Abandon - Meg Cabot

Abandon
(Book one of the Abandon trilogy)

ISBN 978-0-330-45386-8
First Printed - 2011

AUTHOR - Meg Cabot

BEST SELLERS - every boy's got one, when boy meets girl.

SYNOPSIS - Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera knows what happens to us when we die(ooo do tell). That’s how she met John Hayden, the mysterious stranger who’s made returning to normal life—or at least life as Pierce knew it before the accident—next to impossible. Though she thought she escaped him—starting a new school in a whole new place—it turns out she was wrong. He finds her. What does John want from her? Pierce thinks she knows… just like she knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven. But she can’t stay away from him, either, especially since he’s always there when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most. But if she let’s herself fall any further, she might find herself back in the place she fears most. And when Pierce discovers the shocking truth, that’s exactly where John sweeps her: The Underworld.


EXCERPT - Anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Anything at all.
One.
Two.
Three.
Blink.
A girl is laughing with her friends.Suddenly, a crater splits apart the earth. Through it bursts
a man in an ink black chariot forged in the deepest pits of
hell, drawn by stallions with hooves of steel and eyes of
flame.Before anyone can shout a warning, before the girl can
turn and run, those thundering hooves are upon her.
The girl isn’t laughing anymore. Instead, she’s
screaming.

Ria Speaks - When i first read the blurb for this book i was so excited, in an era where vampires & werewolves are 75% of what is written today here came a book by one of my favourite authors (don't judge me) who was writing about something that has always fascinated the world, "The Greek Gods''. A modern day look at Persephone and Hades is what attracted me to this book (plus its cool goth cover ) but boy did i learn the truth of the saying ''never judge a book by its cover''.
The book which just released over a month or so ago starts off fine giving us a little information about Pierce and her family, but then suddenly she starts referring to the ''Bad Accident'' (i mean seriously how about a clue as to what happened) and is suddenly running out of her own party cycling down to the graveyard where she first met ''Him''. The worst part about the starting of the book is that she keeps on talking as if we know what exactly happened and who ''He'' is and why she is behaving in the strangest way possible.
However the book never picks up pace though the slowly unravel the mystery as to why she is always so edgy. Though things did look up for a bit when Prince charming arrives or as she says ''Prince Terrifying'', he is everything a girl REALLY wants- leather jacket, dark scowl, dark grey eyes i mean come on who cant help but fall in love? But sadly the arrival of John Hayden doesn't improve anything for the book though she does keep mentioning how she was flat lined for over an hour and how her mother and her share a love for birds nothing really comes out of the first 100 pages of the book and the book is only 300 pages long.
Pierce goes through her normal teenage problems of new school (she had to move after her ''accident'') meeting new people, etc. We finally get to the crux of the story where she explains how she drowned(phew now was that sooo hard to say?) and how she went to purogratory which is where she meets John( who BTW rides a dark black angry steed) and takes up his offer to dry her self off( she drowned remember, apparently you still stay wet in purogratory). So after drying herself does she find out that she has died and has to stay there forever which she obviously doesn't like so she runs away through a door which was left open( are you kidding me, is this the underworld or somebodies playhouse?). Which is how she came back to life.
Well the story progresses where she finds out that she actually is in love with John( surprise surprise) and that furies(evil spirits out to kill the god of death) are after her, and one of her own are out to kill her. So at the end John spirits her back to the underworld from where she starts to look for ways to get out only this time he had locked all the doors( smart boy that one).
This book had promised to be so much and more but turned out quite the bore. Maybe Meg Cabot should stick to what she's best at ''Rom-Com's'' or maybe the trilogy's will be better whose to know?

My Rating - 1.5 out of 5. Sad but true.

Price- 299/- at Landmark Chennai, or 179/- @ flipkart.com