Book Review: Chosen at Nightfall – C.C. Hunter

Chosen at Nightfall
Author: C.C. Hunter
Series: Shadow Falls #5
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

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Summary:

 
First Sentence: Kylie Galen looked up from the slice of pepperoni pizza on the fine china plate and tried to ignore the ghost swinging the bloody sword right behind her grandfather and great-aunt.

My Review:

I’ll be honest – I was originally not planning on writing a review for Chosen at Nightfall. I was just too lazy to take any notes, and for once, wanted to read a book and not focus on writing notes too.

However, as I thought more and more about it, I changed my mind. I will write a review for Chosen at Nightfall. I could very easily write a review for this book without taking any notes. In fact, I wanted everyone to know why Chosen at Nightfall was such a disappointment to me.

First of all, Kylie is such a Mary Sue that it drives me absolutely nuts. She is a chameleon, which is rare, and can exhibit traits of werewolves, vampires, and fairies. Not only that, Kylie is also a protector, which is very rare and only a very select few people are protectors. Wait, I’m not done! Kylie can also dreamscape (travel to other people’s dreams and talk to them that way), and again, only a few people can do that, and Kylie can see ghosts and talk to them, which again, only a few people could do that. But wait, I’m still not done! This time, Kylie is also a holy warrior! (Just in case you’re wondering, this is the part where you ohhh and awww and pretend to care.) You see what I’m doing?

“But you’ve never actually met a holy warrior, right?” Kylie asked.
“You,” he said again with a sense of pride.
“Before me!” she snapped.
“No,” Lucas admitted. (248)

To make matters worse (or better, it’s really your opinion), everyone likes/admires Kylie because she is so special. Two cute guys are fighting for her attention and love her because again, she is so special. Everyone focuses on her and her problems only because hey, Kylie is so special. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm here.)

I also hated how the love triangle was resolved. Seriously, I read through four other books to see how C.C. Hunter would end the love triangle. Frankly, it’s so simple that I would have never have guessed it: make Kylie choose one guy and make the other guy meet a girl character newly introduced and fall in love with her. That way, fans will be satisfied that the rejected guy got someone in the end. Done. Like, what?! I went through five books to see this?! I feel cheated out of a real resolution; I want to see a real heartbreak and trauma, not something like this. (I don’t think this is the best time to also mention that the guy got over Kylie and found a new girl in like less than a week after she rejected him. And their “love” somehow spanned for four books. I want my time back.)

She didn’t miss how hard it was for him to speak his feelings publicly, and you can bet every ear in the room was straining to hear, but he’d done it. He told her he loved her in front of everyone.
And it annoyed the hell out of her. (148)

Not to mention, there was another thing about the love triangle that made me really mad: Derek did not cheat on Kylie. They broke up when Derek avoided and didn’t speak to Kylie. Him having sex with his ex-girlfriend Ellie when Kylie and Derek technically broke up does not equal to cheating. Seriously, it was like everyone in the book was on drugs or something when they said that Derek cheated on Kylie. Since when? They broke up before he went and did that. Get over it girl.

And that “big” reveal towards the end of the book. I saw that coming a mile away, specially in the beginning of the fourth book in the series, Whispers at Moonrise. I’ll like to say that I’m disappointed I saw this twist from a mile away, but sadly, I can’t. I kind of expected this to happen.

Another thing I had a major problem with was the fact that the bad guy, Mario, only appeared two times in Chosen at Nightfall. That’s right, two times. Once in the beginning of the book and the second time, in the last part of the book, during the final battle, for only four measly pages. That’s right, four. The bad guy Kylie was sooo afraid of in the last two books got killed off in the span of four measly pages. Some bad guy he is. I don’t know whether to cry or to simply laugh it off. Probably both.

“You might have won this time, but my moment draws near,” he spat out. “You will come to me, Kylie Galen, come to me willing to die, to suffer at my hands for my pleasure, because the price will be too great! Your weakness will take you down!” (64)

Yeah…and “your moment” only lasted for four pages Mario.

I honestly don’t know if I liked anything about this book. Sure, Chosen at Nightfall was a fun engaging read, but it’s also a fun engaging read with a lot of things I didn’t like.

Overall, I don’t know why I’ve read the Shadow Falls series. Okay, I do know. It was the beautiful covers. I still want to buy the series for its beautiful covers alone. I am definitely going to be writing a Series Wrap-Up post for this where I’ll unleash my anger and love for the covers. Before I finish this review though, I’ll have to say this: Don’t go into Chosen at Nightfall with high expectations. You’ll regret it.