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Firstly I want to say that I was pretty excited to read this book.  I know Richelle Mead is a well published author and has a loyal and passionate following (rightly so) for her amazingly successful Vampire Academy series.  Having not read the Academy series, I thought I would read this book with no preconceptions.

Unfortunately,  and with a little bit of sadness, I have to tell you I couldn’t finish the book.  I tried, I read, I put down, I started again.  Nothing worked, the words just moved around on the page and didn’t stick.  I had no idea who the characters were, where they lived, what all the codes and ‘New World’ anagrams meant.  I’m not an idiot mind, I usually pick up pretty quickly who is who and plot lines to follow.  I annoy my partner immensely by guessing the endings to most movies before the reveal, so what was the problem here? Why couldn’t I get into it?

I guess it’s twofold for me, one being that Mae, the seeming main character is cold and not likeable at all, and second, the world these guys live in wasn’t quite set out early enough for me to feel involved with the book.

Maybe this is Richelle Meads own version of Casual Vacancy.  It will disappoint most fans, yet there will be a new group of readers who may enjoy it!