At First Sight by Heather Todd

Synopsis: Lola Adams started fending for herself at the age of thirteen after her druggie parents ditched her without any notice. Now, five years later, she is on the fast track to a better life away from her hometown of Los Angeles. She is graduating as valedictorian in one month and she has a full ride to Harvard. Nothing seems to be getting in her way. Then, she meets Dean Baker after he saves her during a wild beach party. Their eyes meet and something powerful happens that makes her feel an immediate attraction and pull to him. While spending time with him, she comes to find out his entire family line is filled with people who can read minds, display imprinted powers, and perform magical spells. Two mysterious family members are suddenly on the hunt for Lola and Dean so they can ultimately rid the family of their love and their powers once and for all. Can they stop an impending battle before everyone, even Lola and Dean, loses their bond forever?

Title: At First Sight
Genre: fantasy, ya romance
Series: none (I hope)
Pages: 200
Ages: 14+
My Rating: 1 star
One Word: blah
Fave Quote: I'm sorry but I seriously could not find a single quote that I liked

Review

So I went to bookcon in NY in May with my best friend and it was exciting. My friend wanted to wait in line for Cassandra Clare (who I unfortunately am not a fan of) so we sat in a line that barely moved for a good hour. Now I'm the kind of person who will not say no to free stuff, so while I'm being a good friend waiting in line, I became the annoying daughter and made my mother go out and get me some signed books. My mom comes back with a handful of YA books (thanks mom!) and hence the existence of this book into my life.

So, I read this book because I got it for free, and I decided to just read it because I needed a book for English class and I finished everything else, so why not this book?

Well, I'll tell you "why not this book". The writing was just poorly written; it's like explaining to a second grader between show versus tell, and from the beginning it felt like I was reading fanfiction (blah). It wasn't a surprise at all when I found out the author writes fanfiction. Ms. Todd, please keep the fanfiction and novels separate. I mean, "allowing his tongue to perform the familiar tango with her own" (179). That sentence alone screams "fanfiction". I've never given a book one star before, unless you count this book I read in 5th grade called Becoming Naomi León Go check it out. Great read.

So that saying, this is the second book I ever gave on star to. Anyway, everything in this book was so fast-paced. I find out Lola's name and right away she meets Dean and right away they go out and right away they say "I love you". There is absolutely no character development at all, and very little plot climax. The only thing I found interesting in this book was Freddie, and then he turned all goo-goo happiness in one page flip, and I was physically gagging.

And what the hell is a manifester? Do any of you know? Because I finished this whole book and I have no idea what they are. Where did they come from? Why do they have special powers? Nothing really was described about these "manifesters" at all.

I freaking hate Lola and Dean so much. First of all, everyone in this damn book, especially Dean, "smirks" way too much even in the weirdest situations. Every single time, Dean is always smirking at Lola which makes him seem so damn conceited. And the annoying nicknames he gives Lola. At first he calls her "baby" and I nearly was about to throw up, and then he calls her "pretty girl" and Lola actually likes it which figuratively had me over the toilet bowl puking my brains out.

And then there was the accident, where Leo breaks into the school, compels everyone to stay still, and nearly kills Lola, and you know what they do? The principal lets Lola, with the cuts and bruises all over her arm and a broken window indicating someone broke in, to go home with Dean. What. The. Hell. First of all, she should've definitely gone to the police or hospital or something! And second of all, they just let her go to Dean's house? For all the principal knows Dean could be the one who broke in and hurt her. Okay, I let that one pass, but then they go to a beach party and prom?!?! When they know that Lola is in danger?! Even if Dean's parents were "working on it" that doesn't mean they could do whatever they want with a murderer on the loose. I was literally going to stop reading there.

I have many more complaints that I'm just going to list off:
- narrators kept switching back and forth every SENTENCE and just so many issues with Ms. Todd's second narrator in general "Lola never wanted to leave this spot" (62). It should be "Lola never wanted to leave that spot."
- Lola doesn't even care that Dean is some psycho alien
- "Leo chuckled at the orb before him as he watched Lola and her family plan out the attack" (165). Great. He has an orb. How cliché.
- Dean's mother has an imprint where she can spy on whomever she wants. And on page 172 she specifically says that she knows Dean has never had sex "referring to her imprint". That makes me believe that she would spy on her kids while they are having sex. *pukes*
- Page 198 is altogether stupid. "collapse to death from their burns" are literally the exact words Todd uses, and when Lola and Dean see their family members dying all they are doing is opening their mouths a little in shock. Like if I were Lola I would've screamed and cried and fell to the floor sobbing!
- Like I said before, Todd tells me everything and doesn't show which kills me. "After waking up feeling pretty blissful and continuing to bask in it all for nearly two hours, Lola and Dean decided to make the best of their time together before their date that night" (62). I now have to play English teacher and tell Ms. Todd that you could maybe say "Lola woke up smiling at Dean with crinkled eyes, basking in the warmth with the amazing morning wrapping around her. Dean edged closer to her, his hair a halo of messiness. 'Let's make the best of our time before our date tonight,' he said, wrapping his arms around her."
- Lola wanted to have sex with Dean in a classroom. Let me rephrase; they were about to have sex in a classroom. How dumb are they really?

It was hard to keep reading; I almost stopped at pg 20. I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't :( I'm not hating on Heather Todd, she's probably a good person and all. I mean I could ask my mom but she could probably be winner of worst memory in history, so I'm literally just judging the book for it's writing, and it's easy to tell that I was very disappointed and annoyed with this book.
★