Forbidden
by Syrie James
Published: January 24, 2012
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Format: ARC (410 pages)
Source: For Review
She should not exist. He should not love her. Claire Brennan has been attending Emerson Academy for two years now (the longest she and her mom have remained anywhere) and she's desperate to stay put for the rest of high school. So there's no way she's going to tell her mom about the psychic visions she's been having or the creepy warnings that she's in danger . . .
Forbidden felt like angels meet X-Men. The conflict and characters reminded me a lot of the first X-Men movie. It was told from two points of view: Alec’s and Claire’s, which I found refreshing. It was nice not to read a one-sided love story. The characters had a lot of depth to them and they were easy to like. Even the minor characters had personality and back-stories which I enjoyed a lot. However, the setup was very similar to Twilight. I like Twilight, but I want to read something new and different. It seemed like it was supposed to be a light-hearted satire of Twilight since the similarities between the two stories were pointed out and made fun of. Still, it bothered me how extensive the similarities were. I wish they could have found a different way to setup the novel. That being said, I liked the sarcasm, humor and dialogue throughout the book. The portrayal of teens, especially their awkwardness, was nice and authentic. The pace felt very slow and it took me a while to get through this novel. It picks up at the very end and gets a little more interesting but it left a lot of loose ends for a sequel. The writing was good and I think that the next novel in the series has a lot of potential to be more original with a faster pace.
Content Rating: Medium, for quite a lot of language throughout (more than I’m used to in a YA novel) and a few kissing scenes.
About Syrie James
Syrie James is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed novels, including The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, Nocturne, Dracula My Love, Forbidden, and The Harrison Duet: Songbird and Propositions. Her books have been translated into eighteen foreign languages. Syrie was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and moved west at age one because her father didn't like shoveling snow. She has lived most of her life in California, if you don't count the two years as a child when she lived in France.
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
I liked the Twilight satire. Twilight was never funny and the characters were never deep, so this improved on it for me.
I liked the satire, too until it started having the same plot as Twilight. Alec saves her from a horrible accident in the school parking lot and that’s when she discovers that he has super powers. Really? There wasn’t any other way to start off the story??