Review of Extraordinary

My review of Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin is based on a hardcover copy of the book that I borrowed from my local library. The following review is my honest opinion of the work.

Goodreads Summary: "Phoebe finds herself drawn to Mallory, the strange and secretive new girl at school. Soon the two become as close as sisters . . . until Mallory’s magnetic older brother, Ryland, appears. Ryland has an immediate, exciting hold on Phoebe — but a dangerous hold, for she begins to question her feelings about her best friend and, worse, about herself.

Soon she’ll discover the shocking, fantastical truth about Ryland and Mallory, and about an age-old debt they expect Phoebe to pay. Will she be strong enough to resist? Will she be special enough to save herself?
Intensely page-turning, this follow-up to Nancy Werlin’s acclaimed novel Impossible links the real and the otherworldly in a story that is suspenseful, conversation-starting, and utterly alluring."

I'll be honest I did not like Phoebe, the main character. She was far too easily broken, completely unsure of herself and just not my kind of heroine. Mallory was a much better fit for me, I recognized her for who she was from the beginning and thoroughly enjoyed her as a character even when [perhaps especially when] I did not understand her motives.

Something I did enjoy of this novel were the fairies themselves. Far too many people humanize fairies and I don't believe that they would be that way at all. Despite the years that they would have spent in the midst of humans I cannot believe that they would every become like us. For me my favorite kinds of fairies are the dark ones, the immortal beings who can allow a plan to unfold over hundreds maybe even thousands of years because they have all the time in the world whereas humans wouldn't. The fact that these fairies were fairies and not humanized Tinker Bells made them good in my opinion.

This is another one of those novels that if it hadn't been for the ending would have just been an okay read, for me it was the ending that truly made this a decent story. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I liked it but by the end it was worth reading if only because I love stories where deals have been struck with faeries and humans attempt to weasel their way out of it. I enjoy these types of stories because it's a battle of wits and those are always fun.

I'm giving Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin a two and a half out of five stars review.