Review: Shatter (Seaside, #3) by Rachel Van Dyken
Rock star Alec Daniels has it all. Love, fame, money... But being in the limelight isn't all it’s cracked up to be, and after one bad choice comes back to haunt him he is left picking up the pieces of his carefully constructed life. Now he faces the toughest decision of his life:
Deal with his mistake like a man, or dive back into the dark hole of depression, drugs, and denial that have been his comfort for so long.
One wrong move could destroy everything. His girlfriend, his family, and his future.
Review:
Having read Tear (Seaside, #1) a few months back, I was a little hesitant at reading Shatter. My review for Tear was laced in disappointment as Rachel Van Dyken had quickly stolen my heart as a new author with her other books - only to let me fall face first in Tear.
I kicked around the idea of reading the rest of this series for a while. My main complaint in Tear was that the characters were too immature for their age and found some of the plot confusing. However, I saw promise in the character progression as the book concluded. So when books #2 and #3 came out, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a part of my mind constantly nagging at me to check these out. After all, I did find the story line interesting and the characters promising. Maybe it was what I like to call first book jitters - where book 1 in a series struggles to find a foothold but book 2 comes out guns blazin' and ready to go.
I'm glad I decided to continue on with the series as I found Shatter to be a lot better than Tear. Now, if anyone has caught it yet, Tear is book one and Shatter is book 3. What about book 2 (Pull) you may ask? Good question! When I was purchasing on my kindle the book number was cut off and I misunderstood Shatter to be book 2! I quickly realized my error when the first chapter recapped some stuff that I remembered...and other stuff that I didn't...
That did not take away from the experience of the book. As I come to find out, book 2 really focused on Dimitri while book 3 focuses on Alec and Nat. You do miss some of the "history" that unravels in book 2 but it is recapped for the most part and I didn't feel lost at any point because of it.
What I liked:
I guess that actually brings me to my first point which is the writing style of the author, Rachel. If I can accidentally read books in the wrong order and yet still read it comfortably and be just as engaged - I think that says a lot about the writing quality. There was enough recaps to jog my memory (and make me want to read book 2) but yet I don't feel as if everything was totally given away (I'd still read book 2).
The characters have also done a lot of growing up since book 1. While not all that much book time has passed, Nat seems a lot more mature. I didn't notice her whining every five seconds about how awful her life is. Perhaps it's because she has come to realize that others have it a lot worse than her?
What's funny is that I really liked Alec in book 1. He was the main reason I kept reading. Oddly, in book 3 I didn't like him that much. It was almost like him and Nat switched places. Suddenly Nat was the mature one providing decent advice and Alec was whiny and throwing hissy fits about "life".
What I didn't like:
And that brings me to this part. While the characters have obviously matured in some ways - the emotional whiplash was almost too much to take. I guess that is really a personal like/dislike as a reader. I like a little emotional whiplash (in books...hah). Heck, sometimes I love when the characters are so mentally tormented that I feel like I'm a complete wreck with them - all the way until the situation is resolved...or not. It's all part of the experience. However in Shatter, I felt like all of that emotional whip led no where. One minute Nat was pissed about something. She'd get over it and then Alec would be pissed about the exact same thing. He'd kind of get over it and then Nat would get pissed that he was pissed ....and then he'd get pissed that she was pissed....But no one talk to each other, now! No way! Talking it out would be way to logical! Let's just keep lying and taking it out on other people when we know we're wrong! Heck, in the end I'm still not sure anything was resolved. In a way they always just agreed to disagree on life. Ugh! But hey, I know some readers like that so I'm not letting it knock down my rating too much. All I'm saying is that, personally, is was a little too much run around for nothing.
Ratings:
Character Development:****+
Plot Progression: ***+
Writing Quality: **** (some dialog was clunky)
Romance: some steamy scenes but not too explicit
My Rating:
Amazon: 4.7
GoodReads: 4.3
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