A review for 13 to Life by Shannon Delany

Posted by Donna

Published Date: June 22nd, 2010

Finished Date: May 18th, 2011
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The Blurb: Everything about Jessie Gillmansen’s life changed when her mother died. Now even her hometown of Junction is changing.  Mysterious dark things are happening. All Jessie wants is to avoid more change. But showing a hot new guy around Junction High, she’s about to discover a whole new type of change. Pietr Rusakova is more than good looks and a fascinating accent—he’s a guy with a dangerous secret. And his very existence is sure to bring big trouble to Jessie’s small town.  It seems change is the one thing Jessie can’t avoid…

The Review: I'd heard so many good things about this book before I started so, as you can imagine I feel pretty bad for giving this book such a poor rating. No matter how much I tried to like it, I just couldn't. 

The story follows Jessie who is a pretty normal high school girl. Nothing exciting happens in her life until she meets the new student Pietr. She's attracted to him straight away but she finds him quiet dangerous. She believes he's hiding a secret and she's interested to find out what it is.

I usually love werewolf stories but this to me, just didn't grab my attention. The first few chapters were pretty interesting but then I lost interest after about chapter 5. While reading this, I kept having to ask "what is this book about" because although there's something happening in town, you don't really find out what's going on or what Pietr is until the end of the book. Most people i've spoken with have said this is a book about getting to know the characters but I believe that there needs to be something included in the story that will keep you interested enough to be grabbing for book 2 straight after and I don't think this did.

The relationship between the two main characters was frankly quiet annoying. Its one of the reasons I kept reading but I just don't understand were the author was trying to take it. Even though its pretty clear that Jessie & Pietr want to be together; Pietr dates Jessie's friend for the entire time although he doesn't want to. To say the least, it left me more than a little frustrated.

The story story itself I felt was quiet slow and long winded. You finally see some action in the last 10% of the story but then of course, the book finishes. Usually after finishing a book, I'll be interested to continue the story but I have no desire to pick the next one up.

Overall, I honestly believe this is going to be a massive hit but for the reason's above I just couldn't get on with it.