Haven Review

Haven by Kristi Cook

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first.

My Review:

This book initially caught my interest with the "psychic abilities" phenomenon and I thought that maybe this book would be a more modern version of Dark Visions by L.J. Smith. It was nothing like it.

The beginning of the story starts out with the overused boarding school and the girl-who-thinks-she's-a-freak-and-who-doesn't-know-what's-really-happening-to-her routine. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes this routine isn't bad, and here it isn't horrible either, it's just predictable. The new girl meets the bad boy and BOOM! an instant connection. I personally didn't feel like this connection was well connected.

Violet is a little clueless, but otherwise, she's a likable character. She's on the school fencing team which I really like about her character development because with all of these female characters in YA paranormal romance, they hardly ever participate in any after school activities. Aiden doesn't seem like the dark, tortured soul Ms. Cook tries to make him out to be, in fact he reminds me of Aiden from Being Human, who you sometimes just want to yell at and pull out your hair in frustration whenever you listen to him.

The plotline like the boarding school routine was predictable. I never felt like I didn't know what was coming. Also, when reading this book I found a strong resemblance to Twilight. Almost everything about it screamed Edward Cullen!

I know it sounds like I've been dissing this book tremendously, but it actually was a decent read. I encourage you to pick it up from your local library or borrow it from a friend, but I wouldn't waste your money buying it.

3/5

P.S. I don't think I've ever used this many references in a review before.

*I received a copy of this book to review from Simon Pulse. This in no way altered my opinion/review.