Forbidden Review

Forbidden by Syrie James and Ryan James

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.

Alec MacKenzie is fed up with his duties to watch and, when necessary, eliminate the descendants of his angelic forefathers. He chose Emerson as the ideal hiding place where he could be normal for once. He hadn't factored Claire into his plans. . . .

Their love is forbidden, going against everything Alec has been taught to believe. But when the reason behind Claire's unusual powers is revealed and the threat to her life becomes clear, how far will Alec go to protect her (goodreads)?



Review: 

The adorable story tells of forbidden love, angels and demons. What's not to love? I loved this novel up until the half way point when Forbidden started to become very cliche. 

Highschooler Claire Brennan is very content wtih her life. She goes to a small school, has two very dependable friends and a crush on a boy who seems ridiculously perfect. Her world is turned upside down when quirky Alec MacKenzie transfers to her school. 

Forbidden opens up with Claire starting her first day of the new semester at Emerson Academy. She is introduced as any other high school girl which helped with the book's lighthearted atmosphere. I really enjoyed following Claire as she struggled to figure out who she was and getting to know Alec. The novel's introduction of the two rivaling "angel" factions held my attention until Claire learned of her ancestry, then it read like any other young-adult-paranormal-love-triangle. There was an instance where Claire is being deceived by the main "baddie" and I could not take it seriously. The act had been done so many times before that it just becomes laughable. Although I complain about its cliche nature I do realize that that most books in the YA field do heavily borrow from each other. I think I was disappointed that this book followed a formula because the opening was much fun with a very distinct plot. 

Along with a distinct plot, I fell in love with all of the characters, especially Alec. Alec is presented as a young man with hardly any experience with interacting with people so I found his quirky was adorable and I loved every interaction he had with Claire. Claire two best friends were also very interesting and played the role of secondary characters very well. I would read the sequel to this book just to learn more about the characters to be honest.

While this is a collaboration between two people, the writing was very solid and I never could tell where one person's influences over the book stood out. It was also a breath of fresh air that this Young Adult novel was NOT told from the first person perspective. 

I really enjoyed reading this book even though it took every fiber of my being to stop rolling my eyes at overly-cliche plot points. The characters were interesting and the writing kept the reader's attention. I am still on the fence on whether or not I will pick up the second novel. 

I recommend this to any fan of the YA angel genre!

Entry for Immortals Challenge 2012

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