Review: Whispering Hills

 Title: Whispering Hills
 Author: Taryn Browning
 Published: March 19th, 2012
 From: Received for Whispering Hills Book Tour

Summary: For as long as she can remember, 17-year-old Alexis Forbes can hear the thoughts of others. Most recently, she is disturbed by the dark, unfamiliar voice of a frightening killer: callous, cunning, charismatic…and dead.

She hears his every sinister thought. But she can’t tell anyone. No one would believe her. Alexis is suddenly being haunted by a terrifying past she doesn’t remember, and a ghost with a serious score to settle. Even Chance, the gorgeous new guy she’s falling for, has his own ghostly secret. He’s definitely not like any guy she’s ever met. Alexis soon discovers she has a connection to the dead and it runs much deeper than she could ever imagine. And if the sociopathic entity has his way, she’ll finally be sentenced to the fate she escaped thirteen years ago.

Review: Whispering Hills is a book that I was definitely excited to read when I found out about the book tour and I was so lucky that there was room for me on the tour! I have to say that I don’t regret it in the slightest. The book was really rather good and despite a few flaws, it was an enjoyable read that I finished in two days!

Alexis is seventeen years old and has been living in Whispering Hills her entire life. She’s just like every other teenager in her small town except for one small addition; she can hear people’s thoughts in her head. A new boy, Chance, shows up in her school this year and everything seems to change in her life thanks to him and his arrival.

I have to say that when I first started reading this book, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked it. The main character was written very well, and I have to say I liked Alexis a lot, which is something I can’t usually say for main characters. I’m all about the side characters and what they bring to the table, but Alexis ended up making me like her. Not nearly as much as Summer, I have to admit, but still, she was very likeable when it was all said and done.

Chance, on the other hand. I’m still not sure how I feel about him. The way that he came in and sort of took control over the novel, I wasn’t a huge fan about. I mean, I understand that it was important to the story line and that Alexis and Chance were intertwined in about a billion different ways (which really all just lead to one way but that’s not the point), but I just didn’t like the way he took over. All in all, he was an alright boy, but not one that I enjoyed.

The main reason I liked this book was for Summer and Gabriel. Summer’s just awesome, and I really want to be her. Or be her best friend, which I don’t think she’d like very much. Either way, it’d be awesome. Gabriel is just such an awesome, messed up character that I just wanted to know more about him. I’d really love to read a book in his POV and just see how he’s dealt with his life since the major incident in this novel. I’d love that more than life itself.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Whispering Hills. There were some problems that I had with it, mainly with the relationship between Alexis and Chance. I felt like I was riding the relationship rollercoaster with them, and I have to say it bothered me quite a bit, but other than that, it was good read. I’m really hoping that a sequel is in the works, but if not, I shall just continue to imagine what happened afterwards in Alexis’s life, as well as Summer’s, Chance’s and Gabriel’s.

If you’re looking for a good novel, or one that’s not the cookie-cutter YA novel, I’d definitely suggest that you give Whispering Hills a chance. It might just surprise you how good it is. It definitely did for me!

Rating: ★★★ 3/5 Stars