16 year old Quincy Amarante is not your
typical heroine. Nope. In fact, in the beginning she’s seriously conceited and
a bit self-centered in my opinion. She has your typical popular girl entourage, teen girl angst, and can have just about any boyfriend she wants at the drop of
a hat. She worries about her clothing, and the fact that her father allows her
to spend money on things that middle class folk struggle to purchase on a daily
basis. She ends up making terrible choices and ends up flip flopping over
boyfriends until she finally makes the right choice in the end.
Quincy’s life slowly changes in a more
positive way after she finds out that she is supposed to become the 5th
reaper. It is up to her great x 3 grandfather Forsyth Amarante to teach her
what it means to become the next reaper. Forsyth refused to answer most of
Quincy’s questions, until he had no choice, and I wasn’t clear on the whole
idea between why Quincy was chosen in the first place. Perhaps I need a second
reading of the book!
I will say that the last third of this
book was the most enjoyable and the most emotional for me to read. I found
myself balling like a baby after Quincy makes some decisions regarding her
future and her choice in boyfriends. I liked the fact that Quincy grew as a
character after she started realizing Ben was the one for her and didn’t much
care what other people thought about their relationship. It was also nice to
realize that Quincy and Ben should have been together all along had he not
moved away, and not the other fools she was dating in order to keep up her
popularity. I even liked how Quincy stood up for herself against her former friends
when it came to matters of her heart. Of course, I also liked Ben more than any
other character Murphy created. He wasn’t one dimensional and had a surprising
depth to his character.
I’m not sure how to quantify what
category to put this book into. While it does have some paranormal aspects with the whole reaper idea, there is also the a non-mystery as to who the villain of the story will become. I would say that Reaper is a
contemporary romance novel at its core. There’s really no mystery involved in
whether or not Quincy will become the next Reaper. It’s her destiny and there’s
no way around it. There is the usual banter between characters in Quincy’s
inner circle and the silly use of the world scrub to demean those not in the
know which actually drove me crazy.
In the end, this book will most likely
far well with the Young Adult crowd who gobbles up contemporary/paranormal
stories like turkey on Thanksgiving Day. This is a fast paced read and fairly
simplistic story that won’t bog you down with unnecessary fru fru. Reaper is a standalone novel and thus you don't have to wait until 6 months or a year before the sequel is released.
Thank you to J Taylor Publishing
for providing me an advanced copy of this book in lieu of an honest review and
opinion.
Title - Reaper
Author - L.S. Murphy
Publisher - J. Taylor Publishing
Release date - January 7, 2013
I cant imagine you bawling like a baby but that's all the more reason for me to read this book.
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