Chasing Power
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Release: October 14th 2014
Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, YA
Plot:
Lies, secrets, and magic — three things that define Kayla's life.
Sixteen-year-old Kayla plans to spend her summer hanging out on the beach in Santa Barbara and stealing whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. Born with the ability to move things with her mind — things like credit cards, diamond rings, and buttons on cash registers — she has become a master shoplifter. She steals to build up a safety net, enough money for her and her mom to be able to flee if her dad finds them again. Well, that, and the thrill of using her secret talents.
But her summer plans change when she's caught stealing by a boy named Daniel — a boy who needs her help and is willing to blackmail her to get it. Daniel has a talent of his own. He can teleport, appearing anywhere in the world in an instant, but he lies as easily as he travels. Together, they embark on a quest to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millennia ago, all to rescue Daniel's kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family — and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive... or survive.
Review:
The first of Sarah Beth Durst's books I have actually, truly enjoyed for once. I am impressed, yet at the same time still a little disappointed.
I recognized some elements from her Drink, Slay, Love, specifically, some of the absolute ridiculousness from it. Especially the end was very anticlimactic and underwhelming and very reminiscent of Dora the Explorer's "Swiper, no Swiping!"
The characters were mostly alright, although sometimes too crass as well. By which I mean, sometimes they'd be in some kind of immediate crisis that needs to be resolved as soon as possible and one of the characters will just suddenly start talking about her love life and her parent problems and whatnot and it was like Uhmmmm wait a sec... priorities.
The relationships were done satisfactorily, I wasn't too captivated by any of them and none of them were truly original or anything, but they weren't bad either. I even came close to sort of shipping the main romantic relationship, but the others left me more or less stone cold, sorry to say.
As for the plot, that was one thing that I thought was really well done, I liked the overall idea of it, the execution and the plot twists were nice and surprising as well. Probably the best done feature of the whole novel, I generally like Durst's ideas though, it's just that she's never good at bringing them across nice enough, however, she finally managed with this one, for which I'm glad.
In the end, I think it tied up neat, but as I said the ending was just really cheesy and inadequate, and to be quite honest I'm a little glad this is only a stand-alone, but overall, I'm pleased. I had fun with this, I even stayed up later than usual to keep on reading because there were some intense scenes in there, and I hope this might be a sign that there's still hope for me and Durst out there. We'll see. I have a fourth book of hers lying here, maybe fourth time will be the actual charm, where I'll end up loving it.
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