Rachel Morgan (2)

It's not secret that I'm a huge fan of New Adult, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to review The Trouble with Flying. How could I turn down a cute airplane romance? Things were going pretty well in the beginning until I realized that The Trouble with Flying had something many other books suffer from too- a weak, wishy washy main character.
The plot was actually decent, albeit kind of cliche and run of the mill. Sarah is headed to South Africa where she meets Aiden on her plane ride. show more During their long flight, the two of them connect and become pretty close. After they go their separate ways, they coincidentally meet again at a family gathering. Of course things are never that simple, for Sarah already has a boyfriend, even though she doesn't like him. Why doesn't she break up with him then? Because she's one of those characters, the ones that don't do anything and just fret and flail around clueless. Yeah, I admit I wanted to slap her a few times. However, there is some character development near the end where Sarah has a sudden (and by sudden, I mean like "light bulb!" suddenly) realization about her personality and finally becomes less wishy washy. Thankfully the other characters were better. Matt is your typical villain of the story aka the bad boyfriend, while Aiden is the swoony guy who we all supposedly ship with the main character. I honestly didn't love Aiden, but he was cute and a good person.
I really enjoyed the setting of South Africa and learning more about the culture. The language confused me in the beginning because I didn't realize it was written in British English or that there was a glossary at the end until I finished-oops.
But overall, The Trouble with Flying had a good plot and was a fast, enjoyable read but suffered from a weak MC. show less

This book picks up with Violet coming to terms with Nate’s betrayal at the end of book 1. She must shift through her feelings of doubt and anger, and worry about being a target of the Unseelie Court. And as comes naturally to her, Violet embraces her snarky disposition to move toward her ultimate goal: graduating at the top of her class. Now only one thing stands in the way of that goal, Ryn. Partnering undercover with Ryn brings about new challenges for the recently reformed duo and whose show more growing friendship is a highlight in the story.

Violet and Ryn’s relationship had become one of my favorites. Their snappy banter alone will hold a place in my heart forever. They are not afraid to be angry with another, or silly, or kind. They acknowledge their shared history, the pain and frustration they’ve caused each other and are actively work on growing up and moving forward. They must trust each other while on assignment, not only to make it to graduation but to survive. Their relationship is so well crafted it becomes enviable; you desperately want their dynamic to be reflected in your own life.

We see Violet’s resilience in this story. She not only has to face Nate’s betrayal, but she had to face her complicated past with Ryn, and confront the pain from the loss of her parents. Violet’s past and present are embedded with her own doubt and loss, but she refuses to let them weigh her down or hold her back. As she says to Zinnia, “Most of the time I try not to think about all the things that hurt; that probably has a lot more to do with weakness than strength.” She doesn’t even recognize this as one of her greatest strengths, and that make Violet both admirable and inspiring. show less

I've been looking for a good faerie story for a while. I lean toward YA books for that because once we go streamline adult it becomes...well...swamped down with sex and that is not the story I want. I want to escape to another realm, so to speak. :) This was different and I found the plot a little edgy with some nice twists and turns. I will definitely keep an eye out for the next one.

Did I find a super awesome YA read with amazing characters and believable romance? And romantic tension? Lots of romantic tension? Did I? Oh, yes... Yes, I did.

This is one of my new favorites going on my “epic” shelf! Sweet babies, I adored this thing. Violet, the protag, is a very strong and snarky faerie—truly funny, and not just occasionally so. She's a tough chick and even a bit of a tomboy to boot, which makes her physical prowess that much more believable. And, she's a teenage show more girl with so little experience with boys, so she does allow herself to get involved with the human boy, Nate. But, she is not dreaming of their wedding day, nor thinking the fate gods had anything to do with their meeting each other.

She's a Guardian-in-training who goes out and protects people and fae folk from evil stuff that has the tendency to wreak havoc on innocent people's lives. She has a really sassy guy rival in her Guild named Ryn, an old friend-turned-enemy. A frenemy. He's just yummy and fun. I love characters like that!

Then, there's Nate who is really funny, too, and I don't know how I feel about him after having read the entire story, plus the bonus stories. He's just a complex character, I suppose, like any real person, so I'm left perplexed and wanting to know why he chooses to go down the path he does in the story SO badly. Why did you do it? Why, Nate?

Back to Ryn—delicious Ryn. Where you have an instant attraction between Violet and Nate, leading to a very immediate relationship worthy of high-schoolers, you have something far slower-burning with Vi and Ryn. They hate each other, but do they really? It feels like that kind of relationship where the two get off on making each other angry. Ryn certainly derives actual pleasure from doing so with Vi, as I learned from reading his POV story at the end. The potential for future romance between the two is seething through the words on the page and I cannot wait to read more about them. I totally ship it!

I think what makes this story work is that it goes deep and does it right away in Book 1. We find out why Violet has literally NO friends and why she and Ryn had a falling out. She starts out not having a clue as to why he hates her, but he fesses up and it really allows for the kind of character insight missing in a whole lot of novels I read, YA and adult. Because I can understand what makes these characters tick, I relate to them better and can now get hooked into their emotions, just like how they get hooked into each other, emotionally, after their big blow-up. It's something usually saved for a Book 2 or Book 3, but, seriously, why wait to put in the good stuff? This is why readers read! show less