Review: The Gathering

Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publish date: 2011
Source: RT Goody Bag!
"Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet." (Goodreads)

I feel kind of ashamed to admit this...but this was my first Kelley Armstrong book. At RT in April, where I got this book, she was one of a few authors who required a wristband just to get in line. That, along with the fact that I haven't read Richelle Mead yet (who was also there), made me feel like I was missing out. I got The Gathering in a goody bag that night, and I just now got around to reading it!

For me, The Gathering was a good example of a book that was entertaining but nothing special. It wasn't unputdownable, but at the same time, I enjoyed reading it. It's not exactly my type of book, per se, but the island setting sucked me in, along with the main characters going to a really small school (which I also love).

The problem was that not a lot actually happened in terms of plot. This book is part of a trilogy, so this whole book is pretty much the set-up for action in the second book. The Gathering was interesting, yes, but the only action happened at the end and of course ended in a cliffhanger. I also wasn't too into the "sexy new bad boy," as the blurb so aptly describes him.

So really, in the end, this book was good, but nothing that I will remember forever. I'll probably read book two...someday.