Hilary Duff

The elixir trilogy has been a ride. Not a very good one. I finished the series out of obligation. Let's start with character development.
Character development was the one thing done right. The characters were believable and had no sudden changes, besides one. However, I hated sage, especially in this book. His abusive tendencies and the main characters willingness to accept it was disturbing. The selfishness and stupidity of these characters were beyond frustrating. The only character that flipped on a dime was Ben, the trusty sidekick and villain of the book. He was so back and forth that I feel like Duff should have given him split personality disorder to excuse his instability. I hated what she did to that character.
Now the writing style. Her writing flowed poetically with just the right amount of similes, alliteration and script. She didn't overuse any words, and it didn't appear as if she struggled with creative substitutes. I didn't find many spelling errors either.
The last paragraph is dedicated to my need to vent about the ending. Forgive me if I get unprofessional, but the uncreative end to this story infuriated me. There will be spoilers. In books, I find it's becoming more and more common for the main character to achieve his of her desires despite the other characters misfortunes. Gone are the days of Harry potter endings when it's a believable and satisfying end. I cannot forgive the outcome for the best friend Rayna. I cannot forgive that the main character used her best friends boyfriends body as a shell for her own boyfriend. I refuse to believe that Rayna could just accept seeing her boyfriends body constantly in the arms of her best friend. The ending of "hush hush will be ruined in this next sentence as comparison, so if you plan to read that, stop reading now.

The hush hush series ended with the main characters best friends boyfriend dying to save the main characters happiness. The main character achieved some bull sh*t reason to get her boyfriend back. It skipped 3 years ahead and the best friend was happy seeing someone else, and were supposed to just accept the sacrifice of the best friend for the main characters happiness. The trusty sidekick disappears with a bullsh*t reason with the main character "having pure intentions" with the outcome for the sidekick that was used and discarded.

Sound familiar? So were just supposed to be happy for the main character because the best friend is over the injustice in an unbelievable amount of time. I don't believe Cleas love for Sage was any more important than Raynas love for Nico. I don't think that Sage having multiple lives with Clea is fair, since Rayna and Nico only got one month together. Cleas and Sages love was at the sacrifice and unhappiness of many people, including themselves. Sage gave up their bond for another woman which was unaddressed. The main character just decided to forgive his disloyalty to not waste anymore time with him. How many people were sacrificed in the 5 lives it took for Sage and Clea to find happiness? Rayna and Nicos love was pure. Nobody was hurt. His intentions were pure. Raynas intentions were pure. They had a much better love story in one month than Sage and Clea had in 5 lifetimes.
The ending was not a happy one. The curse for an entire community of people was not lifted. A curse these people didn't deserve. Again, Clea and Sage get 5 lifetimes together, whereas these people get less than 30 years of life. The trusty sidekick Ben, found no resolution, no help and was discarded after being used in every way possible for the main character. I could not think of a worst ending for this book. All I know is that after sacrificing so many lives for their own happiness, the main characters should have learned a lesson. Those sacrificed should have found resolution. Those reading should have had an ending.
… (mais)

Oh goodness I don't even know quite where to begin. First off the characters / plot is way too unbelievable. I understand that it is a supernatural teenage thriller but some of the basic elements are simply ridiculous. Clea is a seventeen-year-old, secret photojournalist who is apparently home-schooled while traveling the world. Yet somehow her mother is a senator. That alone is laughable. Can you imagine a woman running for politic office and winning while her daughter is galavanting around who knows where? That simply doesn't happen, even in the more liberal states. That sort of stuff makes news. Secondly, it makes zero sense to me for her father to be considered a world renowned surgeon when he seems to do very little surgery and a whole lot of treasure hunting. Maybe having him be an archeologist would be more believable?
The writing is weak enough to make me believe that Hilary probably did contribute to the writing. I found it funny to see such weak sentence structure combined with such a strange word choice. The word of the day appears to be reverie which was used about three times during the novel. Also, who says "I felt my gorge rise." Seriously? Gorge?
I appreciated her reference to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge however the simile fell slightly flat to me.
"I was furious, imagining a brainless meathead of a bodyguard who'd hang like an albatross around my neck."
The albatross wasn't really weighing the mariner down or cramping his style. The albatross was more bad luck than anything. While I didn't particularly think the simile worked, I appreciate that one of the writers is clearly well read.
Overall, I think Elixir is a silly, rushed story and I will most likely not be reading the second novel.
… (mais)

I think the idea had good potential I just couldn't connect with a jet setting teenager who's mom allows her to head off to Rio, Paris and Tokyo without parental influence. It was written in the first person making it feel almost like a YA UF and the book does set up to have a continuing story line with the same characters which also made me think UF. The main character is written in a way that we are to believe she is deeper than she really is but I wasn't fooled. The addition of a weird love triangle proved that she is really nothing more than a silly girl. Haven't been a teenage girl in sometime but is it common for a teenage girl to think how much she loves a guy but then mentally takes it back so as to not ruin her chances with a second guy? I honestly don't know. Also the addition of a sexual encounter (a fade to black type...not graphic) made the book feel more 20-something rather than high school.

The non verbal communications between Clea and her best friend Reyna were almost ridiculous. Reyna would look at Clea and next thing the reader knew Clea would interpret the look as a full on conversation between the two of them which was spelled out for the reader's benefit.

I think what prevented me from giving this book less than 2 stars is because the idea was actually pretty good. I don't think the follow through did it justice. I'm also curious as to why the author "helper" of Hilary Duff, Elise Allen, merited a mention on the title page (it's listed as Elixir by Hilary Duff with Elise Allen) but doesn't get her name on the cover. With all the collaborations happening now it makes me wonder if someone was cashing in on a star's name or the star herself refused to share top billing.… (mais)