justinecm's review
1.0
I read this entire book despite not liking any of it. Usually I quit books I don't enjoy after about a hundred pages and I wish I would've stopped during this one too. I disliked the ending the most. I liked the cover which I think is the reason I pick this book up but was disappointed from there on out. I disliked the main character it seemed all she wanted most of this book was a guy who seemed to care less about her.
ashreads10k's review
5.0
Swoon is a dark and twisted tale about a girl with powers that she can’t quite control. These powers get her, and the rest of the town, into quite a bit of trouble when she gives life to a ghost who was determined to get revenge on those who wronged him centuries ago. In the chaos and insanity that ensues, Dice finds herself dangerously drawn to her all-too handsome accidental creation.
This was one of those books that will only have two extremes of reactions: total love, or utter hate. With a book dealing with the kind of things that Swoon deals with, there really is no in-between. I personally loved it. It was breathtakingly, extraordinarily amazing. Much different that other paranormal books out there, Swoon will have you swooning.
Nina Malkin wrote in an interesting and lyrical way while still managing to capture the mindset of teenage girl. Dice’s voice flowed, creating a vivid and realistic narrative movie in my mind as I read. Even with the more mature elements, Nina handled them nicely by glossing over them and wording them in a, erm, gentler way.
As always, characters make or break a novel. And there is much controversy over Sin. Is he a jaded man whose pain and loss have spurred him to do these things? Or is truly off his rocker insane? How could anyone love, or even like a psycho like that? Well, that’s the beauty of this novel. It’s up to your own interpretation how you handle Sin. I will say that I personally loved him. Even though he had did have moments of frightening craziness, he also had all-too seductive moments, as well as heart-wrenchingly sad ones. Dice was strong and level-headed most of the time, trying to do damage control. But even she was lost to the seductive charms of Sin. Somehow, though, she managed to keep it all together. She was an endearing heroine, multi-faceted, and relatable.
I recommend Swoon to anyone looking for a thrilling and exhilarating, yet dark and alluring paranormal romance. I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.
This was one of those books that will only have two extremes of reactions: total love, or utter hate. With a book dealing with the kind of things that Swoon deals with, there really is no in-between. I personally loved it. It was breathtakingly, extraordinarily amazing. Much different that other paranormal books out there, Swoon will have you swooning.
Nina Malkin wrote in an interesting and lyrical way while still managing to capture the mindset of teenage girl. Dice’s voice flowed, creating a vivid and realistic narrative movie in my mind as I read. Even with the more mature elements, Nina handled them nicely by glossing over them and wording them in a, erm, gentler way.
As always, characters make or break a novel. And there is much controversy over Sin. Is he a jaded man whose pain and loss have spurred him to do these things? Or is truly off his rocker insane? How could anyone love, or even like a psycho like that? Well, that’s the beauty of this novel. It’s up to your own interpretation how you handle Sin. I will say that I personally loved him. Even though he had did have moments of frightening craziness, he also had all-too seductive moments, as well as heart-wrenchingly sad ones. Dice was strong and level-headed most of the time, trying to do damage control. But even she was lost to the seductive charms of Sin. Somehow, though, she managed to keep it all together. She was an endearing heroine, multi-faceted, and relatable.
I recommend Swoon to anyone looking for a thrilling and exhilarating, yet dark and alluring paranormal romance. I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars.
elliefufu's review
1.0
After looking at the cover and reading the back cover I thought this was going to be a really good book. Boy was I wrong. The main character was hard to like, the boy she liked was even harder to like and her cousin, the third person in their strange love triangle was completely unlikeable. I had a very hard time even finishing this book and almost felt at times like skipping to the end so it would just be over. Don't waste your money on buying just get it from the library if you want to read it.
sammy234's review
4.0
This was basically twilight.
You know , if Edward was a murderous , hormone crazed MANIAC with the face of a young Daniel Day Lewis.
