Book Review – White Raven by J.L. Weil

White Raven by J.L. Weil
Series: Raven, #1
Published March 20, 2015
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult
291 pages
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Find on Goodreads
Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3lbcOmg

DREADFUL LIES.
UNEXPECTED LOVE.
IMPOSSIBLE TRUTH.

Table of Contents

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It only took one heartbeat to change my life—one chilling phone call in the middle of the night.

And then, as if my life didn’t already suck, my dad sends my brother and me to some idyllic island for the summer to live with a grandma we never met. WTH. Naturally, I rebel. In the end, I find myself shipped off to Raven Hallow…and bored to tears.

Until I get an eyeful of the mind-bendingly gorgeous Zane Hunter. The dark-hair cutie makes my pulse go bonkers, and I think, maybe this might not be so bad after all. Six feet of swoon inducing looks, with a hint of Celtic charm in his voice, he was the type of guy that left a string of broken hearts in his wake. And I had all the heartbreak I could handle.

Yet, there is something uncanny, almost supernatural about Zane, and it’s not just his devastating smirk. No matter how much distance I put between us, Raven Hallow isn’t big enough, and the sparking tension between is undeniable. Of course, the one person I want to avoid becomes my salvation.

My past comes back to terrorize me. Someone wants me dead, and the closer I get to the truth, the more I realize my whole life is a lie. I am no longer sure what is more frightening—the attempts on my life or the guy whose heart and soul are synchronized with mine.

Review

White Raven, which is the first book of the Raven series has been in my TBR for a long time now but I’m not really sure how long that is, haha. But I do remember the reason why I added this book in my TBR, aside from the story, I was captivated with its enchanting cover. I love the vibe it exudes which is kind of mysterious, and as you can see with my raging 4 star rating, this one didn’t disappoint at all. Actually, I do think I could have given this one a perfect 5 star rating and I’ll tell you more about it in a few minutes.

With a generous sypnosis like that, I’m pretty sure you’ll be tempted to try out this story, won’t you? And luckily, it’s as good as the sypnosis. In the early chapters, we’ve got to know about Piper (female lead) and what she endured after her mother was murdered. With her father mending a broken heart, he agreed to have Piper and her younger brother TJ spend their summer vacation at Raven Hallow, a small island where their grandmother, whom they never met, lived. The next chapters started to get more interesting when this hot adonis in the name of Zane Hunter was introduced. And the moment he and Piper were having their moment, I swear, my sanity was nowhere to be found lol. I already know this one’s going to be a supernatural story but even if I’m already in the middle part, I’m still groping in the dark what really these people from Raven Hallow are, especially Zane.

There’s so many questions and mysteries this book has that sometimes I think it has more mystery than MHC’s books lol. I have my own set of guesses about what this story is going to be but I was shocked when I found out what this book is really about. My! I don’t want to spoil the fun but I think it’s safe to say that there’s a lot of reaping going on with this series lol. 

Oh heck, I don’t really want to drop some spoilers but it’s hard to shut my mouth especially if I’m this excited, haha. When I found out about Zane, I was really shocked. I mean, I wasn’t expecting that. When Piper said his eyes changed when he was involved in a fight to save her, I was 100% sure that he’s a vampire. Haha, I guess I should blame it on my fascination with vampire movies and series eh? When I found out about Zane’s true identity, the manga/anime Soul Eater just instantly crossed my mind. I guess it was in the second chapter, it mentioned that Piper loves to sketch which is mostly some anime/manga characters so I think this story is somewhat inspired by the anime Soul Eater eh?

I do love the anime and I was really glad that I enjoyed this one too, especially that it involves a hot alpha lead, hehe. I personally don’t like his name but man! I just can’t help but fall in love with him. Well, it’s not a surprise since I easily get attracted to bad guys hehe.

I’m always a sucker for teen romance too so it was a relief that this one didn’t just have a great cover but also has an equally amazing story.

Piper is your typical teenager. The angst, the stubbornness, name them all, she has them. She can be too much of a headache too, to the extent that I wanna smack her myself. This story was taken from her own POV and I have to say that I kinda like the way it was written. She can be a pain in the ass but I love her humor. I also love that she somewhat becomes clumsy when it comes to Zane, haha, their first meeting was kind of hilarious lol. I can’t even count how many times I laughed with her choice of words too, haha.

Zane on the other hand is mysterious and dangerous, but really really really hot. He’s a kind of guy that when you look at him, you already know he’s trouble. Piper has been warned a thousand times about him, and I guess I understand why she can’t shake off crushing over this bad guy. Aside from being an a-class a-hole, his actions and words were somewhat confusing. I mean, he’s hot and then he’s cold all of a sudden. But overall, he’s still hot, period. Haha.

I actually love the idea, but I find some other things lacking for this story. I don’t really want to be a bummer but it can’t be helped. Piper’s grandmother is like the queen of all the reaper clans so I find it quite questionable why their massive mansion doesn’t have some hordes of guards especially now that their lives are in danger. Plus, Piper walking out of the house without a bodyguard is a no no considering the island is full of reapers lol.

Don’t get me wrong, the fight scenes were intense in this story, but there were times that it’s hard to picture them out so I ended up skipping some lines so I could go on to the other scene.

But even with those things, overall, I think this story is a great one considering it’s the first book of the series. So I’m pretty sure the next book would be more fantastic.

I was constantly asking questions over questions while reading this story and I think it was halfway through the book that all were laid out, well, not all actually. There’s still a lot of unanswered questions I want to know the answers to. So yep, I’ll definitely get a copy of the second and the third books soon.

This was my first time reading a book from the author and I was really impressed. I love the writing style and I love the idea of this series. So yep, definitely after this review, I’ll be stalking the author, haha.

If you want teen romance to merge into a supernatural setting, then White Raven would be a perfect book for you.

Challenges

• 2017 New To Me
• 2017 Mount TBR Reading
• 2017 eBooks Reading
• 2017 You Read How Many Books?
• 2017 Review Writing

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