(Before It's News)
Title: Mortal Danger
Series: Immortal Game, #1
Author: Ann Aguirre
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Reviewed by: Ellen Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 4/5
SUMMARY
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn't imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She's not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he's impossible to forget.
In one short summer, her entire life changes, and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly… bad things are happening. It's a heady rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil's bargains, she isn't sure who—or what–she can trust. Not even her own mind…
REVIEW
The captivating, fast-paced beginning of Mortal Danger hooked me immediately. On the brink of suicide, highly unpopular Edie, often mocked as Eat-it is offered a deal. A deal which offers her revenge on the popular Teflon crew at Blackbriar Academy. Unfortunately, in the heat and despair of the moment, she doesn't read the fine print, so to speak. That the guy who offered her the deal is stunningly handsome, does not make for clear thinking either.
Deals with the devil or, in this case, a powerful, vaguely defined being, sounds cool. The act-in-haste-repent-at-leisure adage, however, would most certainly apply here. Not by nature a mean, vengeful person, Edie Kramer, the main character, is horrified when those who wronged her in the past start suffering in ways she would never have wished on them.
I found the idea of beauty being the answer to popularity rather repulsive. Fortunately the newly beautified Edie does make some true friends. The sacrifices that she, as well as her handsome love interest, Kian Riley, makes in order to keep these friends safe redeems the beauty-is-everything factor a bit.
Although the author employs several supernatural entities in this book, she is a bit vague as to who and what exactly they are. We have the two companies, Dwyer & Fell versus Wedderburn, Mawer and Graf, which sounds much like lawyers but are, in fact, quite a bit nastier than any lawyer could be.
Tender and often rather poignant, the romance in this book fortunately does not dominate the story. With no real humor, numerous unhappy relationships, and a great deal of suffering and death, I found this book a bit depressing. Monsters of legend who carry off kids in bags, apparitions in mirrors, and a thin man who smell like death, bring a definite element of horror into this tale.
A paranormal romance with a unique twist, a scary dash of horror, and a healthy dose of wisdom, Mortal Danger is most certainly a worthwhile read.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes all kinds of books, emo music, action movies and Doctor Who. She writes all kind of fiction in multiple genres, both YA and for adults.
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http://bookstomorrow.blogspot.com/2014/09/guest-review-mortal-danger-by-ann.html
