Review: Thrall by Jennifer Quintenz

Little side note. i read tis book past summer and thought I had already posted the review - now i realized, i haven't. I'm so, so sorry for that - especially because I received the e-copy from the author herself :/

Goodreads synopsis:
Braedyn is a normal girl just trying to survive high school with her two devoted friends, Royal and Cassie. Together they’re doing a pretty good job of shrugging off the slings and arrows cast their way by the popular crowd when a new boy, Lucas, moves into the house next door. Suddenly Braedyn finds herself falling in love for the first time.

But as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Braedyn discovers humankind is at war with the Lilitu, an ancient race of enticing demons that prey on human souls. Her father is a member of the Guard fighting against the Lilitu - and so are the new neighbors, including her crush, Lucas. 
As her world starts to unravel at the seams, Braedyn learns the right answers aren’t always clear or easy. And as for “good” and “evil” – it all depends on how we choose to act. Inspired by the ancient Mesopotamian myths of Lilith and her offspring, Thrall explores first love, strong friendships, and taking on adult responsibilities against the backdrop of powerful supernatural forces and life-and-death stakes.


REVIEW:

No fan of Paranormal Romance? Totally fed up with insta-love, whiny femtale characters who seem to die over the fact that loving some weird paranormal creature might end with their early deaths, even though they really, really can't even breathe without said creature?
Well, Thrall is the book for you. And thankfully also, the book for everyone who loves to read what I described above.

I normally try to tiptoe my way around Paranormal Romance. I didn't love Twilight, Hush Hush, Evernight - you name it. I decided to read Thrall because the premise sounded so fantastically good and I was curious about the kind of paranormal being we have to deal with: the Lilitu.

I liked Thrall from the beginning. It started at a school dance and we see Breadyn as a totally normal high school girl, but a few pages, in the first weird incident happens and from pretty much then on I was constantly wondering how things would go on and why this and that happened.

Its fast pace is one of the best elements of Thrall. Honestly, you can't put it down and take a breath, because there were happening dangerous things all the time! And the author managed to set up a cliffhanger at the end of almost every chapter.

Thrall also scored big on the romance part. True, Lucas (did you notice how many love interests are named Lucas lately???) and Braedyn could have taken it a bit slower especially because they weren't even allowed to be together, but the book is rather short, so I can forgive how fast their romance developed. Anyway, the point is, even though they started falling for each other life didn't stop there. Oh no, the action went on, even picked up on pace and Anna was never once the whiny helpless accessory of the oh-so-strong love interest. I loved how they were both capable to save their own lives (most of the time).

Okay, before this review gets too long I need to add one or two things I didn't like as much:
Especially in the beginning I found that the author rushed the dialogue and the emotions of everyone a bit. I think Anna accepted what she was too fast and her dad suddenly held a whole monologue on how she was still the same person she was a day ago and then Lucas gets way emotional, too and everything is dealt with so fast. What I want to say is, the dialogue sometimes felt stiff and set up. The other thing: I hate long epilogues. And the epilogue in Thrall was very long and very much like an enumeration of how things continued in the book. I didn't like that.

All in all, Thrall was a great book - which is particularly awesome because normally I don't like Paranormal Romance at all!!