Rook- A Book Review

Have you all heard of "New Adult" books? It's a new-ish genre of books which are aimed for people in college - 20-something. From what I've heard, basically young adult (more for teenagers) but for my generation and more sexy times. Or at least sterotypically.

I wasn't sure if I was interested in trying this new genre or not. On the one hand - I LOVE young adult novels! (The Fault in our Stars, Hunger Games, etc. are all actuall YA books.) Yet, there are times when I feel weird reading them all of the time considering I am 27 years old. Therefore, stories which read like YA but are for my age group would be fantastic. On the other hand... if the sterotypes were true about it basically bing YA but with more sexy times... eh. Not so much.

However, thanks to NetGalley, I can read some New Adult novels for free. Therefore, if I don't like it - no harm done.

The first one I've tried is Rook by JC Andrijeski. This was an awesome first peek at New Adult novels!

Basic Overview Without Spoilers:

The story begins in modern-day San Fransisco, but it's slightly different than the world we know. There is another race called "Seers" who are almost human, but not quite. They have cool powers, but are treated as servants/slaves.

Meet Allie. She's 28 and just had some MAJOR relationship drama which didn't end well. As in... she gets arrested because she was overly violent which is very much not her personality. Not long after, she has another violent outbreak. Enter in Revik, who at first seems like a major creepster but isn't at all. He basically kidnaps her, and Allie discovers she's not actually human. She's a seer. But not just any seer - a super seer called the "Bridge" and her existence basically means the begining of the apocolypse.

Chaso and romance ensue!

My Thoughts:

This book was awesome! Allie was a great protagonist. At first it was difficult to get to know her, but she holds her own and grows on you. I loved how she can fight for herself but still has a heart. So many times I feel like you get the two extremes. Either the character is really sweet and tender but can't defend herself, or she's tough as nails and it's hard to get attached. She had a good balance I felt. I will say, at first I wasn't sold on the love interest. Once it was established, I loved it. But building up the tenstion and all could have been done better.

The world was really interesting too. I liked learning about the history of the Seers and how they intertwined with other myths, legends, and religions. Sometimes I wasn't entirely sure how the Seer race was different from the humans (other than some special powers) though. As the story went on I could see it, but I felt like the nature of the two races was too similar.

The book read like a YA book, but still slightly more mature for an older audience. Which was what I expected and enjoyed. As a fan of YA novels, I was glad it had somewhat of the same feel. There was a bit more sensuality than there would be in a YA novel, but nothing over the top and crazy. I was grateful for this.

It also felt like an action movie. Car chases, explosions, guns, running - the works! It kept things really exciting and made the book go by quickly. However, I sometimes have a hard time processing a lot of action scenes when I'm reading. That's nothing with the author or writing though, it's strictly a me thing. Even in Harry Potter I would have to re-read sections that were action-heavy.

The one thing which bothered me was that the author kept changing tenses. For one section we were in first person past tense, then first person present tense, then third person - it was exhausting! I did get used to it after awhile and got the feel of her writing style and who's perspective was whose... but I wouldn't reccomend this for most books. In fact, I've always been curious about switching tenses and persepctives the way the author did in my own writing. I learned that I will never do this in my own stories.

Overall though, I really enjoyed Rook and I know there are several other stories to follow in this series. I'm excited to see where it goes because this was a pretty crazy begining!

I gave Rook 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I recieved my copy of this novel as an eArc free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.