Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Review: Red by Alyxandra Harvey


Bad girls burn hot…

Red is the color of Kia Alcott's hair.
It's her temper, which blazes hot and always gets Kia into way too much trouble.
And it's the color of fire. Fires that Kia can start…just by thinking about them.

When her latest “episode” gets her kicked out of school, Kia is shipped off to her grandmother, who works for the wealthy Blackwoods. It's an estate shrouded in secrets, surrounded by rules, and presided over by a family that is far from normal…including the gorgeous and insolent Ethan Blackwood.

Ethan knows far more about the dangers of the forest surrounding the estate than Kia can ever imagine. For this forest has teeth, and Ethan is charged with protecting the outside world from its vicious mysteries.

But inside, even the most vibrant shade of red doesn't stand a chance against the dark secrets of the Blackwood family…






Red is about this girl named Kia whom everyone thinks is a bit of a pyromaniac. She does have a problem with starting fires but not the way that people think. She starts them alright ... and the fire literally comes from within her. Kia gets kicked out of school for setting some old lady's roses on fire, so she gets shipped off to live with her grandmother. It's not some beautiful, homey little cottage that she's going to ... it's a castle and Grandma is the vet/wood chopper/everything else for the residents of this amazing home. Soon after moving in, she notices that things probably aren't as they seem and then the story really lights up. No pun intended. Fine. Maybe it was intended ... it sounded perfect. 

What did I think? Well ... I'm not a big fan of paranormal ... I mean, I like paranormal novels but it's not my "GO TO" genre when I'm looking for something to read. Something about this cover and the blurb for it ... it was intriguing and I was super excited to pick it up. All of that nonsense being said, I really REALLY liked this one. 

I really liked the whole premise of the story ... the reader is really kept on their toes because you don't know what is going to happen next. It's always something new with each turn of the page, you literally couldn't predict the next exciting part. The writing was pretty good too. Not the best that I've read but it wasn't bad and it did keep you interested. I didn't find myself skimming pages or skipping paragraphs to just make the story move faster. 

This book is a stand alone. I don't believe that there will be a prequel that comes out and it was so nicely buttoned up at the end, I don't think that there will be a sequel either. And that has some serious drawbacks. One being that even with all of the info that you know about these characters, there is so much that is still unknown. It felt like you had enough to get you through to the end of the book but it lacked a depth that I think the book would have benefited from. There is such a thing as too much information but these characters didn't come close to having that issue. I just wanted ... more. I've said it a million times, I am a greedy reader. I'm a SUPER greedy reader. I want to know every minute detail that the author has to give me about characters, locations, situations and after the author gives me that, I want MORE. I want all of the details that the author has thought of but figured it would be too much for the story. Most of the time, it's not! Tell me about these characters' past. Tell me about their needs, wants, urges, passions, hatreds ... I want everything. I think this story just lacked those extra things and it made you feel like these characters were just part of a clique at school that you don't really know anything about except the big stuff. You don't know what makes them tick. 

Anyway, that's just how I felt. Now, by no means does everything that I've said in that last paragraph mean that the book isn't worth reading. I think that it is. ESPECIALLY if you're a person who has a hard time getting into a book ... this will keep your attention and feed that urge to read. 

This was my first book by Alyxandra Harvey and I'm excited to see what else this author has under her sleeve because this was good. 



Available: March 10th, 2015



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