Review: EXILED

Title: Exiled
Author: RaShelle Workman
Series: Immortal Essence
Pages: 340
Published: 2011

Summary: Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family. Now she wants revenge.

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate. Only she doesn't know the first thing about love. Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters--alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her.

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week. Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human. But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl--her.

Review: When searching for books to read, I always have a tendency to pick the ones that everyone else on my goodreads friends list have already read and reviewed, so it gives me a sort of idea as to what to expect from the novel and if it’s worth reading or not. I was a little bit surprised and a lot excited to find that Exiled by Rashelle Workman was something that none of the people I’m friends with has yet to read. Knowing that it was new and uncharted waters, I eagerly delved in.

Of course, I didn’t expect for it to instantly make me love it, and there was a time that I set it down completely and avoided it (although that was because NetGalley approved me for Wonder by R.J. Palacio and I just couldn’t resist), but when I came back to reading, I practically fell in love.

Venus is a Kelarian, but not just any Kelarian. Venus is the princess of Kelari. It starts off on Venus’s sixteenth birthday, the day that she’s supposed to leave home and take the journey to see the gods, Ith and Athea, so that she can be granted immortality. While that’s all she cares about, there’s different plans set for her, and she finds herself exiled on Earth, accused of killing her irrihunter and being the reason her family has been kidnapped. On top of all of that, she has to make a human named Michael find his soul mate if she wants to live.

A lot happens in this book, most of which I don’t plan on even coming close to spoiling for you, but if you’re curious in picking up a book to read, then I really have to suggest that it be this one. First off, there’s a distinct beauty to the description in this novel, and if you don’t fall in love with the way the characters look (which I have to say is absolutely breathtaking for the most part) then that’s a shame. Second of all, the plot is intriguing. There were twists that I didn’t expect to happen, and it’s very interesting to learn about Michael and Venus and see how their time together allows them to progress and find new labels to their relationship.

On the other hand, there were two things that I disliked about this book. The first has to deal with a spoiler, so we’ll only touch on the key point of my disliking. Venus ends up telling Michael a story about a war that happened on her planet because he asks her to, and while it was nice to know some back history of Kelari, I found myself skimming past these pages because they bored me. It just wasn’t something that I felt needed to be dragged on during this book, but I otherwise liked the story. Well, the end of the story at least.

The other part that I really disliked was the ending. There was a point where the book should have ended and then it just continued on for another two chapters, which was really pointless. Granted, they weren’t long chapters, but that doesn’t change the fact that I really wasn’t a fan of the fact that the book didn’t end at a natural ending and instead took an unnatural ‘cliffhanger-esque’ ending. I’m really starting to not be able to stand cliffhangers. Or love triangles, but that’s a whole other topic that we won’t get on about right now.

Overall, I really did like this book, and I’m really excited for the sequel, Beguiled, which comes out in May! If you’re looking for a book that’s not quite the typical young adult novel but is still right up the paranormal-ish alley, check out Exiled and maybe when you’re done reading it, you can sneak into the novel for me and kidnap me a pair of the boots that I would die for. They’re so beautiful and, in the words of someone that I adore, so fierce! Someday I will have a pair of my own! Someday.

Rating: ★★★★ 3.5/5 Stars