Quick Review: Enchanted by Rachel Wells

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Title: Enchanted
Author: Rachel Wells
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult: Paranormal, Young Adult: Paranormal Romance
Format: eBook
Buy: Barnes and Noble

Mandy is a quiet teenager who just wants to blend in with the crowd rather than stand out as anything or anybody. Mandy's pretty successful at this until her parents decide it's time to move from Boston to the quiet seaside town of York Beach, Maine, to "be closer to Nana". Although Mandy has been vacationing in York every summer since she was a child, she has no desire to live there and is worried about fitting in and finding friends during her senior year of high school.

Nana owns a flower shop in town and while working alongside her, Mandy makes a few friends and observes the oddities of the little town and its inhabitants. When she finds some old and cryptic correspondance hidden inside an antique trunk handed down from her Nana, the "oddities" turn into full fledged mysteries. As she unravels the forgotten and hidden history of the town, she simultaneously unravels her own family's past and current secrets while writing her future. With bits of romance and paranormal along the way, she is able to figure out the puzzle of the correspondance, the magic she never realized was surrounding her, and visions of the past and future. Will she walk away from her personal history and her future or will she realize it's ok to be somebody, even if that somebody is nothing like everybody else?

Why the uniformity!?

I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. Can't YA paranormal indie books STOP being so uniformed. This book like many others before or after it have the same uniformed plot. Girl moves in with grandparent(s), finds out she's a paranormal, falls in love, gets kidnapped and nearly killed, gets saved by boyfriend who is a paranormal or a human, and then they live happily ever after. Names, place, type of paranormal and the bad guys are the only things that change.

For the record, Enchanted was a good book, I like the writing, some of the characters. Plus, the book entertained me and kept me occupied. Only problem is the endless loop of the same "Young Adult: Paranormal Romance Plot Curse". I would have liked this book way better if it were more unique and properly written to fit that uniqueness. The author is a good writer and is probably even better now. But seriously, get a new script please! Just because authors know they can self-publish now, doesn't mean you have to publish books that are just like the other books out there! Authors are supposed to be creative, bubbly if not dark and deep. Use whatever deepness and creativity you have and write a book that is unique!

I'm guessing, there's not much room for innovation since almost everything has been done before. But you never know. Maybe a great book will come out of it. For now, Enchanted is obviously a book that every YA author begins their writing career with.