Crossroads by Mary Ting Review and GIVEAWAY

Today I am reviewing, Crossroads by Mary Ting. I am also giving away the e-book! If you would like to enter to win, please leave a comment on this post! Also, author Mary Ting is giving away a signed copy of Crossroads and some absolutely beautiful jewelry and you can win that here!  

Title:  Crossroads 

Author:  Mary Ting

Genre:  Young Adult/Paranormal

Publisher:  World Castle

Format:  Kindle

Crossroads, the world between life and death, is a place no human has ever entered. That is, until Claudia. Now that Claudia has been to Crossroads through her dreams and learned the secret of the half-human, half-angels called alkins that reside there, she has to be protected. The fallen will be after her, certain she has the secret to destroying Crossroads. Claudia is assigned a guardian angel, Michael, to keep her safe from the fallen. But things between Claudia and Michael are not what they seem. In fact, nothing in Claudia’s life is what it seems.

Crossroads is a young adult paranormal romance, focusing on angels, demons and a group called the fallen.  It definitely has an intriguing and original plot, especially in a genre ripe with fallen angels, vampires and werewolves (all of which I love, by the way).  Unfortunately, I found it to be a bit formulaic. It reminded me too much of the Twilight series. There was a forbidden love, hot, burning passion, sexual tension and a friend that could potentially be a love interest—there was even a variation of the infamous leg hitch scene. There were many interesting aspects to the story: the alkins lives and why they are forced to live the way they do, Crossroads, Halo City and the Divine Ten Commandments.  I really wanted to learn more about these things. I also found the dialogue to be a little unrealistic; no teenager I know—and I know a lot—would talk the way the teenagers in this book talk. Also, Claudia’s constant internal dialogue became rather monotonous as the book progressed. I really wanted Ting to build the characters as she built the story. Both Claudia and Michael had tremendous potential, but they fell a bit flat. Some back story regarding the various characters in the story would have really helped the plot. Ting is extremely adept at building tension in her stories; the various fight scenes were well-written and exciting. During one scene in particular, in the retail store where Claudia works, I got goose bumps from the descriptions. I wanted the whole book to read like this scene. I fully expect Ting’s writing to take on even greater dimension as she progresses through Claudia’s story.        

I didn't dislike Crossroads, I was just a bit disappointed in it. I thought the plot was very original and well thought-out. Perhaps my expectations are too high or I am being too in harsh in comparing it to other books in the genre. After I finished the book, I checked out its reviews on Goodreads, and I am definitely in the minority. It has an average 4.10 out of 5 rating there. If you would like to see other opinions of Crossroads, please look here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11401927-crossroads. I am looking forward to the next story, I would like to see where Ms. Ting take it and the characters to the next level.