Title: Playing Hooky (Paranormal Investigations #1)
Author: Rita Webb
Release Date: January 21, 2013
Release Date: January 21, 2013
Valentine’s Day.
And my 21st birthday.
Whoop-de-doo.
Just another college day full of classes and more homework than is humanly possible.
…until Jason, my best-friend-since-kindergarten, shows up to take me out for the day.
Like old times: the two of us on a wacky adventure, playing hooky from real life. With his lopsided grin and tickets to a circus full of misfits and monsters, he introduces me to a whole new world—one full of magic and mystery—and turns my reality upside down.
Except nothing goes as planned, and we end up running through the city to find a missing siren before someone brews a love potion with her blood.
Sirens and love potions, witches and elves, and Valentine kisses. Nothing will be the same for me again.
Since most books falling under the New Adult genre these days are all about romance with that gasp! oh-so-shocking twists that come from nowhere (and wow I seriously need a break from those), the paranormal aspect of Playing Hooky had me enthralled from the blurb alone, and other than that, I've always been a sucker for stories about best friends, so this whole set-off-in-an-adventure storyline really appealed to me as well. Anyway, it's always refreshing to see more authors tackling other sub-genres of New Adult, after all, because there is so much more to this genre than relationships.
In a nutshell, I certainly enjoyed reading Playing Hooky, and I finished it well under an hour and in one sitting. Despite the fact that this book is relatively short, Webb did a bang-up job with her world-building. I was immersed with the beings and creatures that appeared in her book, and I found myself wanting to know more about them. Moreover, this story is set in Alaska, and this is something new to me. I really loved the parts wherein both characters had to ski off to their next location instead of riding a car or something. Emma is a pretty fun character to read about as well.
Because this is a novella, however, I did have some problems with it, mainly because of the length. I feel that Playing Hooky is a wee bit too short, and I felt like I didn't learn enough about the characters, most especially the male MC, Jason. I honestly believe that his POV didn't contribute anything to the story, mainly because he himself is still rather confused with who/what he really is. Though I'm usually fond of dual POVs, but I think that Playing Hooky would have benefited more from a sole POV - Emma's. It would have been more amazing to see this magical world unfold before her eyes and her eyes only.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a relatively easy time solving the mystery of the missing siren. It was just plain obvious to me who the culprit was, and I'm a bit disappointed that the whole revelation was rushed. The culprit's motive was a little too petty for me to take seriously as well.
A fun start to a New Adult paranormal series, Playing Hooky is a light read that you won't regret delving into. Hopefully the sequel would deal more with the characters' backgrounds, and I would want to see more of this fascinating world.
Rating: 3 Stars
I've always thought that New Adult was a romance thing, great to know that there're paranormal ones out there! Hmm, though the novella-length and not-so-well-developed dual POVs draws me back, still going to look out for this one :)
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA I LOVE BOOKMARKS!! I have very very very weird ones, like detention slips *oops*, but this one looks so pretty.