Review: 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce

THE DETAILS:Pages: 320
Genre: Adult, Fantasy
Release: 01/02/2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Borrowed from Library

THE BLURB:
What if your mother-in-law turned out to be an evil, cold-blooded witch . . . literally?

Ever since fabulously wealthy Malcolm Doran walked into her life and swept her off her feet, fledgling architect Jane Boyle has been living a fairy tale. When he proposes with a stunning diamond to seal the deal, Jane can't believe her incredible luck and decides to leave her Paris-based job to make a new start with Malcolm in New York.
But when Malcolm introduces Jane to the esteemed Doran clan, one of Manhattan's most feared and revered families, Jane's fairy tale takes a darker turn. Soon everything she thought she knew about the world—and herself—is upended. Now Jane must struggle with newfound magical abilities and the threat of those who will stop at nothing to get them.

THE REVIEW:
This is one of those books with the pretty covers that has this promising appeal of chick-lit mixed with fantasy. I main thing that let this book down was the high expectations I had of it. The beginning of the story was great, but like a beautiful flower withered and died.

The story telling itself was quite good. It was concise, witty and had an interesting way of describing the main character Jane's powers in use. Normally I'm not much of a Chick-lit fan because of the writing, but this book (even though it was technically fantasy) showed chick-lit writing in a new light. This mash up of masterful chick-lit writing and fantasy storyline had me quite interested in the book to begin with.

I thought the characters were a little flat. The main character was unbelievably naiive and the other characters were very typical stereotypical characters. The hot guy who is forbidden, the hot guy that is dangerous (but it's not his fault!), the quirky friend and the loner orphan main character. I feel like many times I open a book and there is a mangled version of Cinderella at my fingertips everytime!

The storyline started out pretty good. It had that intriguing young-socialite-finds-out-she's-a-witch appeal. I think the first 25-ish chapters were pretty great, but then it decended. It wasn't that the story turned out bad, but it did get a little mind-screwy. It reminded me a little of stepford wives, except it wasn't THAT good. It was possibly a little bit more screy than that.

There was also a lot of sex in this book. It wasn't neccesarily graphic, but it annoyed me a little that I had know everytime they were doing it. Sometimes I feel that adult literature is a bit like smart porn. All those poor people who just want to read a damn book have to put up with it. I don't mind one or two small sex scenes in a book, but sometimes it just seems like a little overkill. Do these writers realise that this can lose them their readders.

Overall i gave this book 3.5 stars. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't fantastic. I think I might one day read the sequel if I get extremely bored or if it sounds better that the first novel (very doubtful). I think people who like chick-lit and don't mind sex in books will enjoy this one. This is definitely not a story for the YA Paranormal Romance Haters. I think the coolest thing about this book is it's title and cover.

THE SERIES:
1. 666 Park Avenue
2. The Dark Glamour

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