The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

I've been eying this book up for ages and finally caved and bought it and I only regret not getting it sooner. I've heard many mixed reviews for this book so was on the fence for a quite a while, and I can see where both sides are coming from. This novel offers very generic usual teen fluff but has surprising twists and turns that make them entirely acceptable (in my humble opinion). From the start I wasn't much of a fun of Mara, she gets relatively annoying an extremely predictable at parts along with her love interest Noah, he's your usual bad boy with a broken past but that sucks everyone in and if you disagree, you're lying. Six feet tall with an English accent, he is the boy you wished had been in your high school but only existed in books, with his beautiful eyes and mercurial attitude. All that aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am itching for book two.

Mara Dyer has awoken in a hospital bed with no memory of the events that led up to it, but finds she has survived a horrible accident and that her friends weren't quite as lucky. Her loving parents, to help cope with her stress, move the entire family a few states away from Rhode Island to Miami. Mara finds out that no matter how far you run, you can escape the past. Materializing in way of nightmares and daily hallucinations Mara thinks she's going insane from PTSD. At her new school she meets local heart breaking legend Noah Shaw who can't seem to stay away from her, seemingly equally lost and broken the two find themselves inseparable almost immediately. As their relationship progresses they start to learn more and more about each other while a multitude of accidents begin to occur around them. They begin to dig deeper and see what it is that has drawn them so closely together, something much bigger than either could have ever imagined.

As you can see by my above synopsis, predictable, average teen novel that pulls you in and throws you curve ball after curve ball. Just when you think you've got the story down pat Hodkin gets you with a zinger. I avoided the series for a while due to similar information being given to me before, but I wholeheartedly can say to put that aside and read this novel because it truly delivers. I really considered for about 5 minutes throwing on my coat and shoes and flying up to my job to pick up book two, that's how much of a need I have to continue the story. I am very excited to see how this can carry forward with another two books and don't expect to be disappointed. With real life properties, fantasy and romance all mingling together in this book, it has something to offer even the pickiest YA reader.