Book Review: Born At Midnight

Author: C.C. Hunter
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Series: Shadow Falls #1
Release Date: March 29, 2011
Pages: 398
Read it in: 3 days

Summary: One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.” Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

LC's Take:

So I know this probably goes without saying, but I just adore fun books with fun, snarky main characters who make me laugh. I love reading from the voice of a down-to-earth, yet slightly goofy chick who has confidence and isn't afraid to make fun of herself a little. I also love when that same snarky, fun character has a serious side as well, with real emotions and issues that are tough to deal with. And so the main reason I loved Born At Midnight was because Kylie, the main character, was all of the above.

Seriously guys, read this book just because of Kylie, that's all I'm saying! She was an awesome character who was easy to relate to-- you just can't help but love her. The poor girl has to go through so many things throughout this book, including her parent's divorce, dealing with her friend Sara's pregnancy scare, a broken heart from her ex-boyfriend Trey, and then to top it all off, dealing with a major identity crisis! After getting landed at Shadow Falls Camp, Kylie has to try and not only figure out who she is, but what she is, since it becomes clear that she's not totally human, but no one can really explain for sure what makes Kylie so different... To make matters worse, she has a creepy ghost she's nicknamed "Soldier Dude" following her around wherever she goes, and even in the supernatural world, it's not a common thing to be able to see dead people.

Another thing I totally loved about this book was that it took place at a summer camp-- and not just any summer camp, but one especially for supernaturals. This was such a fun twist on the typical "boarding school" kind of story, and I thought it made the book both unique and memorable.

And then we have the boy love interests: Trey is the guy who ditched Kylie awhile back, but she can't seem to get over him. Derek is the super-sexy half-fey guy she meets at Shadow Falls Camp, and he was definitely swoon-worthy! And then there's Lucas, a werewolf who's more on the dark and dangerous side, but who Kylie can't help but be equally attracted to. So yes, there was plenty of romance and love triangles and quadrangles going on in this book, but it was still fun to read about! 

The deliciously suspenseful cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter definitely made Born at Midnight impossible to put down-- it was like getting to the end of a TV show that you're just dying to see the next episode of because it ended by leaving you on the edge of your seat, biting your nails to get to the next plot twist. That really made this book fun to read!

The only thing that threw me off a little bit was the gigantic mish-mash of supernatural and paranormal genres-- I didn't mind there being faeries, witches, vampires, unicorns and werewolves all together in the same story,  but then there was also talk about Kylie being "descended from the Gods," and at that point I was just like, whoa whoa-- what?! There are gods in this book too?? Adding in mythology when there are already so many different things going on in the plot made it a little more difficult for me to follow. Oh, and the eyebrow-twitching thing was also a little weird. Basically, supernaturals can "twitch" their eyebrows to get a vibe about another supernatural, and I kept trying to picture this in my head, and every time ended up mentally giggling to myself :)

Overall Born at Midnight was a great book because it had a fun setting and fun characters, and the plot was definitely suspenseful and kept me reading. I would highly recommend picking up this book if you like the whole "boarding school" genre, or reading any kind of supernatural story. 

~Cover Love~

OMGosh, this is total cover love! Not only did this cover draw me in right away with the mysterious picture of the split tree and girl, but it's like, purple and silvery! This is one of those covers that is beautiful anyways, but when you see it in person, it's even better. I also think that the girl looks just like Kylie would look.

LC's Rating:

Awesome characters and a suspenseful story line made this book a must-read! Add in the fact that it takes place at a summer camp for supernaturals, and you have yourself one awesome book-- definitely have this one bumped UP on your TBR lists! :D