Haven
Winterhaven, Book #1
By Kristi Cook

Review brought to you by Shae

Synopsis:

A chilling destiny she can’t escape.

A devastating love she can’t resist.

Violet McKenna isn’t a normal girl with normal teenage issues; she has more to contend with than most people could handle. Violet thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She’s had flashes of other events too–the problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.

At Winterhaven, Violet finally feels like she belongs. She quickly finds a close group of friends and discovers that they too have psychic ‘gifts’—as do all the students at Winterhaven. But as soon as she feels settled she discovers the most intriguing and alluring boy she has ever met, and things quickly go awry. As the attraction between them grows, intense visions of the boy’s death start to haunt her. In her premonitions, the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself. And to Violet’s horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a critical–and deadly–way.–source

Review:

Haven was actually a pretty good book. It’s well written, it keeps you guessing about what is going on. It starts with a little background history on the main character, Violet. I really like when books start out with this. I like going into the story feeling like I know the main character. For the first part of the book, it’s all about Winterhaven.

Winterhaven is the boarding school that Violet is just starting to attend in the first chapter of the book. The students all have psychic gifts, and  I really liked finding out what every one’s gifts were. Violet doesn’t know the school is special. Violet meets a group of girls right off, and they get along really well. I like the fact that she ends up with close “friends” instead of just one new friend, on the first day of school, that is so typical. They all have different gifts, and after they help Violet figure out that the school is special, they let her know what each of their gifts are.

The books goes on with normal teenage school stuff happening. Violet meets a boy, and they start dating. I felt like I was getting comfy. Enough was going on to where i wasn’t bored, but there are a few spots in the first half of the book that drug on. Then all of a sudden, vampires are added to the story.  I love vampire books so I was drawn in a little more. I always get a little weary when it comes to Vampire books though, because YA vampire books can be so similar, and that’s very irritating to me.

With Haven though, I don’t feel like this is one of them. Violet finds out she is something bad ass, and she can do way more than defend herself. So she is not spending the whole book needing protected. Other than those few dry spots, it’s pretty packed. Violet has “visions” that show danger is coming.

I felt like the last half of the book was too rushed. They are just sitting around worrying about the danger. Violet decides she is going to need her friends help and starts making plans with them, and this only takes a few pages. The action is only a few pages, one of the bad guys is someone you don’t suspect, and someone saves the day that comes out of no where. I did really like how a werewolf comes into the story at the very end, because this is going to be a series, and that means that werewolves will be something fresh to explore in the next book.

I really did not like the ending. It was really rushed. I felt things were thrown in that made no sense. I realize authors like to do this when they are trying to leave a book open for the next in the series, but I didn’t like the ending to Haven. It was a good  book though, and I am left excited for the next book in the series.