Review: Entangled- Nikki Jefford

3/5 Stars

Entangled (Spellbound, #1)- Nikki Jefford

Plot: Graylee and Charlene are twins that couldn’t have less in common. Charlene is on a strict Slim-Fast shake diet, wears short skirts, sleeps around, and has a murderous streak. Graylee is more of a tom boy who wears her hair in weird braids, doesn’t care about boys, dislikes pop music, eats whatever she wants, and is far from popular. One thing they do have in common is that they are both witches. The story begins with Charlene’s boyfriend’s betrayal. Charlene threatens to commit suicide or murder Stacey. Upon reflection, she decides it’s better to steal Brad back then kill herself. Graylee thinks her sister is insane and can’t understand her foolish obsession with seeking male approval, and the envy of her peers. Graylee use to be a powerful witch but after an embarrassing incident, can’t seem to focus. She does have one trick, she can turn herself invisible and refill her image like paint by numbers or an Etch-A-Sketch. When she randomly appears in class, Raj, catches her at her game and is dying to learn her ability. Graylee doesn’t know what to make of Raj but can’t deny that he’s really attractive. Graylee assumes he’s flirting with her to get her secret and then he’ll drop her. Raj finds his attraction to Graylee growing daily and gets his best friend to make her a good luck amulet. Raj never gets the chance to give it to her because a few days later, Graylee is found dead with no cause of death. Essentially, she is an X-File 🙂 Graylee’s mom makes a deal with a “connection” and Graylee wakes in Charlene’s body. Graylee’s mom informs her that every other day she will wake in Charlene’s body and while she is dormant, Charlene will take over. Graylee is happy to be alive but Charlene leaves her lists of things to do and hates that Graylee is destroying her life. Graylee, with the help of Raj, struggles to find a way to escape her sister’s body, find a new one, and uncover the sinister secrets behind her suppressed magic, Stacey’s coma, and her own death.

PROS:

• I have secretly been yearning for a sexy, sarcastic, Indian bad boy with a twisted past for longer than I can remember. Thank you for Raj, we totally need more Asian/ Middle Eastern/ Eastern European men in YA.
  
• Charlene is the most evil, vindictive, shallow, femme fatale-ish character, normally this would be a bad thing but her character is so well-defined that it’s colorful and fun to guess what sort of sadistic plans she has up her sleeves.
• The concept was very Freaky Friday but with a twist.

CONS:

• I’m very confused by this cover. Firstly, there’s no snow in this story so I have no idea why she is frosted. Secondly, what’s with the rose? Finally, that is nowhere near what I pictured Graylee as. 
• The treatment of sex was a little strange to me. Charlene is basically a resident of the red light district. She knows it, her classmates know it, and most importantly, her mother knows it and doesn’t seem to care. The general lack of parenting when their mother is supposed to be understanding and loving is unrealistic, ineffective, and feels like she’s just there as an afterthought.
• Nolan is a creep. Seriously, he tells Graylee that he committed this horrible, albeit hilarious crime and she doesn’t see anything wrong with it. The toss-up between caring, not caring, having morals, and just being plain stupid is jaw clenchingly frustrating.

If you liked       you might like this.

This is closer in subject but less in style and overall tone .

I realize this review has been a long time coming but grad school is murdering me right now 😦

-BB