Review: Awakened

Awakened by Ednah Walters
Publisher: Pill Hill Press
Pub. Date: September 2nd, 2010
Pages: 256
Series: The Guardian Legacy, #1
Source: For review via author
Age Level: 14+

Synopsis via Goodreads
Most teens turn sixteen and get the license to drive, Lil Falcon gets the license to kill demons, but no one told her she is not supposed to fall in love with one. At approximately 87,000 words, THE AWAKENING written by my client Ednah Walters is a compelling young adult paranormal romance novel.

Orphaned as a child and raised by an eccentric grandfather, Lil is concerned with surviving high school and is unaware she's a Guardian—a being with super powers charged with killing demons and protecting humanity. But when she meets Bran, a mysterious boy with amazing abilities, his psi energy unlocks her latent powers.

But Bran has a secret that can destroy their growing relationship. He's part demon. But in her heart, Lil knows Bran is not evil. So when her grandfather is kidnapped by a powerful nature-bender and Bran is the only one who knows where he's being kept, Lil convinces the other Guardians to trust him, not knowing her grandfather is just the bait. And the truth that she discovers in the demonic enclave may just destroy everything she believes in, unless she makes the right choice—love and sacrifice.

Review
Ednah Walters debut YA novel, Awakened, is a refreshing and action-packed addition to the paranormal genre.

Lil was a very good heroine with a great sense of humor as well as a knowledge of when action needed to be taken. She wasn't exactly what I would call a natural born leader but I feel that just made it all the better when she did take charge. It's one thing to do something that comes easily to you; it's another thing altogether to do something that doesn't. One thing I liked about Lil was that when she first met Bran, despite finding him incredibly good looking, she didn't let her guard down and got away from him when she thought something about him wasn't right. Well, turns out Bran is still a good guy, even though he wasn't always that way. I didn't exactly swoon and fall in love with him but I found I liked him well enough. Also, there was a plethora of supporting characters, all having their own, distinct personalities. This could have been a problem as the characters may have become hard to keep up with but I found that I had no trouble with that at all.

For me, Awakened started out a bit slow and while it never seemed to be exactly fast-paced, things did get much more exciting. The whole imaginative thought process that went behind creating the 'Lineage of the Nephilim' and their world was wonderfully done and very refreshing. The names for the various Nephilim were very creative and I loved the reference pages at the beginning of the book. The story itself, while a bit predictable, had the occasional twist and was full of action.

The writing was easily my least favorite part of the book. Either I'm just becoming far more intuitive to typos or editing is getting sloppy. I could go pages without finding an error in the writing but then there would be three typos on one page. There were letters swapped, missing letters, missing spaces, wrong verb tenses, words that should have been plural but weren't, words that shouldn't have been plural but were, use of contractions where they didn't work, and over usage of particular phrases and words. Maybe it was the bumped up publication date that resulted in some of these mistakes. Don't get me wrong, in general the writing was good but the errors did detract just a little bit from the book. The dialogue, atleast, was still witty and believable which is a definite plus.

While the ending clearly promised a sequel, it wasn't a huge cliffhanger like with some books. I do, of course, love jaw-dropping cliffhangers with books in a series but one benefit to Awakened not having one is that it has made the wait for the next book a bit more bearable.

So despite the editing issues, Awakened was a great, captivating read once it got going. I haven't really noticed anyone else mention the writing errors so maybe it's just me. XD Either way, this book is definitely worth picking up and I would highly recommend it. I know I am really looking forward to Betrayed, the next in the series.

Grade
Characters: B
Writing: C
Plot: B
Ending: B-
1st in Series: B
Enjoyment/Likability: B
Recommendable: B+

Overall: B

Cover: C+