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| TITLE: The Holders (The Holders #1) AUTHOR: Julianna Scott PUBLISHER: Strange Chemistry PUB DATE: Mar 5 2013 |
17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother - from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland's "problem" and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.
She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family's heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they've been waiting for... but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.
- Source: NetGalley
Rating:
“Love is a cheap word. Anyone can say it, and few truly know what it means.”
I may have been too quick to judge this book. It had been sitting on my TBR pile for so long, it took me three years to finally decide to pick it up. I admit that when I first started reading this, I was hesitant. I don't know why, but for some reason it didn't have the same spark of interest that I felt when I clicked the 'request' button on NetGalley way back then. I thought I'd only be left disappointed and that I would be wasting time reading something I won't like. So yeah, I kept trying to find holes that would eventually lead me to stop trying and move on to something else. Lo and behold, I couldn't be more wrong. I should have picked it up sooner!
Now since I mentioned trying to look for holes, I really did grind this book to bits just to get there. Like for example, Becca's father was named Jocelyn. My right eye twitched at the idea that Jocelyn was a guy's name. A few pages later and - Oh! So that's why his name was Jocelyn. It actually had a historical fact within. My bad!
Another thing I felt uncomfortable with at the beginning was the abilities/powers of the characters. The "abilities in women have always been few and far between" idea sounded very sexist! A few chapters later and I'm met with Becca's 'awakening'... Okay so maybe I spoke to soon on that one. Although I may have seen that whole Becca special-ness brewing within, but I was still surprised over the revelation.
I truly have underestimated this book. I thought it'd be another one of those mushy romance slash superpowered teens blitz. What with the whole 'anam' thing going on. It felt too cheesy for my taste. But it was really actually far more than that, a surprisingly good story overall.
I didn't love every bit of it at the beginning and to be honest Becca's narratives were kind of annoying and sometimes a little lengthy for my taste but everything grew on me over time. By the end of the book I was rooting for Becca and her awesome powers, laughing at the funny antics of Mr Reid and Mr Anderson, getting all teary eyed over Becca and Jocelyn's father-daughter issues, and the most surprising of all, gushing albeit unwillingly over the love story.
*Thank you, Strange Chemistry and NetGalley for granting my request to view The Holders.
