Release Date: December 7, 2011Publisher: Acacia Press
Pages: 385
Series: The Archers of Avalon #1
Review Source: From review from publisher
Synopsis: (from Goodreads)
Two years ago, Scarlet awoke in the forest alone, afraid, and unable to remember anything. Lost and confused, her life was a mystery...until she met a boy with a familiar voice.
Gabriel Archer has a voice from her past, and Scarlet's determined to remember why. She immerses herself in his life only to discover he has a brother he's kept hidden from her: Tristan Archer.
Upon meeting Tristan, Scarlet's world becomes even more muddled. While she's instinctively drawn to Gabriel, she's impossibly drawn to Tristan--and confused out of her mind. As she tries to piece together her history Scarlet realizes her past...might just be the death of her.
My Thoughts:
On the surface 'Anew' has a typical plot and typical characters, yet right from the beginning I found the book incredibly interesting. Once you delve into the book there's something special about Chelsea Fine's writing. She takes something that could be typical and pulls the reader in to a place where you're intrigued with the characters and the story. I was so curious about Scarlet and her past, trying to figure out how everyone fit into her life.
Scarlet herself was an interesting character. I felt a lot of empathy for her because she just wanted to understand her life. It would be so difficult to have amnesia and then learn such crazy facts about your life, even though deep down you know them to be true. As for the boys... well, yes, there's a love triangle. I really liked the way it was done, though. I'm kind of a sucker for the 'girl stuck between 2 brothers' storyline, and there's something painfully wonderful about forbidden love. I definitely found Tristan to be pretty swoony. He was self-sacrificing, which can be annoying when it's overdone, yet I just loved how he always wanted to put Scarlet first because of how much he loved her. As for Gabriel, he was a bit clueless, but I liked his sweetness and goodness.
I really loved the concepts in this book, like immortality and a crazy type of reincarnation. It was imaginative and kept me turning the pages. The only negative thing about this book is that it ended without any real resolution to the larger story. It's more like a first act with a cliffhanger leading you into the second book. This really does drive me crazy, and it prevented me from totally loving the book. However, the story overall? Pretty awesome, and I'd definitely love to read Book 2 when it's released.
The Cover:
It's pretty, and relevant to the book, which is always awesome.
Rating:
[4/5]Find Anew by Chelsea Fine on Goodreads, Book Depository, & Amazon.
I'm a sucker for amnesia plots, and even if I wasn't, the rest of this book sounds like its made of awesome.
ReplyDeletethanks for shinning a spot light on it, I hope I can read it soon.
Amnesia and reincarnation--love those, though I'm not a huge fan of the triangle of doom...er, love. Still, this one sounds pretty darned good!
ReplyDeleteThe cover is gorgeous. These types of endings drive me nuts too cause I always have to wait for the next book to find out what happens.
ReplyDeleteOh no! Not another love triangle! Well this does sounds kind of fun.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading this this morning Ashley (THANK YOU SO MUCH)! And I really enjoyed it too! I felt that it sorta had a Fallen by Lauren Kate feel to it- but it was a 7878478562786203 times better! ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, loved Tristan, though I did often want to shake some sense into him and I really liked the cover as well! I was actually shocked by how relevant it was to the book (don't see too many of them ;) ).