Review: Anew by Chelsea Fine

Anew

Author: Chelsea Fine

Release: December 7th 2011

Genre: Paranormal Romance, YA

#1 in the Archers of Avalon trilogy

Sequels: Awry (#2), Avow (#3)

Plot:

Two years ago, Scarlet awoke in the forest alone, afraid, and unable to remember anything. Lost and confused, her life was a mystery...until she met a boy with a familiar voice. 

Gabriel Archer has a voice from her past, and Scarlet's determined to remember why. She immerses herself in his life only to discover he has a brother he's kept hidden from her: Tristan Archer. 

Upon meeting Tristan, Scarlet's world becomes even more muddled. While she's instinctively drawn to Gabriel, she's impossibly drawn to Tristan--and confused out of her mind. As she tries to piece together her history Scarlet realizes her past...might just be the death of her. 

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Review:

Ugh. I didn't want that cliffhanger ending make me want to read the next book, but I guess now I don't really have any other choice than to do just that. But believe me when I say that it's only because I'm curious as to where the plot is heading that I do that, because the book itself is horrible in all other respects.

Honestly, the characters aren't even two, but one-dimensional as fuck. I will say that Scarlet is at least not quite as stupid and dumb as other heroines, but she's still pretty high up on the list. She had her sensible, reasonable moments, but she also had tons of crying/mooning-over-boys and silly moments as well, which, hey, nothing wrong with that, but... it just got too much after a while. 

Which also has to do with the horrible writing. The dialogue is cringe-worthy at best and absolutely nausea inducing at worst, the descriptions are barely there and the whole world is just a blank page. All the work, if any, has been put into building up the relationship drama, with most of the writing featuring sentences like "She wanted to feel his biceps", or "smokin' hot boyfriend."(seriously, someone needs to count how often they say that in the novel. It was ridiculous.)

Unsurprisingly, that's also what much of the plot is all about, really. There's talk of finding some kind of fountain of youth and finding a cure for Scarlet's and the guys' curse, but really, they don't do jackshit to actually find something in this installation. I'm not even exaggerating, they literally do absolutely nothing. The whole fucking novel is just relationship drama, lusting over boys, stupid random horny dialogue and lingering stares across kitchen counters. That is it.

Summed up, I am not impressed. At all. Still, like I said, the ending intrigued me and I'm curious how the next novel is going to work out, and also maybe hopeful that there's going to be some actual plot happening. We'll see.