Review: Awaken by Jaime Guerard

Official Synopsis: 

Three things run through my mind at this very moment… ONE, my life as I once knew it will never be the same. TWO, the person I’m in love with might not even exist. THREE, the deception that has unfolded before me has the power of life and death. Sixteen year old, Breanna Davis, has heard the saying; life isn’t always what it seems…well, that saying rings true now more than ever. As horrifying visions appear before her, revealing tragedies that will forever change the fate of those she loves, she realizes that she may be the only person who can stop them from becoming reality. Amongst the chaos of this new discovery, Bre is faced with a stranger, Eve, who moves in on Bre’s friends and begins to follow her every move. As Eve’s true motives begin to surface, Bre must fight against, not only the visions, but the dangers Eve holds close. There is another secret kept- Collin, a boy held captive in Bre’s dreams, the boy she is secretly falling in love with but isn’t sure he even exists. As she tries to make it work with Austin, an old friend who could possibly be more, Bre battles against her feelings for Collin. Bre is faced with an almost impossible decision, to choose her life or follow her destiny. If she doesn’t intercede, people will certainly die. If she does, her own life could be at stake. In the end, if she fails, she’ll lose everything. 

Genre: YA paranormal/thriller 

My rating for Awaken:

I think I would have really liked this if the story had been condensed a bit. I feel like there were a lot of everyday stuff in here that took away from the paranormal aspect of the story. From the inconsequential stuff Bre and her friends talked about to her boyfriend issues, searching for a job, her family issues, reuniting with Austin again, and girl drama...I just thought it was all too much when you then add on Eve, Bre's dreams, the precognition, etc. The precognition idea was a really cool one, but I wasn't able to enjoy it with everything else that was going on in this book. For some of the dialogue, I didn't find it completely realistic and I found the overall pace to be on the slower side. I seem to be the one of the very few who gave Awaken a low rating on Goodreads, which means a lot of people were able to easily overlook what I was unable to overlook, or just completely disagree with my opinions, so if you think you will like it to, give this book a whirl, and I wish the best! I wasn't interested enough to finish it completely (I think I read about 60% of it) so maybe it got a lot better towards the end.

Awaken on Goodreads, Amazon, and B&N.
Jaime Guerard: website, Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.