Review: Swoon by Nina Malkin

Swoon by Nina Malkin

432 pages, Young Adult

Simon Pulse (May 19, 2009)

$12.23 (Amazon, Hardcover), $9.99 (Amazon, Kindle and Paperback)

Procurement

I received this as a gift for Christmas from the hubby.

My Grade

Plot: 4

Setting: 3

Writing: 3

Originality: 4

Characters: 3

Passion: 5

Overall: 22/30 = 73%  C

Cover/Title Bonus: 3

Summary (Goodreads.com)

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him -- but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking. Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent -- and irresistible -- adversary, before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?

First Line(s)

Love at first site must be glorious. I wouldn’t know, since at first there was no sight. Smell, yeah—the tangy, salty scent of horses. Plenty of other sensations too. But I’ll get to that. The point I want to make up front is that by the time I laid eyes on Sinclair Youngblood Powers—in the flesh, that is—I was already in love with him. Nothing could change that. Not even the fact that he was dead. – page 1, Swoon by Nina Malkin

Trailer (watch at your own risk!)

Plot

This was a wickedly weird and awesome plot line. I enjoyed all the twists and turns. The mystery behind it all was interesting and kept my attention.

Setting

The small town of Swoon was pretty normal. The flash back to the old times was an amazing experience and I enjoyed that immensely.

Writing

This was written in first person POV from Dice. I would have LOVED to get inside Sin’s head and wish it would have been in 3rd person or alternate POV's but overall I enjoyed the writing.

Originality

This was a super original story. I haven’t read anything to do with reanimated people or in this case golems. I found it enriching yet unclear at times of what the outcome would actually be. Due to that I felt kinda lost at times but over all I found it really enjoyable to venture into this unknown territory.

Characters

Dice and her best friend and cousin, Pen, are the major characters. I was NOT a fan of Pen and at times found myself wondering WTF Dice was thinking.

And of course Sin is the major, major character. He’s a good boy gone wrong and I wanted to like him and did at times but mostly I had a weird untrusting feeling about him. He was an enjoyable part of this book though. He made it really crazy and DARK. This book is pretty dark.

Passion

I would say there was massive amounts of passion in this book. Almost risqué at times. It fit well with the overall theme of the golem plot though.

Overall

Overall, this book was not what I was expecting. If you watch the trailer or read the summary and actually remember what it’s about you probably won’t be surprised but I tend to NOT read summary’s too much, especially if they start spelling it all out. And I usually don’t watch trailers for the same reason. I don’t want all the freaking plot details spelled out to me! I want to be surprised damn it!

Anyway, it wasn’t the best book I’ve read because I didn’t connect with the characters too much even though I thought it was super original.

Cover/Title Bonus

The cover is good. The tree is a major thing in the book. I do NOT like the title though. I thought the town name of Swoon to be kinda, WTF? Swoon? Really? But, alas, what can you do about it?! :)

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