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Winterborne (2000)

by Augusta Blythe(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

series

Universe Unbound

review 1: The narration of this book is extremely unique as it's narrated not by the main character, but by her best friend. In that sense, it seemed almost like a biography of a famous person, written by someone who knew them well, and I think that really emphasised the relationship between Mia and Loie in a very clever way. I found Loie to be an excellent storyteller, and whilst I really did feel for her situation I felt she was a bit defeatist at times. She just decided she could never be anything except Mia's friend, and she didn't really try to be. It infuriated me a bit. Mia was your typical girl who has it all. You can't really blame her for the way she acted, because it's not really her fault.I wasn't really taken with Andreas if I'm honest, I genuinely didn't see anything a... moreppealing about his character, or why the girls liked him so much. He was british yeah, but the only british thing I got was one use of the endearment "love" and that was about it. Saying that, I really enjoyed how the love story played out in this, I thought it was really clever.The plot in general was very clever, and very different to the majority of the books in the same genre I've read. I definitely didn't figure out a couple of the twists, which is always a nice surprise I think. I loved that with the absence of Mia's dad, there was no exposition about her potential powers. You learnt ride along side her and Loie and I thought that was pretty cool. I thought the world Blythe created was really realistic and obviously well-planned. I loved the foreshadowing and hints that were included, and how they made sense at the end, when everything had been revealed. There was a big thing made of animals following them and being threatening throughout the book that I really didn't get. I dont *think* it was ever explained? I just found that a bit weird. The writing style was middle of the road for me. Nothing stuck out as appalling, but nothing stuck out as fantastic either. I just really enjoyed reading it, and felt it flowed well. There were maybe a few slow points where the plot was concerned, but overall this was a really interesting, well conceived and fairly unusual paranormal YA read.
review 2: The first thing that popped out to me about this book is that it's from Loie's perspective instead of Mia's, which I had originally thought. This makes for an interesting change of pace, though I felt that it waned sometimes because Loie's a little less interesting. However, Loie is a much more relatable character and much more empathetic than Mia, who seems to be a bit selfish and sometimes just as equally inconsiderate. Then again, she is the typical girl-who-has-it-all, so I can't really put fault on her because she knows no different. Loie and Mia's friendship is a good friendship, though I think I would change Loie's passiveness just a little - she seems to just accept that Mia is "better" and that Mia will get everything, yet she does nothing to try to make the situation better for herself. Andreas was a good character to bring into the equation and I think the romance was pleasant in the story, but I can't say that I found him as swoon-worthy as the girls did. He just didn't stick out to me all that much. I don't know if my indifference comes from the fact that I felt like he was leading Loie on a little because they did have some semi-sweet moments together, or he just fell flat personality-wise for me. Or maybe there's really more there with Andreas and Loie? I guess we will know with time. In any case, he's a good character.. I just feel like maybe I need to know him a little better before I can really understand him and maybe actually like him more.I found the plot and twists in this story completely unique from others in the genre. You actually learn a lot right along with the characters instead of the characters knowing about themselves already and then you just discover it on down the road, which was a nice little feat. The best part of the story was that it kept me guessing. I didn't know as much as I thought I did as I was reading and was pleasantly surprised with the curve balls that were thrown through the novel.Even though it's not written from the main character's point of view, Loie is a great narrator and, from her descriptions, you know that she definitely knows Mia very well - which kept the feel of the story very genuine. This is a great read with some interesting features that I think readers will absolutely love. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book to come out. less

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