Entangled by Nikki Jefford

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Publisher: Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)
Series: Spellbound Trilogy #1
Website: Author website 
Published: Feb 19 2012 

Introduction

               Graylee and Charlene are twins with polar opposite personalities. Charlene is more aggressive and snotty, and Graylee is the kinder one. And they’re witches, so life is ever so slightly more complicated for them. One day Graylee goes to sleep…and wakes up as her sister. Months before she went to sleep and apparently died. A resurrection spell gone wrong has put her soul into Charlene’s body. Now the two share the same body in twenty-four hour shifts. Now Grey has to pretend to be her preppy sister and take all the drama she never knew her sister was involved in. But there is more to her sister Charlene, and it makes Graylee fear for her existence. With the help of the bad-boy warlock and a few other magically inclined friends, Graylee struggles to figure out her love life, how she died, and how to get out of her sister’s body.

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Cover(s)

                The cover is wonderful and it immediately drew me in. As I said before, everyone judges books by their covers before they read the back blurb. It’s what we do. And Entangled has a beautiful cover. The next two books have similar covers, and it looks like it is the same girl. I might be wrong-the models might be different, I don’t know. But I like the continuity. If you’re going to put a face to a character on a cover, make sure when the sequels come out that the faces at least look alike. All three covers are awesome.   

Characters

My favourite character has to be Raj. He comes off as a devilish little bad boy that you can’t help but crush on. Yet he is kind of a jerk with his overly cool demeanor and his occasional spell casting for less-than-good intentions. The truth to Raj’s incident in the past is explained in less than a page. With all the build-up, I was expecting a dramatic retelling of the incident that has caused him to be labeled as a trouble maker.

Adrian is a character that I warmed up to eventually. At first, he seems like the typical con artist that takes advantage of Raj. As the story unfurled I began to like him. He totally changes and he becomes a loyal member of the group that I did not expect. He really pulled through. His mentioning in the second book intrigues me as well.

The twins come to be interesting with time. Charlene is clearly the evil twin, and Graylee is supposed to be the good one. My complaint is that Graylee isn’t entirely good either. And it’s more than she has a more realistic and complex personality. There is an incident early on in the book where she retaliates against Raj. Homicidal much? She has the same violent tendencies as Charlene. I am sure we are supposed to believe that she would never ever hurt him or anyone else, that she was just trying to scare him. Graylee is a bit on the boring side. I feel like we did not get to know her personally. Or she really just doesn’t have a personality. At least Charlene does. While she’s the evil, snotty girl you hate in high school, she is not boring.

Maturity Rating

                There are lots of sexual moments in this book. They are not so bad, like Gray (as Charlene) speaking with her friends about which boys are “doable” and which boys they have already slept with. I say it’s not so bad because it is hallway banter that actually does occur in real-life. There are no actual sex scenes, though at one harrowing point it is implied.   

               

Gripes

                The ending was just way too abrupt. Everything goes back to normal, la la la. No. Shouldn’t the antagonist be actually punished? Like, sent away, punished? And Gray gets a new life and just…adapts? What about Raj? We finally see his character development and nothing more is said. Does he go back to live with his dad after the big reveal? I found out after I finished the book that it is a trilogy, so there should be more about life after the ending of the first book that should tie up my complaints.  

The way the author writes is particularly uninspired. I feel like this author is growing into her personal writing voice still, as the first book has very little personality to it at all. At times the author tries to give it some girlish flare that is popular now and when it happens it is almost cringe worthy. However, I have to stress that it isn’t bad writing. There just isn’t a way to define her voice out of the sea of authors already published. I would love to see her writing in the future to see if she has improved.

My biggest gripe happens in the beginning of the novel. Charlene has threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of the school. Gray reminds her sister that the fall wouldn’t kill her, but it would cripple her. Gray then proceeds to “walk around like a gimp” to make Charlene laugh. I know a lot of people with physical disabilities, and this left a terribly sour taste in my mouth and mind. If someone did this in front of me, I’d probably make them cry by reminding them how bloody offensive they are being. It’s not funny. I read the passage and seriously questioned if I wanted to read the rest of the book.

Verdict

                Overall, it is an alright book. The characters of Raj and Adrian were what kept me reading. The writing itself does not stand out to me, though I am interested in seeing the author develop her own style in the series/other future books. And I will be reading (eventually) the next two books in the series because of Raj and Adrian. I would recommend this to the older YA range for the (implied) sexual content/themes.