Review : Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Unbreakable (Unraveling #2)
Author : Elizabeth Norris
Publication Date : April 23rd 2013
Publisher : Balzer + Bray
Goodreads - The Book Depository

Four months after Ben disappeared through the portal to his home universe, Janelle believes she’ll never see him again. Her world is still devastated, but life is finally starting to resume some kind of normalcy. Until Interverse Agent Taylor Barclay shows up. Somebody from an alternate universe is running a human trafficking ring, kidnapping people and selling them on different Earths—and Ben is the prime suspect. Now his family has been imprisoned and will be executed if Ben doesn’t turn himself over within five days.

And when Janelle learns that someone she cares about—someone from her own world—has become one of the missing, she knows that she has to help Barclay, regardless of the danger. Now Janelle has five days to track down the real culprit. Five days to locate the missing people before they’re lost forever. Five days to reunite with the boy who stole her heart. But as the clues begin to add up, Janelle realizes that she’s in way over her head—and that she may not have known Ben as well as she thought. Can she uncover the truth before everyone she cares about is killed?

Personal Thoughts

One of my most anticipated sequels of 2013, Unbreakable was one of those books I knew I had to get into as soon as the book released. There are very few YA sci-fi novels that truly managed to wow me and Unraveling was one of those. While I was completely satisfied with the plot line of Unraveling, the ending left me itching for, which is why I readily jumped into Unbreakable as soon as I had a copy in my hands. However, I feel like I went into the book with too high expectations because I ended up not enjoying the book as much as I wanted to.

Janelle has always been a strong-minded character, but I wasn't her biggest fan of hers in this book. She tried not to pine over Ben, but there was no doubt that she was pining for him in a sense. She kept thinking about him in every single page and it bothered me a little because that wasn't the Janelle I had grown to love in the first book. She was still kick-butt and entirely lovable because she was willing to do anything to help the people that she loved, but I will admit that my love for her did diminish a little after Unbreakable. I was also disappointed by the lack of Ben in Unbreakable. I loved Unraveling because of Ben's character. He was a breath of fresh air as a YA love interest and I grew attached to him, so you can understand how let down I was by the fact that he was absent for almost half of this book. I missed his and Janelle's dynamics and even he appeared once again, I felt like he was a completely different person. I did not approve of what he did and his, "Janelle Tenner, I fucking love you," from book one got diluted by his action. The one bright spot in Unbreakable was Barclay. I grew to really love the guy in this book and I'm glad that the author allowed us readers to form an attachment with the guy. His humor brought a lightness to this otherwise serious plot line.

Unbreakable was undoubtedly action-packed from start to finish, but I did feel like some parts were unnecessary making the book far too long for my liking. At points throughout the story, I found myself being bored. Also, the plot line did not hold my attention as much as the first book did. There was a certain spark lacking. In addition, I found myself being frustrated by some unanswered questions. Like I mentioned above, the romance in the book fell flat for me after what Ben unknowingly did. Plus, there weren't as many sweet moments between Ben and Janelle as there were in Unraveling. I might give the expression that I was entirely disappointed with Unbreakable from my review, but there were definitely parts that I enjoyed. For instance, the writing. Elizabeth Norris has a writing style that hooks you in and ensures that you read the book in one sitting. I think that it was entirely my fault that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to because I went in expecting too much. If I had gone in with low expectations, I probably would have enjoyed it a whole lot more.

While Unbreakable failed to impress me like Unraveling did, as a whole, this series is a truly brilliant one and I have no doubt that Elizabeth Norris has a lot more to offer. I'm excited to read more from this talented author!

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 4/5

**Overall rating : 3.5/5**