Need... to not read the sequels!

Need by Carrie Jones was not the book for me.  It might be the book for you, especially if you enjoy YA featuring fairies and weres.  I normally enjoy books with a touch of the paranormal, not too much into the fairy genre, but the cover of the book caught my eye and I added the book to my Book Swim pool.

Yes, I tend to judge books by their covers.  Which in this day and age of super cool images is often misleading.  Because any book can get a cool graphic artist.  You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now, but you'd be wrong.

So Need starts off like Twilight.  Almost EXACTLY like Twilight.  The main character has a unique name (warning #1 of a Mary Sue like main character) Zara, and she's moving from sunny, warm Phoenix North (maybe South?) Carolina, to cold, freezing Forks, Washington Maine.  She's leaving her newly married newly widowed mother behind and moving in with her father grandmother who lives near some creepy woods.  Right away she meets two boys, one a hyper, handsome overachiever (think Mike Newton) and the other a broody hot boy (the Edward Cullen of the book) who drives a mini. 

The main thing that I truly enjoyed about Need is that Zara is a fan of phobias, and she starts off each chapter describing some unusual fear.  But that's the only thing I really enjoyed about Zara.  For the most part I found her annoying, but it could be that I'm 33 years old and sometimes, despite my immaturity, I'm not going to be able to relate to the main characters of YA novels. 

Zara is super involved in Amnesty International, and it is mentioned in the book CONSTANTLY, so much so that I truly felt like I was reading propaganda for the organization.  This book is brought to you by Amnesty International and Coca-Cola.  Ugh.  Not that I have anything against Amnesty International, I have even done some work on their behalf, but I felt like the author used it to show what a sensitive, caring person Zara is.  Got it, now can we move on?

Zara also does a LOT of dumb, horror movie things.  She's seeing some stalker dude everywhere she goes, she hears her name being called from the woods, teens are going missing again, and she's been warned to stay away from the woods.  So of course she goes outside to walk in the woods at every given moment.

And while I'm not one to usually figure out where a book is going, I knew exactly what was happening and who was involved almost from the beginning. 

Was the writing bad?  No.  Was the story original?  Um, parts were- but again I don't read much fairy books (except for the awesome Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar which I love a million red m&ms).  It's just that I could have put the book down at any time and not regretted doing so.  But I finished it because a book has to be unreadable for me to give it up.  It's my own little quirk of reading OCD.

Need has the obligatory love triangle, but you'll never feel torn, Nick and Ian will not divide loyalites like Edward and Jacob or Peeta and Gale.  But seriously, what girl doesn't want at least 2 hotties to choose from?  Or to be like Sookie Stackhouse and have every hot guy in a billion mile radius attracted to you?

I'm giving Need a Midnight Book Rating of 6pm, reading it during dinner won't spoil your appetite, but it's not going to keep you up to the wee hours of the morning. Need does have some interesting mythology to it, so I really do think those of you who enjoy paranormal romances will like this, it just wasn't a compelling read to me.

The cover of the book gets a 11pm rating.  :)