Friday, April 19, 2013

Review: Stained by Ella James


Stained (Stained, #1)Title: Stained
Author: Ella James
Publisher:  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Release Date: September 14, 2011
Pages: 252, Paperback
Goodreads Rating: 3.8 stars
My Rating: 2/5 stars


Summary from Goodreads: After a fire destroys seventeen-year-old Julia’s home and kills her foster parents, she chases the half-demon responsible across the country and back, determined to avenge her family and discover why a host of celestial baddies want her dead. With Julia is enigmatic hottie - Cayne, who has his own score to settle with the half-demon, and who might be just as dangerous as the creature he and Julia hunt.

MY TAKE

I was disappointed with this book.  At several points while I was reading I couldn't wait for it to be done so I could put it down, which is very unusual for me.  And, honestly, I can't even put my finger on what went wrong for me.  On the surface, I should have liked the story.  Yes, the plot is a bit of a cliche, but that's usually at least okay with me as long as the story grips me in ways that transcend the cliche.  This one did not.  The story is about Julia, a girl all alone in the world, who finds out that there are half-demons chasing her.  A mysterious (and, of course, attractive) guy named Cayne shows up and tells her that he happens to be hunting the same half-demon that is after her, so they team up in order to bring the ultimate bad guy down.  Cayne has lost his memories, which makes him even more mysterious.  Most of the book takes place while Julia and Cayne are traveling across the country together, tracking the half-demon down.   

I think that my ultimate problem with the book was that I just didn't care what happened to the characters.  I was bored for the first three-quarters of the book.  Once I got to the 75% mark (I read it on my Kindle), it started to get a bit more interesting.  Cayne regained his memory and Julia suffered from the trauma of possibly being abandoned yet again (she was a foster child most of her life).  But, I quickly lost interest again once the pair headed on yet another cross-country trip.  I just couldn't get into the story.  It didn't help that parts of the story were also just confusing (especially dream sequences) and the author suddenly switched POV's a few times unexpectedly.  I will say that the very end of the book had me a little bit intrigued, but I'm not sure that I will read the other books to find out what happens.  There are too many other good books on my To-Read list.  2/5 stars.