Review: Swoon by Nina Malkin

Synopsis:

Sin is coming... Prepare to Swoon.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him—but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking. Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent—and irresistible—adversary, before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?

My Review:

The idea of this novel is something that is really cool, and I feel it has the potential to be really enjoyable. I mean, the whole golum idea is pretty awesome. Make that golum a sexy, chivalrous, bad ass ex-ghost named Sinclair? Oh, yes. I am game! And some things about the novel are good.

The characters, for one.

Sinclair is an interesting character. The fact that he is a bit turned-evil is probably what makes him more interesting than many of the other characters. Plus, the fact that he is from the eighteenth century? Awesome.

The fact that I could not stop reading has to count for, well, something.

If you are a horny teenage girl looking for something soft-core, then this novel might be a decent place to start. It definitely tries to get hot. A lot.

However, I was disappointed when reading.

First of all, the writing was a bit hard to follow sometimes. It might just be Dice's voice, I am not really sure. Still, it did not really impair me from finishing so I *guess* I can let that slide.

Dice is a character that - whenever I feel like I'm starting to like her - does something that makes me change my mind. Yeah, okay, maybe the rest of us hopelessly romantic teenage girls would instantly develop feelings for a sexy bad boy from the past. Even if he is possessing her cousin. I'll give her that. But it did seem like she was admitting her "love" for him really quickly. Don't get me wrong, instalove can work in a story, but in this case - it was a bit much. I did like her humor and singing. I guess the fact that she admits to being with a lot of guys breaks the whole "sixteen-or-seventeen-and-never-been-kissed-but-suddenly-have-a-bunch-of-damn-perfect-guys-into-me" YA stereotype, but the whole "yep-I-drink-smoked-shit-and-party-hard-also-my-parents-only-sort-of-exist" was a little much. (Maybe being a teen myself, this just seems more unrealistic?)

The actual writing of the novel was OK. It had it's moments, but it was really nothing special.

All in all, the stars I gave it were pretty much for the main idea itself and Sinclair. That's about it.

Maybe if more time would have been spent on the golum idea, instead of possible orgys, I would have enjoyed it a bit more. I'm no prude, but your drugs-sex-and-porn should not get in the way of your plotline and characters.