Book Review: Need by Carrie Jones

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  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.

My Thoughts:  First off, let me say the cover of this book is beautiful!  I loved it!  I enjoyed this book.  It was an easy, simple read.  I really liked the phobia part with the exception that you never really find out why Zara is so obsessed with them. 

My main gripe with this book is it never seemed like you really got to understand anything.  You just scratched the surface of something and then it was moving on to something else.  You never really got to know the characters.  I loved Issy but you never really understood her.  It wasn't until the end of the book that you even found out if she was strictly human or some supernatural being.  Ian and Megan were the characters you loved to hate but again, it was just a scratch of the surface of something and then it was over. 

In my opinion, Gram Betty was the best character.  She was so fun and fiesty!  I would have loved to have found out more about her story and about Zara's mom's history with the pixies and weres. 

I did enjoy the fact that this book was about pixies instead of vampires.  However, the pixies had a lot of the same characteristics as vampires and I wasn't thrilled with that.  I would have liked to have been able to picture them better but they were also just glossed over until the very end when it was slightly better explained.

I thought it was crazy how quickly Zara just hopped onto the "I believe" bus.  Here she is depressed that her father is dead and scared because this weird man is following her and then wham....the strange man is a pixie?  Okay, I buy that.  What?!  Also, at the end when they explain how Devyn, Issy and Nick figured out something weird was going on just didn't cut it for me. 

So, while I liked the book, it did have some issues.  I will read the rest of the series just to find out what happens and to see if I can understand these characters and situations better.