Review: Swoon by Nina Malkin

Title: Swoon

Author: Nina Malkin

Published: May 2009

Hardcover: 425 pages

Reading Level: YA

My copy: Won it in a contest at Book Bound

My rating: 2.5 out of 5 wicked stars

Blurb:

Sin is coming... Prepare to Swoon.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut...until Dice's perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree, and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. And while Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She's intensely drawn to him—but not at all crazy about the havoc he's wreaking. Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent—and irresistible—adversary, before the whole town succumbs to Sin's will. Only trouble is, she's in love with him. 

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?

My thoughts:

I have to say...I loved the premise about this book and the cover is awesome.  That being said, the book itself...eh.  The main character, Dice,  was very snarky and I did love that about the book..and honestly really enjoyed it for the first half.  The second half..things seemed rushed and somewhat confusing.  The love interest, Sin, was hot guy once he got his own body...that's just weird to say.  I kept hoping he would reconsider his evil ways, but I was set for disappointment there. Don't get me started about the ending.  I won't ruin it for anyone else saying anymore about the ending.

This is another one of those books with almost zero parental involvement.  Dice's parents move to this small town because of something that happened with Dice and her friends, but then they remain in New York for work during the week and only come home on the weekends. Granted, Dice's aunt and uncle live next door, but is that realistic adequate supervision, especially for a kid with past issues?  I would reserve this book for the older set of YA readers because of the sex, drugs and general lack of supervision.  This isn't real life, people..or at least, not real life where I grew up.

I liked the idea of how the author shortened everyone's name in the book to one-syllable nicknames.  It made it fun, and a little confusing at some parts, but entertaining none the less. This was a really hard review to write, it is hard to formulate into word the parts that I didn't like...without giving away the end of the story.  So I will just keep mum...and you guys tell me what you think if you had read it.