ARC Review ~ The Adventures of Jillian Spectre by Nic Tatano

eARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: 14th March 2014

Publisher: HarperImpulse

Description:
Welcome to the Mystic Quarter...

Jillian Spectre knows what happens after you die.

Because the seventeen-year-old mystic seer can see the future of her clients even after they've passed on. And that's not even her coolest power...

She can be in two places at once. Problem is, her heart can only be in one.

Supernatural abilities aside, she's a typical high school senior torn between two guys. But that gets put on the back burner when she discovers the father she had long assumed was dead is actually alive, with unique powers of his own. He's a technopath, with the ability to interface his mind with technology. And he's got a plan to take down society.

Unless Jillian can stop him.

THE ADVENTURES OF JILLIAN SPECTRE is the story of a very special girl who learns that the power of love is more important than supernatural powers.

My Opinion

Where to begin...

This book sounded great. A girl who can see the afterlife? Interesting. The promise of more supernatural powers? Brilliant. Romance? Great. And a family member trying to take down society? It gets better--at least those were my thoughts as I read the blurb for this book and requested it. It also has a beautiful cover that intrigued me even more. However, from beginning to end, none of my original assumptions were proved correct and I found this to be quite a juvenile read (as in written not aimed at YAs) that slowly became more and more irritating. 

I'll start with the main character, Jillian. When she was first introduced I didn't take to her and by the end my feelings hadn't changed in a positive way. Written from her POV, this book is filled with her thoughts constantly and she didn't half babble at times with random references I didn't get. Within the first few pages, she had lost my support and I was really questioning whether I would get to the end of this book.

Now, I enjoy first person narratives, but I have to like the character for me to connect with the book and Jillian was in no way likable. Her narrations over the story for example: 

But before we go any further and you start asking questions like "Will the married man I'm dating really leave his wife" (No dumbass. You don't need a psychic for that.) I should introduce myself. I'm Jillian Spectre, seventeen-year old crystal ball chick of the neighborhood.

were irritating and the parts in brackets, really got on my nerves as they appeared throughout the book. She came across as quite bitchy and although a few of the comments were slightly funny, they were cruel and turned her into a stereotypical high-school bitch. 

The author also seemed to take every stereotype associated with teen girls and threw them into the main characters. They spoke in initialisms--and ones even I didn't understand and I'm 19--which annoys me to the ends of the earth. Personally, I have never used them and the people I know who did, grew up at 15 which is why I say the writing felt juvenile. I don't know if it's because being written by a male, he never had the experience of growing up as a teen girl and therefore is going by everything he's heard, but to me it was it all felt a little over the top and too exaggerated.

As well as this I was very disappointed with the romance--especially coming from this publisher. The romance was not the focal point of the book and although I don't mind that, I think there needed to be more to it. It has the stereotypical bad boy (Jake) and the best friend who's almost brotherly and doesn't see the feelings (Ryan). There was no competition, no big decision and everything was over within seconds. As soon as Ryan figures out Jillian likes him (don''t know how he missed it being a telepath), that's it for Jake and that's it for the romances except for a few hugs and kisses which aren't described.

Everything in this book was like that really. It was incredibly jumpy and scenes were never fully developed before they changed with the use of the asterisk. They did get longer, with more in them towards the end but I felt there was very little detail involved in a scene before it jumped forward and then jumped back. I was surprised this book didn't give me whiplash. 

One thing that came of this--the thing that kept me reading--was that every time those little stars appeared, Jillian was just about to reveal or be enlightened to something. Before it has a chance to tell you, you find yourself in another scene and you keep reading just so you can find out what it was. I can handle this a few times but it was nearly every scene change and it just became too hard to keep track of everything as there was no fluidity.

As well as this the paranormal aspect was confusing. I liked the different types of powers, I liked Jillian's and how it started off and the seeing the afterlife set up an interesting premise. However, where the hell did all of that go?!! By the end, I'm not even sure what the point in all of the powers was. Yeah they save the world and all that but there was no development, no explanation about them and no detail or discovery. Everything became focused of The Summit and how to stop Jillian's father. It was like the start of the book was separate from the end as personally, I still don't understand the connection with the afterlife--maybe I missed something? I don't know. It just felt very rushed and underdeveloped when it could have been so much more, especially with the evil plan and all of that. It was just too easy and anticlimactic.

Overall, The Adventures of Jillian Spectre was really disappointing and I hate to say that as I have loved most books put out by this publisher. The characters were irritating, they were unbelievable and unlikable, the relationships were hardly there and the plot was so jumpy and hard to follow I really wish I had stopped when I first had doubts. It keeps you wanting answers to questions but that was about all that kept me reading because things like that bug me if I stop and even that became too much towards the end. 

I can't really see what will happen in book two but I don't think I'll be reading it.