Review: Bait by K.C Blake

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Rating: 4

Synopsis:

Ghosts, a reaper, and a rock star.

At sixteen Bay-Lee is not your typical girl. She doesn't even try to fit in at school. What's the point when she'll be moving to a new place within a few months?
She's lived her whole life on the run, hiding from monsters.

Then a reaper uses her closet to cross over from the Spirit Realm. It has a message for her. Just when she's about to join her father at his school for hunters she finds out they are dying on their birthdays. Something is killing them, slipping past locked doors, never leaving a trace of evidence, and her birthday is only two months away.

Becoming a hunter isn't exactly her dream come true. She's doing it for her mother, for revenge, for justice. Nothing is going to get in her way, least of all love. Then she looks up into a pair of jungle green eyes and everything changes.

My Review:

Sometimes, you just really want to read a clever, fun, action-packed, paranormal romance. If you are like me, you just really want a clever, fun, action-packed, paranormal romance that will cause you to stay up way past your self-assigned bedtime and have you thinking about it nonstop when you eventually drag yourself away from the brightly lit screen that has become a backdrop to your life and go into bed. (Is that a run-on sentence? I ramble...) Bait delivers.

From the beginning, the idea intrigued me. I am a huge fan of all things that go bump in the night, and Bait is full of all of them. You like vampires? Werewolves? Reapers? Ghosts? Monsters? Illusionist? Yeah, Bait has all of that. And the novel doesn't glamorize all of the monsters into being sexy, misunderstood secretly-sensitive heartthrobs, which is also refreshing. Having a protagonist that is the daughter of Van Helsing? If that isn't cool, then I no longer wish to be cool. I am also highly amused at the fact that the newbies are labeled as 'Bait' before they can move onto 'Hunter' and 'Warrior' or - even - (gasp!) 'Legend'. (It's the little things...) So, as far as the synopsis goes, Bait is absolutely brilliant.

I really liked the characters as well. I thought that the majority of them were developed excellently, and they are easy to connect to. Bay-Lee is a great voice to read, and I found myself rooting her on the entire time. (Which, you know, is what you are supposed to do with a protagonist, not that it always is the case.) Even the characters that ended up being not-so-good were written pretty-freaking-good (well, I know, but that doesn't fit the parallel, now does it?) Not that I can resist a well-crafted villain. (I can't.)

I am a little bit torn on Nick's character. On one hand, the hopeless romantic in me can't talk too much about it, given that she is too busy swooning on the floor. What self-respecting teenage girl doesn't fall for these bad-boy characters? Especially when they are funny and slightly Narcissistic like me? And can kick butt? And sing? Is it getting hotter in here, or...? I liked Nick's voice and character, I really did. There were just certain things that fall into the other hand. The romance is a bit cliche sometimes. The whole I-Was-A-Total-Ladies-Man-But-I-Never-Knew-Love-Until-I-Met-You is used a lot. Don't get me wrong, it can be okay, but it is a little less believable. I guess you can pull off the instalove with the whole "fate" argument, but the concept of "instalove" itself does not bother me too much. This is fiction, after all. Quickly falling in love is allowed. I think what got me is the whole tattoo thing. You'll know what I mean if you read the novel. Just...slightly unnecessary.

Even through the eh-parts, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Bait. The Mock Battles were insanely cool, and probably my favorite scenes.

Fans of the paranormal, this is a band wagon that you would want to jump on. Bait has excellent pacing, excellent characters, and will keep you interested the entire time. I am excited to be able to read more.