Book Review:Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs… (From Goodreads)

I have very mixed feelings about Born at Midnight. One on hand, I enjoyed the story, and am interested to see how it progresses. On the other hand, I didn't like the main character, and I thought that it went on longer than it needed to. I'm really torn about the rating, and how to effectively review it.

I'll start with what I enjoyed: the plot was interesting. I think that it had something unique to the paranormal YA genre. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I never felt like it was victim to the many cliches of the genre (except for the love triangle). It also set up well for a sequel, without feeling like the first book lacked an ending. I liked Kylie's friends Della (vampire), and Miranda (witch), and am really interested to learn more about them in the sequel. I'm also a fan of ghosts in paranormal YA, so that aspect of the book was nice.

My main concern with this book was that it had too much romance. Kylie goes back and forth between three guys, and it was hard to like her character because of it. It is possible for a teen guy and girl to just be friends, and I would have respected Kylie if she had been able to have a platonic relationship with one of them. It was also hard to be sympathetic to a character who is in complete denial of their true nature. Sure, I felt bad for her when she first discovered what she was...but I think she should have gradually accepted that she was some sort of paranormal.

So, you can see my dilemma. Parts of the book entertained me, while others left me frustrated. I've given numerous books a C rating, and I had more good than bad to say with those. Still, a D seems rather harsh, so it's falls somewhere between. I will say that I'm going to pick up book two, I am interested to see what happens, and hopefully watch Kylie mature.

Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1)
By C.C. Hunter
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: March 29, 2011
Rating: C-/D+

*I'm going to be m.i.a for the rest of the week. I'm headed to a retreat for school, and I won't have access to the internet. I've scheduled posts, but I won't be able to return comments until sunday/monday.