Too much glitter is not a good thing.

Need by Carrie Jones

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



**Spoiler Alert**

This Review can also be found on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/477992477

This is the story of Zara, a girl who watched her step-father die, and lost her own will to participate in daily life. Her mother, fearing for her mental well-being, sends Zara to rural Maine to stay with her Grandmother (because everybody knows a mentally unstable person should be isolated in the wilds of a sparsely populated area). Zara is a regular encyclopedia of phobias (though it is never really explained why she knows them all well enough to list them, as she does...repeatedly). In Maine, she meets mean girls, hot boys and true friends all in one day. What she learns is that most of the people she now knows hide secrets about who, or what, they really are.

As she unfolds the story of a mysterious pointing man/stalker, who seems to have followed her from her home in South Carolina, with his trail of gold glitter - Zara comes to understand that the people around her that she thought she knew best are actually shifters. Her grandmother is a were-tiger, her boyfriend is a werewolf (or dog, as she liked to refer to him) and one of her friends is a ...were-eagle. Yes, Eagle.

As it happens, the gold dust apparently indicates that the mysterious man is a Pixie. No, don't laugh. Only Pixie Kings leave trails of gold glitter, so the King himself is after Zara. She believes he wants her to be his Queen. Why? Because she and her friends found it on the internet. Google is good, people.

“Pixies have to be invited in, like vampires. I read it on the Internet."

See now, I need to jump in here and say that this is one of the things that kind of bugged me about this book. Anything that was too hard to explain, or too difficult to dive deep enough to build a believable back story, was just explained away with the internet or a random library book. Come on now, work with me. Suspension of disbelief is expected in a Fantasy book...but give me the Fantasy part, not a lazy attempt at explaining away things that were never thought enough about to actually come up with plausible story!

OK moving on...so, it turns out that the Pixie King is not after Zara to be his Queen. He is after her mother...because HE is Zara's FATHER. Hold on, I am having a Darth Vader moment ... ... Ok, better now. Yeah, so Zara is part pixie and is the bait to get her mother up to Maine so he can keep her and take part of her soul so he won't have to kidnap local boys (only boys will do) and suck their blood to maintain control and power. What? What part are you confused about?

Well anyway, Zara's mom falls for it and manages to get to the Pixie hideout to turn herself over to her Baby Daddy in exchange for Zara being let go. Zara doesn't like the thought of her mother being trapped in the Pixie Kings secret hideout (mansion) in the woods that is glamoured to the human eye forevermore. SO, she and her shifter grandmother, boyfriend, and 2 friends decide to use railroad ties, barbed wire and forks, spoons and knives to trap the pixies in the house (they don't like Iron...it burns) with a rickety fence like structure - after her mother walks out the front door and makes it outside of the barbed wire circle unchallenged, of course. DO NOT ask me why duct-taped spoons and forks on the outside of the windows keeps the Pixies inside (and/or scared). I just don't know.

This is the first book in a series, so obviously there is no end or any hope at resolution in this book. So, be prepared if you like to see a story through to the end.

My thoughts:
Ugh.
First, the characters are superficial. I did like Grandma Betty...she had spunk. Zara was annoying at best and the rest were bland, undeveloped.

Second, the "romance" is contrived and based solely on how hot she thinks he is, and how cute he thinks she is...there is no substance. Her thoughts on her were-boyfriend are limited to how bulgy his muscles are and that his eyes are dreamy. His sole purpose is to 'protect' her. He is channeling his inner Edward. And Edward does it better.

Third, The whole introduction of pixies (to a girl who was not yet aware of the whole were-factor) was like 'oh, we think the pointing dude is a pixie' and Zara was all like 'yeah, i totally get that'. What the bloody #@*! ??

Fourth, Do I really need a fourth? Ok, fine. Fourth, the dialog was forced. It didn't flow, to the point where it was a little painful to read, where you could tell it was trying to be funny...but just wasn't.

Fifth, the plot was thin, lazy. There was hardly any back story to anything. The ending, which I assume was to be a climactic scene was very ... anti-climactic. A letdown. Uninspired.

In short, I will not be spending more time with this series.




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