Pinehurst: A Magical Olympian Adventure-Young Adult Romantic Adventure/Fantasy Novel Kindle Edition

I can't pinpoint the why, but I love this book! I can even think of several things that usually bother me, but for some reason they don't bother me at all in this book. It's odd. I've already bought book 2 and will start on it first thing in the morning. To break it all down....- the cover- not a huge fan. It's not awful, but it's not wow either.- the plot- well done. There are clear plots and subplots here that are followed and do not use methods of convenience to push it along. The biggest subplot is clearly wrapped up which makes this book an actual book. One of my biggest pet peeves that happens far to often is when an author doesn't understand how a series should work. They simply chop a book into halves and wants you to pay twice for one book. Here you obviously have the main arcing BIG plot, which is not resolved and will continue throughout the series. You also have at least one subplot, but often more, of which at least one is completed and is important enough for you to feel as though you've gotten your money's worth even if you decide not to continue. This was done nicely here.- the grammar/writing/spelling/etc- no noticeable mistakes. Editing was on par. The writing wasn't Shakespeare but it was well done. It was descriptive enough without being overly wordy. The dialogue was well done most of the time.- the characters -the MC: here's where I'm surprised I don't hate the girl. Truthfully a lot of her is exactly the type of girl I can't stand- overly boy conscious(what's that? A wombat eating my foot? Oh look the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Who cares when I can stare at dream boat over here?), entitled(I'm calling daddy!), whiny(snakes, spiders, slimy stuff....ewwww), etc. she does have redeeming qualities like never backs down to a challenge, loyal, and sassy. In the end though she may have ended the world, and yet I STILL like her. Kudos to the author. - the hero- even he has some of my typical "ugh...not again" qualities: obviously off the charts hot, tries to push our heroine away even though he loves her in order to protect her, etc. Again though he has redeeming qualities-he doesn't treat the heroine like she's made of glass. He doesn't use her gender as an excuse to force her into a weak or submissive "get behind me" role. The boy does have secrets though. I hope book 2 explores them a bit more. - quirky sidekicks- Havoc: our resident demon/pixie who grows on you apparently. Who knew? -Iris- eh while not our typical bff she was lukewarm for me. Perhaps we just didn't get to know her as well? In fact same goes for the other two girls. - our other love interest(although he seemed like more of a distraction to me)- he was kinda annoying to me. Not nearly as strong as our heroine and he is one of those "get behind me while I ineffectually try to do something and then cry" types. She didn't even like him at first so not sure what happened there. -our resident bullies- Stacey- your typical Barbie wannabe who tries to be all queen bee but is really just ridiculous and Chad- typical macho bully who thinks he's a gift to humanity. -our big bad- ah he really is a big bad. We didn't get too much interaction with him so not too much data on how his personality and motives will be played. Just all encompassing evil? Maybe just a tortured soul on a misguided path? Perhaps an evil guy but yet he has some redeeming qualities after all? We will have to read book two to find out.- the settings- fairly well described. Some were what you'd expect already(Hell is hot, a desert dry) but there was usually a twist somehow(a vulture in a principals office, unicorn bedding while trying to prove how adult she is, demon spiders here and there). Just enough to keep you intrigued without having to reinvent your whole concept of it.Final impression- even going through all this analysis, I should have opted for a lower rating! Usually this type of MCs would annoy me enough to go to a three and yet I love this book! I even love the annoying drooling over lover boy. I don't even mind the whole love square(or whatever it's called) here when love triangles typically irritate me. Whatever this author is doing when writing.....keep it up! Well done!(For those wondering why I didn't give a 5 as much as I said I loved it, for me a 5 is an absolute masterpiece. It's a classic. It's timeless. It's profound. It's Heaven in words. It's beauty and peace and joy in written form. In short, it's very difficult to get a 5 from me.)

This book was ok. I read a lot of YA and urban fantasy books, and this book did not compare all that well. The magical system was not clear to me. I'm not sure if the magic is Olympian, as it's mentioned in the title, or from angels/demons. Both were referenced, and rather than meeting Hades, the MC met Satan. I think the author would do well to explain things a bit more clearly, because that's one of the key defining points of a book, in my opinion.The other major difficulty I had with this book was the main character. I really wanted to like her. She was tough, took no crap, and smart. She was also excessively rude, pouty, childish, immature, and wishy-washy. She kept talking about how she wanted to take care of herself, but the moment something bad happened, she hid behind the nearest guy. She had to be told by a guy how to handle her supposably super strong magic powers, despite the fact that she'd been using them all along. Generally speaking, I expect a YA novel with a 16 yr old MC to start childish and immature. The problem was that she never changed. She was the same at the beginning of the novel as she was at the end. I don't think I'll bother reading the sequels, as the main character annoyed me so much.On a positive note, the editting was acceptable, with few errors. There were a couple of wrong word mistakes, but nothing that impeded reading.

If you watched Buffy, own the DVD Mean Girls and have read the Harry Potter series then you might just enjoy Pinehurst...This book was an easy and fast read for me and while I did enjoy it, there are a few things that held me back from loving it. But I want to start with the things I did enjoy about this book.Nicole Grane is a very talented author. Her witty way with words is one of the biggest things that hooked me from the beginning and held my interest until the end. This book is well written and although it reminded me of the titles above it held its own in originality.I really like the world building in this book. I'm a sucker for fantasy and this one includes a little of everything. Pixies and mageians and slayers, oh my! Throw in some Greek mythology, gargoyles and a trip to hell, and you have a whole schlew of fantasy shenanigans. Speaking of pixies, Havoc is freaking hilarious!Pinehurst was a good read and has a lot of potential to become a great series. I will most likely read the second book in this series but I'm really, really hoping that Evie matures and grows into her role as the child of light while still keeping some of her sarcastic and witty personality. Which brings me to the things I didn't like:The romance. Evie, have you heard of the phrase "playing hard to get"? I had a lot of trouble with the romance in this book. I felt like Evie threw herself at Antonio's feet every time she seen him and was constantly embarrassing herself and would run off crying. Literally. Now, I know this is YA and she is only sixteen BUT it made me feel like her romantic interest was taking pity on her. And that puts a damper on the romance department for me. There were too many great and exciting scenes that got interrupted because Evie makes eyes contact with Antonio or catches a glimpse of rope muscled skin and we have to read through a whole paragraph or so about how hot he is before getting back to the story. We know how hot he is, we've been told many, many times. I started skipping these parts later in the book because it was dragging me out of the story instead of pulling me further in. And I wanted to be pulled in! As I have already mentioned it's a great story with interesting characters and ideas but the romance is starting to overpower all of it. And not in a good way.A little less telling with a lot more showing. There were quite a few parts in this book that "told" me what was happening rather than "showing" me. And I think a little work on character development is needed for the series to truly succeed. While Evie was a very well fleshed out character I needed more back story on the supporting characters.All in all I think Nicole Grane is definitely an author to look out for. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy/romance with hysterically funny teenaged heroines.