Raven by Allison van Diepen
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 288
Zin dances with fire in every step, speaks in a honey-sweet voice, and sees with eyes that can peer into your soul. Nicole's friendship with him is the only thing that saves her from the boredom of school and the turmoil of her family life. It's no wonder she is madly in love with him. But she can't understand why he keeps her at a distance, even though she can feel his soul reaching out for hers.
Zin is like no man Nicole has ever met, and he carries with him a very old secret. When Nicole uncovers the truth, her love may be the only thing that can save him from it.
Raven is extremely easy to read, utterly captivating and very hard to put down. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I enjoyed what van Diepen had up her sleeve!
I really loved the balance between fantasy, love, and this sort of hip urban feel. The relationship between Zin and Nic was intense, I appreciated the fact that they weren’t afraid to share their deepest, darkest secrets with each other, and I loved how their relationship grew. And not in a superficial lust way.
Some of the characters fell a little flat for me. The night club group, were by far the most intriguing, I really enjoyed learning about their history and wished it had been further divulged.
I had no idea what was going on during the dance battle scenes. The lingo meant absolutely nothing to me. I think a glossary to better explain the terms might have been a good idea. I knew enough from pop culture about what was happening, I just wasn’t able to distinguish the type of dance move that was being portrayed, but I didn’t feel like it took away from the story itself.
The ending seemed really rushed for me, but overall Raven was a captivating, and enjoyable read. I recommend it for fantasy/romance fans.