Y’know, this is one of the books where I dislike the way the actors in the movie look? Like just at a first glance, I don’t even remember seeing a trailer for this movie fully when it came out a few years ago. I don’t even know like who plays what besides the main characters, and I don’t know if the movie is bad or good yet. But just looking at them, they do not match the way I think that the book characters looked. Either way, I plan to watch the movie soon, and I will do my own review of that.
Ethan Wate lives in the small town of Gatlin with his crazy father who won’t come out of his room where he writes his stories, and his grandmother named Amma. Nothing ever changes in this town, as the most interesting thing in the town is the yearly reenactment of the Civil War. He has been friends with Link since he was in elementary school, and everyone in the school has grown up with each other since then. All he wants to do is escape the town, but then he starts having strange dreams about a girl.
Lena’s family is cursed with powers, and she has moved from place to place to try to keep them secret. However now she must live in Gatlin with her family until her 16th birthday, and the town seems to hate her. All of the town, except for Ethan Wate. She has been having strange dreams about him, and somehow feels connected to him.
I have heard many people say that this book was a waste of time, or that it was a basic teen romance. However, I loved this story so much. I am a sucker for historical fiction, and as Lena and Ethan continue to uncover secrets of the past of this historical town, I found myself being drawn in further and further. The romance in the novel was sweet in my opinion, and I felt that Lena was a very unique character. I read this until almost midnight last night, when I finally finished it, and then went to sleep thinking of the historical mysteries of a small town named Gatlin.
I plan to finish this series soon, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a historical fiction based teen romance novel, with some elements of the supernatural added in.
Overall Rating: 6/5