The Crescent Review

This is one of the hardest reviews I think I have ever written. I don’t understand why it becomes more difficult to write a review about a book that you truly, truly love. For example, there has to be a reason why my review of Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is not up here yet! Perhaps I am worried I will not portray the book in the right light, that I won’t do it justice. Anyway, that being said I have actually re-read The Crescent and battled with this all day with a view to writing the best review possible. So here goes...

I have only recently been introduced to the writings of Jordan Deen. I saw a contest to win her book, looked it up on Amazon, thought it sounded really interesting and entered the contest. I decided there and then that even if I didn’t win, I would still be buying the book. To my surprise, I won the book and was thrilled to receive it yesterday! Yes, that’s right. I’ve had the book in my possession for about 24 hours and I’ve already read it. It’s not very long at 187 pages so I knew I could have it read quickly but for a debut novel, it’s fantastic and definitely what I call a “just another chapter” kind of book. Let’s just say that I went to bed at 4am.

The main protagonist is Lacey Quinn who is counting down the days until her 18th birthday. She is an only child and comes from a pretty rough home where her parents argue nonstop. NOTHING is going to stop her from going to college where she can escape the madness of her home life and finally have a decent social life. That is until Alex and Brandon enter the scene - two new guys at school who both make a lasting impression on Lacey. Alex may have gotten there first but Lacey cannot deny the overpowering instant connection she has with Brandon. She may be dating Alex but Brandon haunts her dreams and as time goes on, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to distinguish between dreams and reality. Lacey must choose between Alex, her first love and Brandon her supposed soul mate. Only her decisions will cost her much more than she realises. Unbeknownst to Lacey, she is caught in the middle of an ancient war and she is the key to it all. A family secret slowly unravels itself and threatens to destroy everything she has ever known. This is a story of first love vs. True love. How do you choose your soul mate when your heart belongs to someone else? How do you choose your destiny when it will destroy everything and everyone you love? Destiny cannot be stopped, can it?

From the very first pages, I was immediately drawn into the story and I think it’s clear by now that I LOVED this book with a passion - it basically blew me away. And to top it all off, the cover art is just gorgeous! I have to be honest at this point and say that the book contained a lot of spelling and grammatical errors (blame the editors) but for me, the story shone through. I struggled to regain some coherence when I finished reading and I love it when a book does that to you. This is a fantastic debut novel from Jordan Deen and it definitely left me wanting more. The sequel entitled “Half Moon” is currently in the pipeline with no set release date as of yet. Jordan has her own website which you can visit by clicking here. She is also on Facebook and Twitter.