Can't give it a good rating because the content was HIGH in this one , though any actual sex scenes were fade to black.
Don't recommend.
You know , if Edward was a murderous , hormone crazed MANIAC with the face of a young Daniel Day Lewis.
Can't give it a good rating because the content was HIGH in this one , though any actual sex scenes were fade to black.
Don't recommend.
qdalessio's review
5.0
In my experience, a lot of books share a basic storyline, note: that fact doesn't necessarily make the book boring. It's always interesting to see different author's takes on different mythologies. But this book was really really... different. Not different bad, different good, but usually I can predict an ending but here I couldn't and I liked that.
randomly_kait's review
2.0
Eh... I read the summary for this book, and thought, "Wow, this book is going to be awesome." But when I started reading it, it kind of just fell flat. It didn't really hold my attention like most books do. But don't let my opinon sway you, read it and decide for yourself.
**I will definitely be reading the sequel, though.**
**I will definitely be reading the sequel, though.**
missprint_'s review
2.0
The first thing to keep in mind about Swoon (2009) by Nina Malkin is that it's a sexy book. By which I mean racy. The second thing to keep in mind is that it's totally nuts. More about that after the summary.
Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut. Just ask Candice, Swoon's newest (transplanted) resident. There are many reasons Dice would rather be in her native New York City but the fact remains that she is in Swoon. And strange as this land of cookie-cutter preps and family values is, Dice is getting used to it.
Everything changes when Dice's cousin, the beautifully and tragically perfect Penelope, nearly dies. In those moments between life and death, Pen's body picked up an uninvited guest: a long-dead ghost named Sinclair Youngblood Powers. Wronged by the town years ago, Sin is looking for revenge and none too concerned about the Swoon residents who stand in his way.
Pen is blithely unaware of the havoc Sin is wreaking, but Dice is painfully aware of both the havoc and its instigator. Dice knows that Sin needs to be stopped before someone gets seriously hurt. But Dice doesn't know how to stop Sin, especially when she's hopelessly in love him. More importantly, she isn't even sure she wants to. What really happens when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?
Swoon is a sexy book, a fact clearly played up by the one syllable names (like Sin) that Malkin uses for each character--a conceit which, though initially amusing, became rather tiresome by the end of the story. Equally tiresome was the fact that this book was clearly trying--very, very hard--to be titillating. That isn't to say it didn't work. It just got to be a little much.
As happens with shocking books, Swoon includes a lot of drinking, some drug use, and crazy amounts of sex (mentioned, mostly not described). Some is actually relevant to the story. Some is just meant to add to the shock factor of the book.
More frustrating for this reviewer was the erratic nature of the writing. What sounds like a compelling, fast-paced story actually moved quite slowly and dragged in several places in favor of tantalizing tangents.
There are also holes in the prose big enough to throw rocks through.
The first thing readers learn from Dice is that she did not fall in love with Sin at first sight. In fact it happened much earlier than that. Except it is never actually made clear when it happened. She is just not in love with him one minute and then hopelessly in love with him the next. This also changes at the end of the story (see: last chapter).
The narrative is jumpy. Chapters ending on cliffhangers will be followed by openings about unrelated topics often only loosely related to the story. Other aspects of the story, parts that were meant to be heart wrenching, teeth clenching moments, came across as untroubling likely from being juxtaposed to the extraneous "sexy" scenes--or it could have been from Dice's casual reactions to what should have been heart wrenching and teeth clenching.
Finally, Dice herself is a huge problem. Sometimes movies, or video games, obscure the main character. The protagonist is never seen on camera although events play out through their eyes. In many ways, Dice's narration felt that way. Not because readers were meant to take part in the story in any traditional sense but because Dice was so undeveloped as a character.
Reading Swoon was very much like looking through a mask with Dice's face on it. It may have been possible to see Dice's face in a mirror, but that reflection gave no indication of what she was really feeling. This flatness made the epically star-crossed love triangle at the center of the story fall apart.
