Title: Intertwined
Author: Gena Showalter
Release Date: September 1, 2009
There’s something about the new guy at Crossroads High . . .
Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:
One can time-travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the future.
And one can possess another human.With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now, they’re causing him all kinds of trouble.
Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or, he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’s going to die.
He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.
And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, for as long as he’s with her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it’s too late. . .
Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist. Two romances, both forbidden. . . doomed. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger. . . but not everyone will come out alive. . .
Summary from Goodreads.com
My Review: I have seen a lot of reviews of this book and they are very mixed so I was hesitant about picking it up, but I wanted to decide for myself so I finally downloaded it to my Kindle last week. When I first picked up the book I felt very confused at the beginning because Aden has four other souls that live in him and when they talk I sometimes get them mixed up. I have heard other reviewers say that if you don’t read fantasy or paranormal normally it might be confusing, but I do read those and I was still a little confused. After the first couple of chapters I started to see things a little clearer, but by the end of the book I was still getting the male voices mixed up. There are three male and one female soul living in him and it was the men that I found hard to differentiate between because it is hard to pick up on their different personalities with only voices to go off of.
Throughout the book the point of view changes between Aden and Mary-Anne, so I felt as though I got a full story because Aden and Mary-Anne help put together different pieces of information that add to the story. I also felt like as the story progressed even though the point of view changed the story almost melded together and who was telling it didn’t matter. Changing point of views made sense and almost helped the story flow better. I am guessing the title of the book is supposed to be a reflection of that.
Aden is a very likable character, he has had a hard life and you are really rooting for him in this book because he just cannot seem to catch a break. Mary-Ann is also a great character, she is sweet and thoughtful, but needs a little fun in her life and Riley is just the guy to give her that. I liked seeing the relationships grow between Aden and Victoria and Riley and Mary-Ann, it is interesting how all four of them really balance each other out. I know that sounds a little weird, but that is how I felt about them, I look at each of them as 1/4 of a circle, when they are all together they are whole. Okay, I am not doing a good job explaining this, but I think if you read it you will understand what I mean.
The only other downside for me in this book was the ending, I felt like everything was really rushed or just happened really fast. The climax built up and when you finally get there the ending happens so quickly I got to the last page and went “Wait, what?” I felt like I was left with questions, the biggest one being I am still not sure why Aden and Mary-Ann are drawn together, and what caused everything to stop, literally, when they first see each other. I am afraid I might have missed something, or maybe those are questions that the next book will answer. Either way, Gena Showalter has done her job because I am now counting down to the release of the next book because I have to know the answers to those questions. I know that the voices in Aden’s head are a bit confusing, but that is not enough to put me off of this book. I also know that I sometimes read too quickly and you cannot do that with this book or you will miss something, you need to read this one slowly. I am very intrigued to see where these four characters are headed next and thought that as a whole the book was good. The next installment is called Unraveled and comes out this August.
