Review of Isla's Inheritance

Isla’s Inheritance

By Cassandra Page

Synopsis:

Isla was content to let her father keep his secrets, but now she can’t stand the touch of iron and her dreams are developing a life of their own. She must discover the truth — before it’s too late.

Seventeen-year-old Isla Blackman only agrees to participate in a Halloween party séance because Dominic, an old crush, wants to. She is sure nothing will happen when they try to contact the spirit of her mother. But the séance receives a chilling reply.

SHE IS NOT DEAD.

Isla doesn’t want to upset her father by prying into the family history he never discusses. When the mysterious and unearthly Jack offers to help her discover the truth, Isla must master her new abilities to protect her loved ones from enemies she never knew existed.

Source: Goodreads

My rating; 3.3 / 5

My Thoughts:

I've had this book on my TBR pile for a while and I finally got round to reading it this week. I love stories about the Fae but unfortunately, most tend to be rather predictable so I was glad that this book had some notable differences. Yes, there was the stock standard iron being fatal to faeries, and the general perception of faeries having pointed ears, being troublesome and dangerous. But there was also Isla's ability to read auras and manipulate emotions. And how she accidentally empowered her cousin with magic so he paints the future. Most importantly, the first few chapters with the seance and the ouija board captivated my attention and that curiosity continued throughout the book.

My pet peeve with Isla's Inheritance was that the dialogue was stilted at times and no matter how much I enjoyed Isla's story I wasn't entirely convinced about the events taking place. What I found strange was how easily Sarah believed her about being a half breed and having supernatural powers. The girl believes in paranormal stories but she didn't even blink in accepting it as the truth, I would have expected her to be at least a little sceptical of Isla's truth.

As the story progresses, Isla becomes increasingly torn between her old-crush-and-now-boyfriend Dominic, and the Fae boy who is always on the lookout to protect her, Jack. From what I've read, although Jack's appearance improves the more time he spends with a powerful aosidhe like Isla, Dominic is more attractive than him. Being a faerie, Jack is short, occasionally comes out in wrinkles, has big pointy ears and is strong enough to kill someone when he's angry. Regardless, I'm almost certain that eventually Isla will choose Jack over Dominic (if Dominic doesn't leave her before then :S).

Overall, a good read but because of some of the characters, I've given this a 3 out of 5. Since this is the first in the series there is more backstory and character building than a standalone book, but I'm expecting the rest of the series to be 4 stars and possibly above.

Favourite Quotes:

I wasn't good at this dating business. If that's what we were doing. I wasn't very good at predating either. I'd say I wasn't good at postdating, but I hadn't yet had an opportunity to prove it.

I examined my palm; the skin was unbroken and smooth, showing no sign of the burn. It glistened with saliva. I really wanted to wipe it clean against my jeans, but that seemed rude. Of course, he’d just licked me, so maybe his idea of rude was different than mine.

I hated waiting at the best of times. These weren’t the best of times.

“You’re taking all this very well,” I said. “Magic and fairies and stuff.” 

Sure, the outcome was favourable, but what was the cost? Wasn’t changing the way she felt about something not far from taking away her free will altogether?