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A review by bookishanjali
Lailah by Nikki Kelly
2.0
I was really excited to read Lailah. There is this big mystery surrounding her on what or who she is, she doesn't age, no relatives, she has bits and pieces of visions from a past life but no idea on who she is and she has these really cool powers so yep I was pretty excited but it just so happens this book was not for me.
My biggest problem was the love triangle, I wasn't a fan of it. Both guys had qualities that I didn't care for and the triangle was just all sorts of cliche. Jonah is the "evil" one. There were a few things in particular that made me not like him and made me question Lailah, at one point he forces Lailah against the wall against her will and rips off her jacket and pulls her shirt down to see a gruesome scar that she has and Lailah's feelings at that moment furious yet excited...umm what? no just no. Then if that wasn't bad he goes into her room while she is half naked without her consent, mind you her door was locked and what is Lailah's reaction to all this after she is done cursing him out...she feels guilty. Now lets move on to Gabriel the "good" one. Yeah don't get me wrong he was good but he is one of those characters who has the answers to everything the main protagonist is seeking but refuses to tell her, and besides being good and wholesome there wasn't much to him. What made the love triangle worse was the fact that besides the love triangle between the three there were two vampire girls one in love with Gabriel and the other with Jonah so that added to a whole lot of unnecessary drama as well.
Another issue I had was the world building although I tried to see it for what the author made it I just had way too many questions. It's obvious the author didn't want to bring god into the novel so instead heaven became a world called Styclar and the beings in there instead of being angels became pretty much aliens in my opinion. And there is this long twisted story about how it came to be and how when humans die our spirits go there etc and apparently the third dimension what we call hell is where the Pure-blood Vampires are from and of course then I had more questions about the third dimension if Vampires existed there then how did they feed off of humans if technically human souls wont go to hell unless dead or did they come to earth to feed whenever they wanted? Another thing that I really wish we got more answers about were how the Styclar beings came into existence all we are told is that they evolved from these crystal spheres and besides that they don't know where the crystals came from, seriously I felt a little cheated, I wanted to know where and how a whole race of beings came to be it wouldn't have hurt to come up with an explanation of where the crystals came from instead of it just being a big question mark. Honestly there is so much more I can get on about so just know if your the type of reader that truly wants to understand the world your reading about there are questions left unanswered.
Also there was a certain creep factor to this book which I liked. I really feel if the book wasn't so focused on the romance and more on the plot development that I might have liked it better. The plot itself is what kept me reading I liked it, there was some interesting twists and turns just too bad it was not the key focus.
Overall the fact that I didn't DNF this book means there were some aspects of it that kept me interested enough to finish it but I don't see myself picking up any future books in this series.
My biggest problem was the love triangle, I wasn't a fan of it. Both guys had qualities that I didn't care for and the triangle was just all sorts of cliche. Jonah is the "evil" one. There were a few things in particular that made me not like him and made me question Lailah, at one point he forces Lailah against the wall against her will and rips off her jacket and pulls her shirt down to see a gruesome scar that she has and Lailah's feelings at that moment furious yet excited...umm what? no just no. Then if that wasn't bad he goes into her room while she is half naked without her consent, mind you her door was locked and what is Lailah's reaction to all this after she is done cursing him out...she feels guilty. Now lets move on to Gabriel the "good" one. Yeah don't get me wrong he was good but he is one of those characters who has the answers to everything the main protagonist is seeking but refuses to tell her, and besides being good and wholesome there wasn't much to him. What made the love triangle worse was the fact that besides the love triangle between the three there were two vampire girls one in love with Gabriel and the other with Jonah so that added to a whole lot of unnecessary drama as well.
Another issue I had was the world building although I tried to see it for what the author made it I just had way too many questions. It's obvious the author didn't want to bring god into the novel so instead heaven became a world called Styclar and the beings in there instead of being angels became pretty much aliens in my opinion. And there is this long twisted story about how it came to be and how when humans die our spirits go there etc and apparently the third dimension what we call hell is where the Pure-blood Vampires are from and of course then I had more questions about the third dimension if Vampires existed there then how did they feed off of humans if technically human souls wont go to hell unless dead or did they come to earth to feed whenever they wanted? Another thing that I really wish we got more answers about were how the Styclar beings came into existence all we are told is that they evolved from these crystal spheres and besides that they don't know where the crystals came from, seriously I felt a little cheated, I wanted to know where and how a whole race of beings came to be it wouldn't have hurt to come up with an explanation of where the crystals came from instead of it just being a big question mark. Honestly there is so much more I can get on about so just know if your the type of reader that truly wants to understand the world your reading about there are questions left unanswered.
Also there was a certain creep factor to this book which I liked. I really feel if the book wasn't so focused on the romance and more on the plot development that I might have liked it better. The plot itself is what kept me reading I liked it, there was some interesting twists and turns just too bad it was not the key focus.
Overall the fact that I didn't DNF this book means there were some aspects of it that kept me interested enough to finish it but I don't see myself picking up any future books in this series.