Reviewed by Rebecca Wells for TeensReadToo.com

Nicole has a life blighted by her brother, a meth addict who routinely calls home for money her parents can't refuse him. She just wants to get out. Her only respite comes in the form of Evermore, a bar in Manhattan where she can indulge her two loves: breaking, and Zin, a charismatic bartender.

Nicole just wants to be with Zin, but little does she know there is a dark secret he hides. When she uncovers it, will Nicole's love for Zin survive? And when a dark force connected to Zin begins to threaten her, what will she choose?

RAVEN is an engaging, fast-paced read. The voice of the narrator, Nicole, is sharp and clear. Readers will be drawn into this fascinating new world of breaking, but for newcomers to the dance, it will be at times difficult to understand and visualize.

For me, the climax of RAVEN came far too abruptly. The book seemed to be building toward an ending that never came, and that which finally did appear seemed out of the blue.

Still, RAVEN remains an engaging read regardless of this inconsistency in plot construction, mostly due to the captivating voice that narrates the book. Van Diepen is to be congratulated for her excellent imagination and tone. ( )

Nic is a senior in high school. She lives for hanging out with her friends, dancing with her breaking crew, and spending time with Zin.Zin is the leader of their dance crew. His moves are amazing and just watching him gives her chills. Nic is deeply in love with Zin and nothing is going to change that.Dancing allows Nic to escape from her problems. Her family is dysfunctional. Her brother left home and is addicted to Meth. Her parents continue to give him money because they don’t want him living on the streets. They refuse to cut him off and allow him to drag the family on an emotional roller coaster ride.After being attacked on her way home from work late one night, Nic discovers a frightening secret about Zin. Her deep feelings for him are tested. She realizes she doesn’t know people like she thought she did. Can she trust Zin or are his secrets too dangerous for her to stay with him?RAVEN is a gripping story filled with lessons of friendship, love, and family. The only detractor might be the amount of break dancing lingo used throughout the book. For someone without any experience in break dancing, it might get a little overwhelming. Don’t give up though. The story is worth it. The lingo is mostly at the beginning of the story. ( )

Raven is extremely easy to read, utterly captivating and very hard to put down. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I enjoyed what van Diepen had up her sleeve!I really loved the balance between fantasy, love, and this sort of hip urban feel. The relationship between Zin and Nic was intense, I appreciated the fact that they weren’t afraid to share their deepest, darkest secrets with each other, and I loved how their relationship grew. And not in a superficial lust way. Some of the characters fell a little flat for me. The night club group, were by far the most intriguing, I really enjoyed learning about their history and wished it had been further divulged. I had no idea what was going on during the dance battle scenes. The lingo meant absolutely nothing to me. I think a glossary to better explain the terms might have been a good idea. I knew enough from pop culture about what was happening, I just wasn’t able to distinguish the type of dance move that was being portrayed, but I didn’t feel like it took away from the story itself. The ending seemed really rushed for me, but overall Raven was a captivating, and enjoyable read. I recommend it for fantasy/romance fans. ( )

The cover was far more intriguing to me than the actually story ended up being. I felt the author barely pricked the surface of where she could of gone with the characters and story line. It was a quick read and at times a good read, but not sure if it is a keeper. The conversations between the characters were not always well written in my opinion. I'm interested to hear what others are saying about Raven. ( )

Susan says: I read this book because I caught a teen stealing two other Allison van Diepen books, and I thought I should know what they are about. This one combines breakdancing, urban clubs, drugs and immortality into one book. Nicole's family has a secret which she keeps from most people, including the guys in her breakdancing team. She spends a lot of her time at the club Evermore, where she is a waitress and is in love with the bartender, Zin, who is also on her breakdancing team. Imagine her shock when she finds out Zin is immortal, and that the club owner is offering her the same choice. What will she choose? Frankly, I am a little bored with immortals sucking the souls out of people. I felt like the urbanness of this book was way more exciting than the immortal part. There were some parts of this book that were telegraphed way far in advance (like that the club owner was the magician that had turned them all immortal), and I got a little impatient. But all in all, pretty interesting and I can see why this author is so popular. I just can't help feeling like she's riding the coattails a little bit.