Becca's Bursting Bookshelf

This going to be DNF review for me. I made it to page 224. That's all I can do, I'm afraid. This is rather disappointing to me, because I was really looking forward to this book earlier in the year. But it did not live up to my expectations. I'm really glad I decided to get this from the library instead of the e-book or a physical copy. 

The only reason I would consider displaying this on my bookshelf is the beautiful cover. However, this cover is a bit misleading. For one, the model looks nothing at all like Elliot is described. Elliot has brown skin and black hair. She also, as far as I read anyway, never wore a dress. The model on the cover has blonde hair, white skin, and a very pretty dress. I hate it when this happens. Why do people just slap something on the front of a book even when it holds no meaning to the story? 

Elliot was a very responsible girl. She was logical, reasonable . . . and about as exciting as a peice of lint. She had an extremely flat personaility, and even when she's thinking about being romantic, she comes off as kind of calculating and just boring. I appreciated her maturity and respect, but there was nothing interesting about her. 

Kai. I assume that he changes sometime later on in the book, but I just couldn't stand him one moment longer. He shouldn't hate her so much just because Elliot chose to stay and take her of her land after her mother died. If she had left, everything she left behind would have collapsed. As far as I can tell, Kai was a jerk. And not the brooding sexy kind. The kind you actually do want to punch in the face.

I liked the letters between Kai and Elliot in the beginning, but eventually I found myself wanting to skip over them, and skimming a book is something I rarely do. 

There is no apparant villian in this story, for as far as I got. I guess Elliot's sister and father could be counted but . . . not really. There was nothing pulling this along, nothing that made it really interesting. I just had to go with the flo for a while, hoping it would get better. But. It didn't. 

There's nothing wrong with Diana Peterfreund's writing. It's actually very nice. But good writing is not enough to save a story. 

Some people think that you shouldn't write a review for a story that you did not complete. But I just don't believe in sticking with a story if it isn't holding your interest. I usually give a book about 100 pages, but I gave this one 200, simply because I was looking forward to it so much. I'm giving it two stars instead of one, however, because there were bits here and there I actually enjoyed. 

It just wasn't enough.