Review: Haven by Kristi Cook

Haven by Kristi Cook 
Published: February 22nd, 2011
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 416
Challenge: 100+ Reading Challenge, Debut Author Challenge 2011, 350 Page Books Challenge
Other: n/a
Buy the book: Bookdepository

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first.

After reading the synopsis of this book, I thought: "Awesome! A book about a psychic school!" and yes, it was about teenagers who were attracted to this school and then discover every single person has some sort of psychic abilities. But there's a twist in the story, that suddenly makes it less important in the story. That was really bothering me, and I didn't like that twist.

First up, let me start off by saying how I loved the idea of the book. I was hooked from the first page, and continued to be hooked until the forementioned twist. I was willing to overlook the fact that Aidan reminded me way too much of Edward (Cullen). From the moment he was first introduced, I got that Edward vibe. And I do not like Edward, because Edward has stalker tendencies, so I didn't like that Aiden was described like this. But anyhoo, the book was still good until we found out about The Twist. And I know, it's not really a 'twist', but the change of focus in the book was not something I liked. I think Cook worked up to a nice plot nontheless, but I wasn't thrilled about this book.

Cook's writing is very good, so that had nothing to do with why I didn't really like the book. It was simply not my kind of thing. I'm sure there are lots of people who did really like or love this book, but for me personally it was a bit of a disappointment.

My overall rating:


Because the developments in the story weren't things I was excited about to see in the book.