Title: Mystery Falls
Series: Mystery Falls #1
Author: Marilyn Phillips
Author: Marilyn Phillips
Release Date: July, 2012
Pages: 345
Goodreads Rating: 4.26/5 Stars
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
My Content Rating: 13+ (Nothing more than kissing)
Summary from Goodreads: Secrets. Lies. Deception. For the past six years, Samantha Hunt has lived with the belief that the untimely death of her parents was the result of an unfortunate accident—that by the cruel hand of fate, she had been left an orphan. But it was a lie, a terrible lie told to her by those who wanted to keep her in the dark. And the truth... when revealed, will change her life and haunt her forever.
Suddenly plagued by a series of events which find her in danger and in need of a savior, Samantha is repeatedly rescued by the mysterious and elusive Shadow—a stranger who seems to know more about her past and the tragedy which befell her family, than she does. Drawn to him despite the antagonism she feels whenever in his presence, Samantha soon discovers that Shadow is not what he appears to be. Determined to learn his true identity and why he has come to Mystery Falls, the small town in which she has spent all of her seventeen years, Samantha not only uncovers the secrets he refuses to share, but also the truth about her own past. A truth which forces her to acknowledge that things are not always as they seem, and sometimes, not even those close to you can be trusted.
Resolved to seeking justice for the unwarranted death of her parents, Samantha embarks on a journey which brings her perilously close to her own demise. Can Shadow use his angel powers to save her yet again, or this time, will he be too late.
Mystery Falls is a paranormal mystery filled with intrigue. I'm a fan of angel stories, so I was pretty excited when I won this (and the second book in the series) awhile back. And I was eager to read it when this book came up as my Random Read for this month! While I didn't love it quite as much as I was hoping to, I did enjoy it and I'll definitely be reading the next installment in the series.
The negatives:
- Instalove. The biggest thing that kept me from absolutely loving this book was the egregious instalove. Almost odder to me than the fact that Samantha fell instantly in love with Shadow was the fact that her best friend was the one to convince her of this fact. I could kind of chalk Samantha being drawn to Shadow up to a supernatural connection, but why would Mia (who had no idea about anything supernatural) be so insistent that she was, in fact, in love? She basically tells her, "You watch him all the time at school. It's obvious that you're in love with him." Because, yeah, watching someone automatically equals love. Not a crush, not "Hey, maybe you like this guy." Nope, love. And that's it. For the rest of the book, she was in love with him. Even though he barely talked to her. And annoyed her. Sigh.
What I loved:
- The mystery. I really enjoyed the mystery of what really happened with Samantha's parents. There were quite a few surprises there and I was never quite sure what was going to happen. Once Samantha figured out what actually happened, she didn't necessarily handle it very well and she put herself in an incredibly dangerous situation - there were a few different possible outcomes and I was anxious to see how it all played out.
- Forbidden love. Despite the fact that Samantha and Shadow's relationship was founded on instalove, once their relationship was established a bit more, I did enjoy them together. They were plagued by the whole forbidden love thing, which ended up being even more complicated than just the fact that angels weren't allowed to be with humans (I won't spoil why). I'm definitely a sucker for that sort of thing, so I was rooting for them by the end.
Mystery Falls was an interesting paranormal read. While I wasn't crazy about the instalove, which kind of ruined the romance for me at first, I enjoyed the book in the end and will be reading the next book. I give this one 3/5 stars.
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