impeccably dressed and handsome and very very scary. If I hadn't read some of the reviews to see where this was going, from the way the story was going, I would have assumed that the mothers were high class escorts who seduced rich men to drain them of their money, and Ivy and the daughters were being groomed to join when they became of age. Ivy is terrified of Nix. This was initially quite well written. He's one scary dude. Ivy is supposed to date the boys at her high school for practice.

Until one Ryder, comes along immune to her charms and has promises of actual friendship rather than being another conquest. But he has a girlfriend. And the girlfriend is actually one of the most likeable characters in the whole thing. She doesn't quite warm up to Ivy who's becoming more and more involved in Ryder's life. But she sticks up for Ivy on several occasions when the mean girls chew her out for the accident with the previous boyfriend.

The problem I had with the story was the pacing. I found it to be very very slow. And extremely repetitive. Ivy hates her life. Ivy wants to be free. She's trapped, she's hopeless, and can't be near Ryder cause she doesn't want another incident. Over and over. By the time the truth comes out - she's a Siren of the Greek myth variety who lure men to her and they react badly when she breaks up with them. She wants out because she can't do that to people like her mother and the friends do.

I must admit by halfway through I was skimming through just to see where the Siren thing came in. I hated Ivy by that point, I found her increasingly weak and pathetic with no backbone whatsoever. Made worse by something that happens towards the end when she disobeys Nix and her mother. Something terrible happens and....nothing is really resolved.

It just sort of ends... Not going to be continuing with this series ( )

Goodreads Synopsis: A life not her own—A future already decided.

Every facet of Ivy Pierce’s life is meticulously planned out and plotted. Cynical and jaded by sixteen, Ivy’s only hope is to escape the legacy she was born into.

She has a plan, a carefully thought out, feasible plan. She just has to play by the rules until everything falls into place. Unfortunately as predictable as her life can be, she never sees Ryder Sutton coming. He tumbles into her life unimpressed and untouched by her and the life she lives. He’s an enigma to her. A gorgeous, frustrating, sincere mystery and a complete phenomenon in the ugly world she lives in.

What blooms between them is a fiercely intense attraction that cannot be ignored. Even though they would both be better off without each other—Even if both their lives depend on staying apart.

My Review: I loved this book. It kept me interested from the very first page. Though I wish I got to read the story of Ivy and Sam, not just bits and pieces of them, and the story of her breakdown. It would've make me connect with Ivy more than I did. Nix is a bad man. He has a weird relationship with most of the girls in the book. Which is crazy. He essentially is in the sex slave business, and that makes me sick. This book was emotional, and I loved every page. Ivy is an awesome character. Being a siren, you'd think that she would love what she does to people. But she doesn't. She hates it. And it still happens. She just wants to get away from it all, and the only way she can do that is by being at school, hanging out with friends, being away from her home. Seeing her little sister once in a while. She needs to get out of her head, and being in a band, making friends, is her only outlet. It happens. I hate her mom. I hate Nix. They're awful people. Those other siren girls that she's friends with? Awful people, I'm sure they're not so bad on the inside, but they're awful on the outside, and that's all I really got to know about them. This is an awesome read. I will definitely check out the rest of the series, and you should definitely check out this book if you come across it. You won't regret it. Thanks for reading!

(Radioactivebookreveiws.wordpress.com) ( )

I really enjoyed the book and read it straight through in one sitting. I absolutely love Rachel Higginson's books, and was so excited when I saw this one! And I am so excited for the next one! I am, however, a natural critic and thus have a few critiques to make. First of all (and honestly, this is just me making a comparison to the Star-Crossed series), there wasn't a lot of character buildup in characters besides the two main ones. I never really felt like we got to know the other characters very well. However, the door has definitely been left open for future development.

My biggest issue was that it took way too long to get to the root of the story. I am all for leaving the reader in the dark to start with... You know, keep them guessing about what is really going on so they keep turning the pages. But after a while, this just gets a little frustrating. It probably was not until 3/4 of the way into the book that you learn "what" Ivy is. And prior to that revelation, it became a little questionable if she really "was" anything at all. The hints were there, of course, but the follow through just seemed a little weak. I wanted more "evidence" of the world in which Ivy lived. I honestly could not tell if it was a paranormal or what for most of the book.

Now, that sounds like a lot of critique, which I suppose it is, but only in the constructive sense. Like I said before, I am just naturally (unfortunately) critical and can always find something to critique! But, if I really did not like this book I would not have read it in one sitting! And my favorite parts... well, first of all I have read a lot of YA books, and this is one storyline I have not yet read. The change was refreshing. I don't want to reveal too much, because it does take a while for it to be revealed in the book, but while this "world" has certainly been written about in plenty of books, I just haven't seen this "branch" of it before. Again, it was refreshing. I often feel like I am reading the same books over and over again, but not so with Rachel Higginson.


Also, as always, Rachel Higginson creates a very addictive romance. Not one that is so obvious it is predictable... Not one that evolves so quickly you grow tired of it... Not one that is so cliche you are bored of it... But rather a blossoming romance that is sweet and realistic. I basically refuse to read a book without a love story in it, and being that I read A LOT, I feel like I have heard the same love stories over and over again. But Rachel Higginson always manages to change it up just enough that it is inevitable (the love connection) yet completely unpredictable (the path to the relationship). This was definitely the case with The Rush. The romance is definitely boiling in the background but is not so immediate and obvious that you lose interest in it. In fact the "denial" of the romance just makes it all the more interesting and adds another layer to the story (especially because it is not overdone... I have read books where the characters deny their attraction so much it just gets annoying... But Higginson keeps this facet just minor and subtle enough that it just draws you in more).

About the actual story: So, Ivy is an all-too beautiful girl who draws guys in and leaves them hopelessly entranced. She is part of a "society" of women whose sole purpose is to lure rich men, snag their money, and then divorce them; better yet, leave them on a deathbed. Ivy, however, has a conscience and doesn't want to be a part of this. But she feels trapped. She has a trust fund lined up and is trying to hang on until her 18th birthday when she will have access to it and can disappear and escape. Only that is two years away and she still has to survive until then.

The challenges she faces waiting until that time could have been a little more engaging, and a little more action-packed. Her internal struggles with a past event that left her depressed just confused me because it took way too long for that story to come out. And when it finally did (and after such a long wait), I was expecting something much more grand -- more significant and shattering. Perhaps if we had been otherwise introduced to the affected character, Sam, the tragedy that shook Ivy's world would have better resonated with readers. But left as it was, a mere background story, it just seemed a little weak to have played such a significant role in shaping the main character's life. I think bringing Sam into the story would have added a whole new emotional level to the book and created more realism in the reality that is Ivy's world. Perhaps also if she had known her real father even briefly before he passed... Just some direct and emotional connection to a character who has been prey to Ivy's "circle" of predators.

While the book does not end on a cliffhanger, it definitely is open-ended enough for a sequel. And, as always with her books, I will be rather impatiently awaiting its release. :) I hope for more character development and for the "world" Ivy lives in to be more substantiated. Perhaps introduce other "types" of characters who are also in that world... Besides just the type from Ivy's "circle." Although, I do feel like the door may have been left open for a revelation about the identity of Ryder...??? ( )