THE TEMPTATION by Alisa Valdes

The Temptation
Alisa Valdes

Rating: D
Synopsis:
His touch was electric. 
His eyes were magnetic. 
His lips were a temptation.... 
But was he real? 

After crashing her car on an empty highway, Shane is miraculously saved by Travis, a mysterious cowboy who walks out of nowhere. She is instantly attracted to him, and for the first time, she believes in “soul mates.” But Shane soon discovers that Travis is dead and that strict rules from the Underworld govern kindred spirits of different dimensions. Breaking these rules could destroy both their souls. And while Travis is almost impossible to resist, temptation proves to be the kindest enemy they encounter. 

Can true love surpass the power of pure evil? Part love story, part supernatural thriller, this first book in the Kindred trilogy will leave readers lusting for more!

My thoughts on the book:
The Temptation was a major disappointment for me. I didn't have extremely high hopes for this book, due to the mixed reviews, but I did expect the narrator to at least be tolerable. None of the characters were very well developed. The plot was ridiculous, and the insta-love was unhealthy to say the least. The world-building and writing were pretty good, and the pacing was okay. Due my absolute hatred of Shane, though, I just could not enjoy this book. 

Shane has got to be one of the most obnoxious narrators I've ever read. The girl overreacted to everything. EVERY-FREAKING-THING. She'd get intensely terrified at the drop of a hat. By page 100, I was wishing that she had just died in the car accident in the beginning of the book and that the story had been about someone else. Also, her obsession with Travis? Creepy to the extreme. When she's not throwing herself at him and whining and begging for a kiss, she's basically stalking him. I mean I try not to judge all novels that have insta-love, but this was not a healthy situation. And Shane is so STUPID. She makes one dumb mistake after the other, and for some ungodly reason, she insists on taking her dog with her EVERYWHERE. Then when something happens to the dog, which obviously it will because you're taking it to inappropriate spots in the first place, then she blames everyone but herself. She's self-absorbed and doesn't care how her actions affect others. She does what she wants, then whines and apologizes like an idiot later. She's the weakest and sorriest excuse of a main character I've seen lately. Okay. I think I'm done with this rant. *Takes a deep breath*

Moving on, the rest of the characters are extremely bland. Travis is nothing special, in my opinion. He's just some guy who happens to not be a sociopath, like Shane's boyfriend Logan. Logan, however, is a boring sociopath. He loves killing animals (which is disgusting), but he doesn't do anything that I'd consider off the wall for a creepy psycho. Kelsey, like Shane, is dumb as a rock and obnoxious. Shane's mom is a cookie cutter image of what someone thinks a mom would be... you get the idea. No one is developed and no one has an actual personality. Reading interactions with the overly dramatic Shane and a non-developed character extremely painful. 

The plot is kind of ridiculous, in my opinion, but whatever. It didn't blow me over, and I really didn't care what happened. I just wanted Shane to shut up and die. The world-building is actually pretty good, and Valdes' writing isn't bad. If I hadn't hated Shane so much, I'd actually be tempted to try some of Valdes' other works, but if she creates characters like Shane, then I don't need to read anything by her. The pacing was pretty spot-on, and everything flowed naturally. 

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone unless they wanted to read from the perspective of one of the most obnoxious characters ever created. However, if you can get past Shane, the book isn't half bad.