Review: Lailah by Nikki Kelly

14 October, 2014 Reviews 39 comments

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Lailah by Nikki KellyLailah by Nikki Kelly
Series: The Styclar Saga #1
Published by Feiwel and Friends on October 7th 2014
Pages: 352
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Amazon Good BooksBook Depository
Goodreads
one-star

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.

On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.

In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?

Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

I have two questions: what did I just read and why did I read it? If you’re wondering why I’ve been reduced to questioning my life choices, let me introduce you to Lailah.

So, Lailah (or Francesca? I’m not even sure what to call her) cannot die or age. She doesn’t know what she is or where she’s from. Basically, she has the worst identity crisis ever. Throw a dark vampire and a model-esque angel to her already complicated life and you get:

A) A story that has been told time and time again

B) A terrible love triangle

C) Another Bella Swan

D) All of the above

If you answered D, then congratulations! You are now a proud member of the “Can I Burn This Book Now or Later” Club.

This Lailah/Francesca/Cessie-for-short character is one of those that I want to eradicate from the YA world. I might be a little biased here because I made up my mind about her by page nineteen. Why page nineteen, you ask? Because this girl, whom I’m told has lived many lives has NO SENSE OF SURVIVAL. Actually, maybe that’s why she keeps dying. Fun fact: if you ever find yourself walking by the woods and you happen to come across an injured vampire, help him. Take him to your house (even though you live alone) and let him feed from you. That’s the Lailah way. Ignore the fact that you have a horrible scar from a previous vampire encounter. Don’t listen to that inner voice telling you that he’s evil and he’ll kill you if he gets the chance. No. Please go out of your way to practically put yourself in the most dangerous situation ever. Because that makes perfect sense, right? Honestly, I rolled my eyes so much at this character’s lack of common sense that it’ll take me weeks to stop doing that at 30 second intervals.

Terrible main character aside (I’m ignoring the love triangle on purpose because my sanity is more important than going down that road), the writing wasn’t any better. It didn’t flow at all because the transitions were awful. I was confused more times that I’m comfortable in admitting. Also, the author resorted to the most genetic characters I’ve read in a while. Lailah is plain, practical, and with no sense of style. Gabriel (the angel dude) looks like a model but he has a secret. Tuntuntunnnn. This makes me feel like I just read a retelling of a paranormal novel that I won’t mention by name but we all love to hate. Unfortunately, my complaints don’t stop there.

Now, I have to focus my attention on the setting. It was so dull that I almost cried. This is a huge shame because it takes place in a lot of great locations. I feel like the author didn’t explore the surroundings at all. Instead, she left me feeling like the story could’ve taken place anywhere. Don’t like Wales? Just think of a place and plant the terribly genetic characters there. It won’t make a difference.

If you read this and you’re still like “BUT SULKY VAMPIRES! AND HUNKY ANGELS! GIVE IT TO MEEEE” let me leave you with this: even my cat tried to eat it at one point. And I almost let him.

Paola Carolina

Paola Carolina

Reviewer at Cuddlebuggery
Anglophile, bookworm, and occasional fangirl. Find me on Goodreads.

39 Responses to “Review: Lailah by Nikki Kelly”

  1. Kat C

    Ouch ! This book is one of those books based on a Wattpad story that I believe is still up on the website, so maybe I’ll look at that…I kind of assumed this would be good since it had so many fans.

      • Alyssa Susanna (The Eater of Books!)
        Twitter:

        OMG no dude, for the longest time I thought I was the only one that hated this book. Literally all of the other blogger acquaintances that I really follow read and LOVED this one. Then Nikki (Fiction Freak) posted her review and it was a DNF so I was like PHEW. And now this review! In which someone else actually FINISHED – and really disliked – the book! So we’re not the weirdest black sheep out there… ;D

        Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

        • Paola Carolina

          Hahahahaha! I was really nervous about this post because I kept reading positive reviews. I’m glad we can bound over our hatred for this novel >:)

  2. Kayla Beck
    Twitter:

    If I had a cat, I would have let him eat it. I barely made a dent in the book before I realized that there was nothing to gain from me finishing it except anger. I read all of the Twilight books, so I refuse to waste any more of my life on books that terrible. (And yes, I think what I read of it was worse than Twilight.) I have a library patron who is obsessed with Wattpad, so I gave her my ARC to be inspiration or whatever.
    Kayla Beck recently posted…5th Annual Spooktacular Giveaway Hop (INT)My Profile

  3. Cait @ Notebook Sisters

    *quietly crosses off tbr* Okay, but no-okay. The thing that gets me is when someone has like ZERO common sense. I mean, sure those people exist…but not for very long, right?!! The “Lailah” way does not sound very interesting to read about. More like headdesk worthy. Dang, though. I was actually interested in this one (because of the freaky cover). xD
    Cait @ Notebook Sisters recently posted…10 Places That Make Me Yell “Pack my bags, minion, I’m living in a book!”My Profile

    • Paola Carolina

      Thank you :”) Haha, he’s fine! I’m sure he wanted to sacrifice himself for my sanity but he didn’t find it that entertaining (we have that in common).

  4. Irene

    This book’s author is probably unaware that “cessi” (which I guess has the same pronunciation as “Cessie”, i.e. “chessy”) is the Italian slang word for “toilets” and is mostly used to indicate that someone is ugly as hell.
    An ugly person will be a “cesso”. Two or more ugly people will be “cessi”.
    All in all, an interesting choice for a nickname derived from an Italian name.

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