Rachel Rambles About Haven

Haven by Kristi Cook
From Goodreads:
Violet McKenna thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad's murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She's had flashes of other events too. The problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.
 A list of things I love in books:
-Boarding schools
-Teenagers with physic spelling fail wow I mean psychic powers
-Cute boys
-Awesome protagonists
-Romance that's not too perfect to be believable
-Funny and lovable groups of friends

Guess what? This book has ALL OF THE THINGS. ALL OF THEM.

And guess what it also has? Vampires. And guess what I'm generally not a huge fan of? Vampires. And guess what was done really well in this book so that even a non-vampire fan like me could enjoy it immensely? YOU GUESSED IT, VAMPIRES.

But hold on. Lemme back up a bit.

So this book has a lovely main character named Violet who I really love because she is really normal and easy to relate to. She's not all OH LOOK HOW BADASS I AM I'M GOING TO SHOOT ARROWS AND KILL THINGS GRRR, but she's also not all Um hi I'm really shy and quiet and kind of plain and unremarkable and I'll just let the hot guys swoop in and save me, thanks. Violet is a very healthy balance between those two levels, a balance that I think is what most girls are actually like. So I love her, obviously. 

The book starts with Violet's first day at a new boarding school. She's the new kid who's never really been anywhere outside the town she lived in her whole life, and on top of that, she's still reeling from the death of her father. So that's pretty stressful, right?


Well, things get even more stressful. NO SPOILERS NO SPOILERS, but yeah, things happen and let me just say again how much I love Violet. She handles everything in a really normal way. She's not too strong, but not too weak. HEALTHY BALANCE, PEOPLE. I LOVE IT.


And so then there's a plot and stuff, with people and things. DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES. I'M JUST TRYING TO REMAIN SPOILER-FREE. FOR YOUR BENEFIT OF COURSE. Also because I have no idea how to sum up all the awesomeness that happens.

Anyway, one of my FAVORITE things about this book is THE GROUP OF FRIENDS. Because you know what's missing in a lot of YA books? A lovely little group of really close girlfriends who are funny and nice and loyal and who the main character can have fun with and also share their secrets with. Why don't we have more friendships like this in books? Violet grows close to four girls, and instead of just being there for comic relief or whatever, these friends are important characters who are helpful in situations and really add to the story. AND I LOVE IT. *hugs ALL THE CHARACTERS*

And vampires. There are teenagers with psychic powers, which is weird enough, BUT THERE ARE ALSO VAMPIRES. It's just so epic. And to be honest, there are very few vampire books that I actually like. But the vampire mythology and stuff was done really well in Haven, and I am seriously impressed.
Also, it's me, so obviously I'm going to talk about THE BOY. I'm a big fan of THE BOY. His name is Aidan. He's kinda mysterious. And hot. I like him a lot.

The relationship between Violet and Aidan has a whole lot of issues, but it's still believable and realistic. They fight and break up and kiss and make up and fight some more and kiss some more and they're always up and down and back and forth and it's not perfect but that makes it even better.

I mean, I think I'd be a better match for Aidan than Violet but WHATEVER IT'S NOT LIKE IT BOTHERS ME OR ANYTHING. I'LL BE FINE DON'T WORRY.

*clears throat* So yeah. I pretty much love everything about this book. And I would not have read this if I had not gone to Books of Wonder a few days or weeks ago (I don't know how long ago it was. Don't judge. I STILL THINK IT'S NOVEMBER, OKAY?!) and met Kristi Cook, along with Amy Plum and Jocelyn Davies.

I'm really glad I went to that event because it was really fun and now I have pretty signed books. Also I discovered Haven and fell in love with it and chatted with amazing authors and ate yummy food, so yeah.

Wow. This ramble is ridiculously long and CAPSLOCK-y and just so crazy and unprofessional, even by my standards. I'm sorry I'm not sorry.

MY POINT is that you should read this book, because I really like it, and so you should too. Also I would like the sequel now, please. Thank you.

-Rachel