review: illuminate - aimee agresti

ILLUMINATE
Aimee Agresti
Release Date: March 6, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Book
Pages: 534
Source: bought

Rating: 4 out of 5

"Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.
As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel? "

I've been excited to read this book for a while, and I wasn't disappointed when I finally got the chance to! I do wish the blurb of the book didn't give as much of the story away though, it doesn't leave much room for surprise. At over 500 pages this could be considered far too long for a YA book, but I liked that the book was lengthy. I found it allowed Aimee to fully explore, and her writing was a treat to read as it was full of imagery, atmosphere and crafted intrigue and mystery beautifully.

Haven was a main character I think a lot could relate to, however at first I found her boring to be completely honest! However I did enjoy her evolution throughout the novel, and  found the further I read on, the more I warmed to her. The character of Dante was a breath of fresh air for me, it was really nice to see a gay character portrayed in a YA novel, and for one to be portrayed well. He reminded me of one of my own friends, so needless to say he was a favourite of mine. I loved the character of Lucian, even though his sudden interest in Haven at first was sort of creepy, he definitely grabbed hold of my heart and I found myself rooting for him! Lance, I was less enthralled with. I can't say his character stood out to me, I found him bland. There is a slight love triangle in this book which might put a few of you off, and I can't say I'm happy with who Hazel ended up with but as this is a series I'm holding out hope!

Although this is an 'angel' book, the lore is handled in a way that is dissimilar to the variety of other angel books I've read, this is probably my second favourite, only to Angelfall, and that says a lot! There were so many good things about this book: the length, the writing, the majority of the characters and the plot twists. I really wanted to give it a 5 but due to my dislike of the 'resolution' of the love triangle I really found I couldn't, however I guess this is a testament to Aimee's writing that she could make me care that much about how it worked out. I will definitely be buying the sequel, as I'm waiting anxiously to see what happens next!