Today in Jen's Library

This was a book I really expected to love, and had a lot of trouble even liking. For that reason, I'm calling it a big disappointment.

The premise was good; a fallen angel falls in love with a regular girl. Unfortunately, we don't really find out that's what's happening until near the end of the book. The action picks up and things get interesting in the last 10% or so. But up till then, it's just your run-of-the-mill teenage story full of angst and a brainless girl making dumb decisions.

So on that count, the plot is questionable at best. The book begins with a scene from the 1500's, and we have no idea why. That isn't explained until the very end. Where are the fallen angels? Why did they fall? What do they want? Why am I having to slog through all these pages before I finally get answers - at the very end?

The characters were passable but had zero depth. I couldn't really peg Nora, the main character. She was supposed to be a geeky nerd. And yet she never acted really like a geeky nerd. She never seemed to follow any kind of pattern that would have made you think "oh, she's like that." It drives me a little crazy when any character doesn't stay true to character. Their behaviour and thoughts are all over the place, so you never get a sense of who they really are. Just when you think she doesn't like Patch and wants to be smart about him, she does something totally out-of-character, like kiss him. If she's really the smart nerd she's supposed to be, then she shouldn't know anything about serious romance. Shouldn't she be tentative about that, since it's a social situation that has eluded her? And for goodness sake, she's in the 10th grade. Her actions and thoughts seemed to go way beyond a 16-year old.

Patch, the love interest, is apparently a bad boy. I didn't find much about him to like. I kept expecting the smoldering romantic interest who was there to save the day. He's conflicted, and at least that made it interesting at the end. Because he never did anything that was really explained until the last 10% of the book, I didn't like him or dislike him. I just didn't care. He never really came in to save the day, and that annoyed me. A smoldering bad boy is supposed to rise to the occasion and save the day in the end, isn't he?

Jules, Elliott, and Vee were all people I could have cared less about. While one is clearly the villain, that wasn't made clear until the end. He was a very bad guy, and that was good. The reasons for his actions were interesting, but again not revealed until the last scenes. As such, I spent a lot of time wondering why he was even in the book. It would have been different if we had been actually getting to know these characters. But they weren't deep on any level. They were just figures holding places until the real battle at the end.

So the characters weren't defined and the plot really isn't even revealed until the last few pages. If you can last through most of a book that gives you a shallow look at Coldwater High School and the teens who attend it, then this is for you. I have the sequels to this book, but will be reserving them for days when I have nothing else to read. Sorry, Nora and Patch. You never made me love you, and I frankly just don't give a damn.