On Renee's 16th Birthday she finds her parents dead, side by side in the woods. Heart attacks the doctors say, but Renee is sure it's something more sinister. Her grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy - a boarding school that teaches seemingly out of date classes - Latin, horticulture, crude science etc. There Renee learns more about her past, her future, love, life and death.
Dante is a mystery, silent and solitary but strangely attracted to Renee, together they feel alive, but they have to come to understand that sometimes in finding love, you can lose yourself.
The writing flows well and the story is fairly well paced. I managed to finish this book quite quickly, at 500 pages I expected it to take me at least another day to read, but I found myself turning pages faster than I thought. The idea is different and gives you just enough information to get you interested, then keeps an air of mystery in it to keep you hooked.
Some parts were fairly predictable, but then there would be moments that surprised me.
I thought Renee was well written and quite likeable, she has suffered quite a lot but doesn't let it keep her down too much. The mystery of the deaths almost takes her life over, but she grows as a character and starts to involve others in her life.
I really liked Eleanor, her room-mate, smart, funny, mischievous and a bit of a mystery.
Dante sounded like a great guy, and clearly cared about Renee, but I worked out quite early what he was.
Overall I liked the book, the only thing that made me sigh a few times was the fact that Renee would miss out seemingly obvious hints and just glaze over them. She would be desperate for answers and someone would let something slip, but she was so focused on her thoughts that she would miss it. I found myself getting a bit annoyed with her for this. I won't give too much away but an example is at one point she is talking to her grandfather and he says something like; 'I'm impressed you found out so quickly, it took your mother till her third year to figure it out, especially in studying horticulture." but instead of picking up on this and thinking, 'what have i found out, (as this didn't fit in with the conversation she had started), instead she changes the direction back to what she originally said to him. I felt like screaming 'Pay attention!!!'
Apart from those few moments I did really enjoy the story and I liked the twist on what is a well used genre. Well written and a lot of research gone into it, definitely worth a read
Dante is a mystery, silent and solitary but strangely attracted to Renee, together they feel alive, but they have to come to understand that sometimes in finding love, you can lose yourself.
The writing flows well and the story is fairly well paced. I managed to finish this book quite quickly, at 500 pages I expected it to take me at least another day to read, but I found myself turning pages faster than I thought. The idea is different and gives you just enough information to get you interested, then keeps an air of mystery in it to keep you hooked.
Some parts were fairly predictable, but then there would be moments that surprised me.
I thought Renee was well written and quite likeable, she has suffered quite a lot but doesn't let it keep her down too much. The mystery of the deaths almost takes her life over, but she grows as a character and starts to involve others in her life.
I really liked Eleanor, her room-mate, smart, funny, mischievous and a bit of a mystery.
Dante sounded like a great guy, and clearly cared about Renee, but I worked out quite early what he was.
Overall I liked the book, the only thing that made me sigh a few times was the fact that Renee would miss out seemingly obvious hints and just glaze over them. She would be desperate for answers and someone would let something slip, but she was so focused on her thoughts that she would miss it. I found myself getting a bit annoyed with her for this. I won't give too much away but an example is at one point she is talking to her grandfather and he says something like; 'I'm impressed you found out so quickly, it took your mother till her third year to figure it out, especially in studying horticulture." but instead of picking up on this and thinking, 'what have i found out, (as this didn't fit in with the conversation she had started), instead she changes the direction back to what she originally said to him. I felt like screaming 'Pay attention!!!'
Apart from those few moments I did really enjoy the story and I liked the twist on what is a well used genre. Well written and a lot of research gone into it, definitely worth a read