Sin, the other character who carries the bulk of the story, was similarly uncompelling. Angry ghost seeking vengeance, fine. Crazy good looking guy with enough charm to bewitch an entire town? Much less convincing.
The frustrating thing about this novel is that the story was so intriguing and, though riddled with issues, the book did have moments of good writing--of truth even. Unfortunately, Swoon was so bogged down by problems with the characters and gimmicky distractions that the negatives far outweighed the positives by the end of the story.
Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut. Just ask Candice, Swoon's newest (transplanted) resident. There are many reasons Dice would rather be in her native New York City but the fact remains that she is in Swoon. And strange as this land of cookie-cutter preps and family values is, Dice is getting used to it.
Everything changes when Dice's cousin, the beautifully and tragically perfect Penelope, nearly dies. In those moments between life and death, Pen's body picked up an uninvited guest: a long-dead ghost named Sinclair Youngblood Powers. Wronged by the town years ago, Sin is looking for revenge and none too concerned about the Swoon residents who stand in his way.
Pen is blithely unaware of the havoc Sin is wreaking, but Dice is painfully aware of both the havoc and its instigator. Dice knows that Sin needs to be stopped before someone gets seriously hurt. But Dice doesn't know how to stop Sin, especially when she's hopelessly in love him. More importantly, she isn't even sure she wants to. What really happens when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?
Swoon is a sexy book, a fact clearly played up by the one syllable names (like Sin) that Malkin uses for each character--a conceit which, though initially amusing, became rather tiresome by the end of the story. Equally tiresome was the fact that this book was clearly trying--very, very hard--to be titillating. That isn't to say it didn't work. It just got to be a little much.
As happens with shocking books, Swoon includes a lot of drinking, some drug use, and crazy amounts of sex (mentioned, mostly not described). Some is actually relevant to the story. Some is just meant to add to the shock factor of the book.
More frustrating for this reviewer was the erratic nature of the writing. What sounds like a compelling, fast-paced story actually moved quite slowly and dragged in several places in favor of tantalizing tangents.
There are also holes in the prose big enough to throw rocks through.
The first thing readers learn from Dice is that she did not fall in love with Sin at first sight. In fact it happened much earlier than that. Except it is never actually made clear when it happened. She is just not in love with him one minute and then hopelessly in love with him the next. This also changes at the end of the story (see: last chapter).
The narrative is jumpy. Chapters ending on cliffhangers will be followed by openings about unrelated topics often only loosely related to the story. Other aspects of the story, parts that were meant to be heart wrenching, teeth clenching moments, came across as untroubling likely from being juxtaposed to the extraneous "sexy" scenes--or it could have been from Dice's casual reactions to what should have been heart wrenching and teeth clenching.
Finally, Dice herself is a huge problem. Sometimes movies, or video games, obscure the main character. The protagonist is never seen on camera although events play out through their eyes. In many ways, Dice's narration felt that way. Not because readers were meant to take part in the story in any traditional sense but because Dice was so undeveloped as a character.
Reading Swoon was very much like looking through a mask with Dice's face on it. It may have been possible to see Dice's face in a mirror, but that reflection gave no indication of what she was really feeling. This flatness made the epically star-crossed love triangle at the center of the story fall apart.
Sin, the other character who carries the bulk of the story, was similarly uncompelling. Angry ghost seeking vengeance, fine. Crazy good looking guy with enough charm to bewitch an entire town? Much less convincing.
The frustrating thing about this novel is that the story was so intriguing and, though riddled with issues, the book did have moments of good writing--of truth even. Unfortunately, Swoon was so bogged down by problems with the characters and gimmicky distractions that the negatives far outweighed the positives by the end of the story.
xoxotawnydee's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't terribly impressed with this book. It wasn't bad, it just felt sort of bland. Like I kept waiting for something to happen. Mostly my feelings about this book just confused me.