Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books

In continuation of my reading + reviewing spree, I will now talk about The Evolution of Mara Dyer, book 2 in the Mara Dyer series by the lovely Michelle Hodkin. Disclaimer: Using links from this post to buy a copy of the book will earn me a small commission that will help with maintaining this blog.  Well, the first book had a cliffhanger that left me confused. There were a lot of unresolved issues. Is Jude alive or is it all in her head? Did she really cause the collapse of the asylum? How did she get powers? Why is Noah Shaw so annoyingly lovable? Hehehe. Normally, I drop books that I don’t enjoy reading but I could not just let this one slide. The first book was so and so, and I was so curious as to what the hell is really going on. Plus, I wanted to read more about Noah, the perfect boyfriend. In the end, curiosity, the need to finish a series, and Noah Shaw’s hawtness trump my somewhat disappointment of this story. See, I have no idea what makes this cover attractive. It just is. There’s something poetic in the way the couple is reaching for each other like that. I’m not exactly good with words but I hope you get what I mean. I may get this book for vanity. Maybe someday I would feel differently about it when if I re-read it. Mara Dyer is selfish. But I guess we all are when we’re in love. The more she tries to be normal, the crazier she seems to be. With all the things that happened to her, everything she’s seen and heard, the more she got paranoid. She has also become very clingy, clingy as a cling wrap. Overprotective boyfriend Noah Shaw stays by her side most of the time and even spends a lot of time with her family and has sleepovers and such. He’s still perfect, and still too much everything. With all his family’s riches, he can do whatever he wants, and what he does is do everything for Mara. For her sanity. Lots of lovey dovey, cheesy lines, and conspiracy ensue as they try to figure out the truth. After confirming her suspicions, Mara does something crazy (to keep her family out of harm’s way) that sends her to a mental facility. Noah does something crazy to get sent there as well. They investigate, find out some things, gets into trouble, and things go downhill from there. Like really bad. Other characters worth noting, Daniel Dyer is still the sweetest brother ever. ’nuff said. “I wish she knew that I think she’s the most hilarious person on Earth. And that whenever she’s not home, I feel like I’m missing my partner in crime.” Jamie Roth is the comic relief. Just when things are too serious, he’s there to make a funny/sarcastic remark. I’d like to think he keeps mara sane inside the mental institution. There are other unimportant characters I’d rather not talk about. Read more

Based on the description, what caught my interest is the mystery behind the death of Mara’s friends and how she is involved in it. I had the feeling that she was responsible and I was dying to find out if she did kill them and how. My name is not Mara Dyer. But my lawyer told me to choose something. I wanted a copy of this book for vanity purposes. It looked like a great addition to my ever growing book collection. There is something beautiful in the way the couple in the cover are holding each other underwater. Though it doesn’t portray anything that has to do with the story. Mara seems like a regular teenage girl, but after surviving the accident that killed her friends, she started to lose it. She was seeing ghosts and hallucinating things, which wasn’t healthy or normal. She knew how to handle herself and put up a front of normalcy to avoid being sent to a mental institution. I’m not sure how I feel about her though. I can’t connect with her but as she grew paranoid, the more I wanted to find out what happened to her and her friends that fateful night. Noah Shaw was described in a way where you’re supposed to hate him but you’ll end up loving him anyway. I guess we all love bad boys, right? He has a reputation of being a womanizer, somewhat a jerk, but how he interacted with Mara made me think it was all a front. He had a reputation to uphold after all. After a while, he did things that were too sweet and swoon-worthy. I guess the bad things about him were there to balance out how perfect he really is. Noah Shaw is probably the kind of book boyfriend we all want to have.Daniel Dyer. The older brother who I can’t help but love as well. He’s smart, caring, and always has Mara’s back. He’s literally too good to be true. Then again, this is fiction. Jamie Roth is the kind of guy best friend I want. At first I thought he was a legit guy, evetually he seemed gay, but it was mentioned (might be in the second book) that he is in fact, bi-sexual. He seems too gay to be bi. He’s the funny person in the story. His banter with Mara is just perf. I’m not elaborating on the other characters since I don’t want to spoil it for anybody who hasn’t read the book yet. Michelle writes beautifully. I was not bored, my eyes did not skip the words, and I could picture the story in my mind. I could have finished the book in one sitting. That’s how good it was to read her words. UPDATE: I kind of regret not going to the book signing because I saw the pictures and heard the stories and Michelle Hodkins is a beautiful person inside and out. I guess it wasn’t meant to be because I was broke Read more