Review: Born at Midnight

Born at Midnight (Shadow falls book 1) b C.C Hunter
Published:29th March 2011
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin


Goodreads description:

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever.  Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.”  Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie’s never felt normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either.  Or does she?  They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason.  As if life wasn’t complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas.  Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past.  Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart. 

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

My thoughts:

It took me a while to get into Born at Midnight, I'd say I didn't really enjoy the first 2/3 of the book that much. I found Kyle ridiculously annoying. I appreciated that she was going through a lot, but the way she dealt with it made me think of a person much younger than herself. It seemed so immature. Her problems were fairly mainstream and the way she dealt with them was equally so. I also thought she was a bit of a prude considering her age (sorry, but I did) and I got a bit fed up with her obsession with her breasts. She seemed to fit her breasts into like, every thought she had. SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR CHEST KYLIE FOR GOD'S SAKE! 

I really felt sympathy towards Kylie’s mum however, I imagine lots of people probably dislike her, but she really reminded me of myself in a lot of ways. Her situation, as you discover, is a tricky and painful one, and I definitely forgave her behaviour by the end of the book. Her dad on the other hand, he well pissed me off. Also, it was very stereotypical and cliche behaviour that he exhibited, which also annoyed me. 

Most people when they review this book talk about the love triangle, but actually, it's more of a square. Kylie meets Lucas, who she knew as a child (and who she's sure killed her cat Socks) at the camp, as well as a fit fairy-boy called Derek who can play with her emotions which makes her a liiiiiittle suspicious of him. But there's also Trey, the ex-boyfriend who broke up with her to get some action. The romance element really wasn't overdone at all. It wasn't all angsty and annoying. Kylie is hesitant about entering into a relationship with any of the boys (about the only thing about her that I agree with) mainly because of her experience with Trey. I am firmly in the Team Lucas camp on this one (which if you know me and have read this book should be obvious) Derek is okay, but he's a bit flimsy for my liking and Trey shouldn't even be an option. I liked a lot of her campmates more than her, Della and Miranda her roomates were pretty funny, and what we heard about the others (they were mostly just window dressing was interesting) I didn't trust either Holiday or Sky the camp leaders, with good reason? Jury's still partially out I guess. 

Plot was okay, first part was pretty slow and I got seriously fed up with Kylie refusing to accept that she was some kind of supernatural. Her stubborness was infuriating and I put the book down several times it annoyed me that much. However the last third was excellent, the plot really picked up and Kylie really matured. It was great to see the positive changes in her and I eventually began to warm to her character. These changes didn't happen overnight either, which made them much more believable and it was great to see her finally embracing her nature, her situation and the decisions she had to make. I didn't expect a couple of the plot twists, and you do get a fair few thrown at you around the last few chapters.

Despite my initial misgivings I ended up enjoying this book quite a lot, the premise of the summer camp for troubled supernaturals was an interesting take on the whole school setting, and I eventually found myself taking to Kylie. I'd like to read the book again, knowing what I know about it now, to see if my thoughts would be any different.

Overall, I give it a 4/5