Book Review: Haven by Kristi Cook

Title: Haven

Author: Kristi Cook

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publishing Date: February 22^nd 2011

Length: 416 pages

Genre: YA, fantasy, paranormal romance

5/5 ***** Aiden’s the new Mr. Big! Haven  is not only a must-read for Sex and the City fans, but for fans of friendship, paranormalcy and an exciting forbidden love story! 

~ The Author ~

As a child, Kristi Cook took her nose out of a book only long enough to take a ballet class (or five) each week.  Not much has changed since then, except she’s added motherhood to the mix and enjoys penning her own novels as much as reading everybody else’s.  A transplanted southern gal, Kristi lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.

Author profile by www.kristi-cook.com

For further information visit http://kristi-cook.com/ or Kristi’s blog http://kristi-cook.livejournal.com/

~ The Novel ~

Haven is published on February 22^nd 2011 by Simon Pulse and is the first novel in a trilogy.

~ The Story ~

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first.

Summary by Goodreads 

Interested? You can read an excerpt here! 

~ The Review ~

In honour of Kristi and her lovely Facebook speech to bloggers, I’ll start my review with: "OMG!  I *loved* this book!  It was awesome!" and I am not making fun of her, I mean it!

Without much talking and explaining Kristi Cook let’s Violet, our protagonist, arrive at her new boarding school Winterhaven. As Violet adjusts to her new school, we learn more about her character and past. She is a very likeable character and I easily made friends with her. Unlike other heroines she is a very reasonable character. 

Her love interest and male protagonist Aiden introduces himself as the anti I-better-stay-away-before-I-hurt-her supernatural and continues showing up at every possible occasion to meet Violet.

Just as much as our heroine I enjoyed the regular contact with him and appreciated the very short time spans between their meetings.

Where other novels take place in a time span of maybe two weeks with the first day the lover’s meeting each other, day fourteen them being through every possible conflict, Haven skips time periods without further interest in their relationship and continues the story at relevant points. Haven covers a time span of several months and so creates a reasonable relationship with believable feelings.Violet and Aiden have their ups and downs, romantic, steamy, sad situations, moments of denial and realization.

At a school of unusual gifted children, they both stick out for another special  ability or characteristic.  I was surprised to find out what they both are, that nature destined them to be enemies. Their love has to fight against a constant fear of loosing their feelings for each other which makes it so exciting. 

I am a fan of an ordinary school setting combined with a good portion of magic and paranormalcy. At Winterhaven school there are plenty of exceptionally gifted children, everyone’s got a psychic talent from telepathy to telekinesis or other spiritual talents. I hope to discover many more talents in the next book.

Although I hadn’t expected to meet certain supernatural creatures in Haven I didn’t get bored by their presence. First I almost felt disappointed by finding out one of the many secrets about Aiden but in the end I pretty much enjoyed the cool new elements Cook invented.

In my opinion, a very good novel is always marked by a very good writing style. Cook applied a writing style that supported the story very well. Although I noticed several word repetitions, I find Cook’s writing just right.

My interest in Haven was rised by a  little bookmark sent by the lovely Loni @ A Casual Reader, so I was very happy to receive an eARC of it later. Haven kept me up all night and in bed reading all next morning. I couldn’t help it, each new chapter lured me even deeper into the magical flow of Haven.

 

~ We love this book because… ~

1) we would love to have our own star loft

2) of a heart touched by the fingers of love

3) intuition leads us to the places where we belong

4) having psychic friends isn’t always the worst

5) we immediately check if we were born on a Saturday

~ The Verdict ~

Haven tells the story of Violet and Aiden, which is romantic, sexy and sad to all extents. You are a fan of the supernatural, difficult love affairs that aren’t destined to exist? Then you should visit the Winterhaven school yourselves to believe its magic! 

~ Thanks to Kristi for sending me an e-copy of Haven!

~ Want to find out what Haven would be named if it was an ice cream flavour? Then visit tomorrow to read my interview with Kristi Cook.