Title: Damaged (Rebirth Series, #1)
Author: Becca Vincenza
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal romance
(some mature situations)
Today I get
to review the book, DAMAGED by Becca Vincenza. This book is book one of a
series and it’s the first introduction into the author’s paranormal world.
Damaged is
an interesting story about a paranormal girl, Audrey, who has secrets locked
away inside of her and has blocked them from her memory. Other people want
these secrets and we find out that Audrey has been tortured and locked away in
a prison cell for five years.
She gets
rescued from this prison but she lives in constant fear that these new people
are going to punish her, torment her, and torture her like her previous
captives. She is scared of having common things like a soft bed, blankets, a
large room, food and kindness. She thinks that the new people will suddenly
take these things away from her to further torture her.
One of her
rescuers, Stone, is a paranormal creature. We later find out that he is a
shape-shifter and he can change into another human or animal.
For some
reason, Stone is drawn to Audrey and the pull is so strong that he gets very
possessive of her. He feels compelled to keep her safe and has to be with her
constantly. He fights with other paranormal creatures if they touch her, talk
to her for too long or take her away from him.
The first third
of the book was very confusing to me. I didn’t understand who all the people
were; I didn’t understand the world and the clans. Audrey’s paranormal identity
was kept a secret for half of the book and while I enjoyed the reveal, the lack
of information in the beginning made it difficult to follow.
I also
thought that Stone was way too possessive of Audrey. He always had to be near
her, touching her, staring at her, etc.
(Example: A
paranormal that was known to Audrey asked her if she could come with him so
they could speak privately. Audrey was in a bedroom with Stone when she was
asked and she went willingly with the paranormal.
Audrey and
the paranormal had a nice moment and I was y enjoying their time together when
suddenly the door crashed in and there was Stone, rushing to Audrey’s side. She
didn’t need any help and she wasn’t in any danger but he just couldn’t let her
be with anyone else but him.)
There were
a few plot holes in the story (Audrey has one eye that’s cloudy and one eye
that is normal. A character mentioned how her eyes were bright blue – which is
impossible because one eye is always cloudy). Another plot hole: Stone, Audrey
and other characters were going into a large conference room. Several sentences
later, it was mentioned that they were in a small space.
There was
another scene where three characters were talking and two were telling Stone
about an event that happened in the past. That particular scene was very
confusing and needed clarification. I read it ten times and I still could not
figure out what had happened.
There were
some spelling errors, grammatical errors. The author did mention that this book
will be reedited so I will definitely read that.
Things I
did not like:
1. There was a lot of repetitive information in the story.
Audrey’s quirks were abundant and repeated constantly. Some of that could have
been cut out. Her biting her lip later in the story could have been taken away
– it wasn’t necessary to give her a new, distracting quirk (that and Stone’s
possessiveness reminded me about Christian and Ana in Fifty Shades of Gray).
2. I also did not enjoy that repetitive comments about how
Stone was so possessive about Audrey. It made me like him less as a character
and thought that he was a bit overboard with his drastic actions and possessive
comments.
3. I did not know that here was an appendix in the back of
the book that explained who all the paranormal creatures were (the appendix was
listed in the table of contents but it did not indicate that it was a glossary
of the paranormals). If that was introduced in the beginning of the book, it
might have helped me make sense of the first third of the story.
4. I liked Marcus but I found it difficult to understand
what he was saying a lot of the time because it was written in a Scottish
dialect.
Elijah was
an interesting character. I really enjoyed reading about him and I hope to read
more about him in the future.
Overall,
the storyline was very interesting and I thought that the overall premise of
the world was unique. I enjoyed the plot and the different types of characters,
plus I found myself really getting into all the back stories of the
paranormals.
Here is
some advice that might make the book a little less confusing: There is an
Appendix in the back of the book that explains the paranormal creatures. I
recommend reading that first!
I give this
book 3.5 paws.
I will
definitely read the next book in the series.
Always be yourself... that was the last advice Scout's Grandma Nora gave her before she died. Scout has spent her life trying to be anything but, but she has a chance to start anew as she moves several states away to college. She had always thought the glowing aura she saw around some people was a childhood fancy, but when it starts coming back just as she's starting her new life, she learns there was much hidden about who she truly is.
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