Review: Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

 

Book:  Born At Midnight by C.C. Hunter

Alone: Series, Shadow Falls #1
Pages:  416

Genre: Young Adult
Purchase A Copy: Amazon | Book Depository
Publication Date: March 29th, 2011

Description: Don’t miss this spectacular new series that will steal your heart and haunt your dreams,  Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen…One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever.  Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.”  Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.
Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either.  Or does she?  They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason.  As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas.  Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past.  Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart. 
Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

Born at Midnight was an entertaining read for me, but it did not bring anything new to the table. Paranormal Young Adult Romances are absolutely everywhere and unfortunately, this one did not stand out. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I cannot say that it made a lasting impression on me.

I found the story overall to be a bit, shall we say, theatrical. The characters themselves are all a bit over the top and extremely dramatic. Kylie tends to wallow and whine for the majority of the book – which got under my skin. In the rare instances that she put her big girl panties on, she was a smart, snarky character. I can only hope that she will grow up a bit during the next book and learn to stop complaining all of the time.

However, I am completely in love with the secondary characters; especially Kylie’s two roommates, Miranda and Della (a witch and a vampire) and the perverted shapeshifter, Perry. All three of them have a great dynamic and I would have loved to see more of them. They liven up the story and often draw Kylie away from her poor me pity party.

Now, let’s talk love interests. Oh my, there are just so many. Are you tired of the dreaded love triangle? Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, Hunter’s solution for this is to create a love square. Here we have traditional good boy vs. the “misunderstood” bad boy, but now we’ve added exactly one apologizing ex-boyfriend into the mix. Tell me, how many suitors does one girl need? Because there are so many different options, we don’t spend a great deal of time with any of them in particular. Therefore, I did not get a good handle on them and they just end up seeming a bit stereotypical. The additional boy also doesn’t solve the problem of predictability – it is still obvious where the story is going with this one. Simply follow the angst kiddies. 

Like I said before, I did enjoy Born at Midnight while I was reading it. The story is easy to follow and the characters are certainly entertaining, but do not expect anything out of the box. Hunter sticks with the tried and true Young Adult + Paranormal Romance formula and produces a light, entertaining read. If you are looking for something to keep you occupied for a few hours that does not exactly bog your brain down, then give Born at Midnight a try.