Thursday 22 May 2014

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter


Author: C.C Hunter
Format: Paperback
Pages: 398
Author Website
Date Published: March 29 2011
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin


Introduction
         Everything in Kylie's life is falling apart. Her parents are getting a divorce, she feels that her dad doesn't love her like he used to, she's still grieving over her dead Nana, and to make matters even worse, she has a stalker that only she can see. Her shrink, Ms. Day, convinces her mom to send Kylie to Shadow Falls, a summer camp for juvenile teens after she gets stuck at the wrong party. Kylie wants nothing to do with the juvenile kids at the camp, and right when she gets on the bus, she can tell that something is off about these kids. Kylie is at the camp all of five minutes when she is informed that everybody at the camp is supernatural. Vampire's, witches, fae, werewolves, and even a few necromancers are present at the camp. Kylie doesn't think she belongs at Shadow Falls, but every argues that she does. She is different. She's even different from everybody else at the camp. Nobody can figure out what she is, so that makes her interesting. Even though Kylie is sure that she doesn't belong at Shadow Falls, she's stuck at the camp for the summer so she might as well make the most of it.

Cover
       I like the cover, with the creepy looking tree and the shiny purple background, what I don't like is the girl standing in the middle of the tree. I think the cover would look much better if she wasn't there.

Love interests.
       Enter the love triangle square. Yeah, that's right Kylie kind-of sort-of has feelings for three guys. First we have Trey. A mortal, and he happens to be Kylie's ex-boyfriend that broke up with her after almost a year because he wouldn't go all the way with him. Kylie is not fully over him, and it doesn't help when he says that he wants her back. Personally, I think Trey is a huge waste of time. If he is going to be such a jerk, then she needs to move one, and not consider going back to him.
       Next we have Lucas. A werewolf boy with whom she shares a secret past. (Or so it says in the synopsis on the back of the book.) Now you should think if they put it like that, it should be really interesting. It's not. It's not as interesting as the synopsis makes it sound. But besides that, I liked Lucas. He was pretty cool.
       And last, is Derek. A half-fae. He seems the most determined to be her boyfriend out of the three. I liked him also. He had some pretty cool gifts, like how he can partially communicate with animals, and how he can manipulate feelings. Of course the fact that he can manipulate feelings has Kylie on the edge. She needs to know that her feelings for him are pure. Another thing that has Kylie on edge is the fact that Derek just so happens to look like Trey.
       The one thing that bothers me, is at some point she makes out with all three of the guys. It's true, she picks one guy in the end, but something happens near the end of the book that makes the other two guys unable to be with her, so basically she ran out of choices. I am happy with who she ended up with, but I do suspect that the other two guys that  she didn't choose to be with are going to be back in the second installment.

Della
       Della is one of Kylie's roommates. (The cooler one if you as me.) She's a newly-turned vampire. She has to put up with Kylie telling her how blood is gross, and I admire he for keeping her cool so well, with Kylie being so insensitive about what Vampires need to do to survive.

Grammar
       I did catch a few grammar mistakes. Simple rules that should be second nature, like when something that already ends in an s is plural you don't add the extra s afterwards.

Conclusion
       It seems that I have a soft spot for books that involve supernatural camps and schools, and this one did not disappoint. It didn't focus on Kylie being super-natural all the time, had chapters focusing on what Kylie's life is going to be like when she goes home. Now that her parents are divorced and I liked that. It added a realistic element to the story. I liked the ending of Born at Midnight, and I am intrigued to see what will happen in Awake at Dawn.