Teen Review: Torn

Torn (Torn Trilogy #1) by Erica O'Rourke
Release Date ~ June 28, 2011
Kensington Teen
ISBN13:  9780758267030
Book purchased personally

Goodreads Synopsis: 
Everyone has secrets.
Even best friends.
Swirling black descends like ravens, large enough to block the glow of the streetlights. A dull roar starts like a train on the 'L', a far-away rumbling that grows louder as it pulls closer, until it's directly overhead and you feel it in your chest, except this doesn't pass you by. Verity, white-faced and eyes blazing, shouts through the din, "Run, Mo!"
Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo—quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo—will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys—protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?

I’m sure this has happened to everyone. You find a book with an awesome cover, the plot synopsis sounds AMAZING and it has 4 or 5 out of five star reviews. You read the book and…. it just doens't come up to your expectations. I read Torn by Erica O’Rourke.

Now the first hundred pages or so into the book, I genuinely liked it. The writing was decent and the plotline had mystery and I found the main character quite believable. After that things got really confusing and tedious. Now maybe it’s because this whole magical world was so confusing that I had to reread the sections in the book that explained it numerous times.  Or maybe the love ‘triangle’ seemed force, and lacked a third party. I was all for Mo and Luc, but the whole love thing with Colin didn’t even come in until the last fifty pages of the book, which was very frustrating.(I saw Colin as more of a brotherly figure).

1. The writing- Although there were a lot of things I didn't like in the book, I think that O'Rourke is a very talented writer.  I was able to picture the scenes in my head, and the romance betwen Mo and Luc really came out and shone.  Things did seem to flow, but there were a couple of parts that seemed kind of forced.
2. The idea- Now I think the idea is very good.  The only problem is that it is really confusing, and I wasn't able to understand.  I do think that if you read this book and understand it, you will enjoy it a lot better than I did.

I think that this book had a lot of promise, but it was not executed out well. For me, at least. I sincerely hope that others of you who may have read this book had a better experience in reading it. The sad thing is, I’m generally pretty easy to please with books. But this book just didn't cut it for me.