Review by Alex- Need

Need by Carrie Jones
Zara White suspects there's a freaky guy semi-stalking her. She's also obsessed with phobias. And it's true, she hasn't exactly been herself since her stepfather died. But exiling her to shivery Maine to live with her grandmother? That seems a bit extreme. The move is supposed to help her stay sane . . . but Zara's pretty sure her mom just can't deal with her right now.

She couldn't be more wrong. Turns out the semi-stalker is not a figment of Zara's overactive imagination. In fact, he's still following her, leaving behind an eerie trail of gold dust. There's something not right- not human- in this sleepy Maine town, and all signs point to Zara.

In this creepy, compelling breakout novel, Carrie Jones delivers romance, suspense, and a creature you never thought you'd have to fear.

So often with the abundance of paranormal romances, I love the idea and description of the book, but the actual book falls flat for me. I don't know if this is the case because of the book, or myself though. Need is one of those books.

In Need, it's pixies that are planning to hurt the main character/take over the world/falling in love with the main character/whatever else usually happens in para-rom. (Made that up. Think it works?) Pixies are new, interesting, and come with their own lore. I liked that bit. Although I didn't really see much of a difference between pixies and fairies/faeries, besides pixies leaving gold dust.

There are two main love interests for Zara. Ian, the overachieving boy who came from nothing, and Nick, the moody, brooding, and incredibly handsome boy who has never been kissed but everyone wants him anyway. Neither of them are what they seem. I knew at least one of them weren't human from the beginning, but which one is what... that was a surprise to me. So that was well done.

What I wasn't too fond of though, was the writing. Usually it was okay, but at some parts, I thought it was really awkward. Here, I'll give an example:

"I'm sorry," I say. And I am. I lean against the door that is quiet and doesn't complain about things or your behaviors or anything like that. Doors are very good that way. Blood has seeped through the tissue. I hold it against my cheek.
- Need, p. 115-116

That just doesn't work for me. The door comparison is a little random, and while I get that it's referencing to what's going on in the novel (ie. Nick being all weird and moody), it just doesn't seem right to me. I don't like the phrasing of that line either. "against the door that is quiet". I wouldn't be nitpicky about this if it was only that one time, but it happened a few times and just bugged me.

However, I did like all the mentions of phobias. It's interesting to learn all the different ones, and each chapter is titled by a phobia, describing a little bit of that chapter. In some ways though, I wish the phobias could play a bigger part, since I didn't think it was linked enough to the story.

The characters were pretty good. Nothing spectacular, nothing new. Zara's skeptical of the pixie thing at first, which is believable. She's tough. But she's supposed to be dead inside at the beginning of the book, and doesn't get any life back towards the end. I didn't feel lifelessness in Zara at the beginning. I thought she had just as much life as me. Does this mean I am dead inside? I hope not. But it is possible I just don't feel much... Zara would have had to have a lot of life before her stepfather's death.

I do like how Zara dealt with the pesky pixies. It was an interesting idea that I thought was well thought out. So I'd say the plot's quite interesting. It wasn't enough to draw me in though. It took me a while to read this and I actually debated on finishing the book or not when I was in the middle.

Overall, it's a pretty standard paranormal romance. That's not to say it's bad, but it doesn't bring much new to the table. If you feel like reading about pixies and weres, are into another on/off romance, or like spunky grandmas (the one in The Proposal comes to mind. Zara's granny is a little like that), then you may as well try this book.