Published Nov. 7, 2017
371 Pages
Rain Ryland has never belonged anywhere, He’s used to people judging him for his rough background, his intimidating size, and now, his orphan status. He’s always been on the outside, looking in, and he’s fine with that. Until he moves to New Wurzburg and meets Friederike Burkhart.
Freddie isn’t like normal teen girls, though. And someone wants her dead for it. Freddie warns he’d better stay far away if he wants to stay alive, but Rain’s never been good at running from trouble. For the first time, Rain has something worth fighting for, worth living for. Worth dying for.- Goodreads
I had no idea what I was getting into when I began this book. I thought it was going to be one of those books where the protagonist falls into the dark whole and has to fight the world to get back to where they came from. This book is slightly like that. Rain gets involves into a world that is different from what his world only in the sense that this new world involves some supernatural beings.
Let me begin by saying I loved Rain. Between his logical loyalty, kindness and street smarts, he was a really like-able character and I wanted the best for him beginning and end. Who I didn’t like was Freddie. What Rain saw in her, I don’t know. She was rude, disrespectful and a hothead. She didn’t want people to make their own decision and caught and attitude when they did. Rain made a huge point when he told her the reason she liked him was because he doesn’t let her boss him around and that he makes he own decision. From that moment on, he was my favorite. But I hated Freddie, even at the end of the book.
What this book was missing was the mythology part of it. The fact that Rain, for the most part, accepted how everything came to be was surprising. Yes, he questioned the way things were going but he didn’t question how it came to be. Were they always here? How was the counsel formed? Who is the most powerful? Things like that I felt could have been answered with the help of some story telling within the plot. I am big on supernatural and mythology and this book would have been perfect for it.
Rain and Freddie’s romance wasn’t forced but it came off more adult than I thought it would have been. Freddie likes control and is a bit extreme regarding that, while Rain is much more willing to compromise. I guess it made the relationship, when it actually happened, balanced.
Another issue I had with this read, is there was a lot of he said she said. A lot of supporting characters did a lot of talk behind everyone’s back and it was redundant to hear the gossip as opposed to something actually going on. I understand the small town aspect behind that but every other page was about what someone else did as opposed to something happening in live time.
Finally, what was bothering me while reading and what is still bothering after reading, is the lack of time the author took to talk about Rain’s family history. She throws it in there, so you know what happened initially and Rain even talks about it with his Aunt but it was lazy. There wasn’t enough time and care into his life other than the few snippets. I was disappointed in that.
Overall, I liked this book. I loved reading it through Rain’s point of view and I hope that there is a book two but with much more details, drama and emotion.
3 Pickles
Motif by Tanya 