I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway ARC. First off, let me say that i am pleaseantly surprised with how much i liked this book. Very well written for a first novel. I won't go into too much detail...i would hate to spoil the story for future readers. Let's just say that this is a story of boy meets girl with a new, original and slightly supernatural twist. The characters were well written. The story wrapped up well at the end, but was also left open just enough for a possible second book if the author decides to turn this into a series. Aside from a few spelling errors that could have easily been auto-correct, Mr. Larsen did a fantastic job. Keep up the good work! ( )

Elizabeth Scott believes she is going to just finish off a boring senior year of high school. Little more than a year removed from the death of her mother and a move to rural Harrisburg, Oregon, her focus is on her little brother, her father and her best friend. When Leuken Bennett shows up, however, Elizabeth quickly becomes smitten with the mysterious boy. What she isn’t prepared for is the danger her and her family are suddenly thrown into by falling in love with someone who is targeted by the evil Verdorben.

I’m not even sure where to begin with the problems I faced reading Lee Larsen’s fantasy novel Falling Night. I suppose the premise of a bloodline with special powers being hunted by supernatural hunters known as the Verdorben might hold some promise. However, the execution was poor. Right from the start in the prologue, the death of Leuken’s father is written with little flow and chalked full of cliché after cliché.

Falling Night didn’t get any better from there. All of the characters are stiff as cardboard and completely predictable. They might as well have worn white hats and black hats too, because good and evil were so obvious. There was no subtlety and no surprises. The dialog was trite and boring. There wasn’t anything worth holding on to in the entire story. It frankly read like a bad video game plot. And the ending was so emotionally dead; it was hard to even comprehend.

I’m not going to spoil anything by pointing out all of the inconsistencies, but none of this book made a bit of sense. I know it is fantasy, but even fantasy has to make sense within itself. It also needs to have a point. Falling Night had neither. Someone is going to say ‘this is geared for younger readers.’ That’s no excuse for a poor story. The Hunger Games was meant for younger readers. So was Harry Potter. They were good. This was not. Time to move on. ( )