My favorite book series of 2012 is the Mara Dyer Series by Michelle Hodkin. I read The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer shortly before the release of The Evolution of Mara Dyer. I LOVED both of these books. For my complete reviews...click on the links.
I was SOOOO over the top excited about the release of the second book that Book Nerd Flo picked up the following for me at a release party near Miami.
You can't comprehend how happy this made me.
So....what makes this series GREAT? This question can be answered with two words. NOAH SHAW. I did a Book Nerds Fictional Boyfriend post about him, which you can find at this link.
If you haven't read this series, you should rush to your local book store, library, eReader, etc. and get these books STAT.
The Evolution resumes where The Unbecoming left off. There was an incident that occurred at the end of the first book, which results in yet another hospital admission for Mara. The medical staff would like to send her to a Residential Treatment Center, but her parents want to give outpatient treatment one last try. I was very excited about this because it keeps my favorite character, Noah Shaw, in the picture.
On Mara's first day at Horizons outpatient program she discovers that her friend from Croyden, Jamie, is also receiving treatment there. This is one of the few bright spots about this facility. There are a few VERY crazy characters...Phoebe being the most disturbing...who enter the scene and wreak havoc on Mara's well-being while at the facility.
Jude is a perpetual problem once again throughout this book. The readers are left guessing whether or not Jude really exists or if it is all related to Mara's apparent "condition." We quickly learn that Mara and Noah may have issues, but they certainly are not crazy. They continue to discover more about their abilities and we learn just how misunderstood they are. They are well aware that telling the truth sounds crazy, but it IS the truth. Everyone is just too short sighted to even consider the fact that it could be real and the stakes are escalating.
Towards the end of the book I REALLY felt sorry for Noah and Mara. I think they could have a somewhat normal relationship if these outside factors were not in existence. I do not want to give away any spoilers, so I will simply say that I loved EVERYTHING about this book. The way Noah understands and believes Mara and how she begins to see through his protective shell was the highlight of this book for me. There is also one exceptional date night, which I can only hope there will be more of in The Retribution of Mara Dyer.
The final installment in the series is scheduled to be release next fall. I just hope that Noah and Mara will get the last laugh when this series is all said and done. They have been through SO much and deserve a happily ever after.
No, seriously. Michelle and I are the cutest EVER.
You may or may not have heard of a little storm called Sandy? Last Thursday, South Florida got the outer bands of it, which basically means it was rainy and windy like you wouldn't believe! So visualize that, and for fun add in 5 o'clock traffic in one of the worst cities for traffic in the U.S. This lovely scenario I'm having you picture would be the conditions under which I made my way to the Michelle Hodkin signing last week.
Needless to say, I was late. But I did arrive in time to hear these fun tidbits...
About Noah: The idea from Noah started with Michelle trying to think about what kind of guy would fall for Mara? And what kind of guy would she fall for? AND -- the best part -- a little bit of Ethan Hawke from the movie Reality Bites! Yup, I am okay with dating myself to say that that movie is made of awesome.
Michelle also hearts Stephanie Perkins! You know, as in author of Anna and the French Kiss, as in one of my most favorite books ever and that I hooked the other Book Nerds on?!
Could Mara Dyer ever be a movie? Maybe. "But it's a long road from being optioned to 'Coming to a theater near you!'" Michelle explained.
She also talked about the story behind the Mara Dyer trailer, which admittedly I hadn't seen until about 2 seconds ago. In case you're like I was:
Then it was time for the book signing! I had so much fun in line chatting it up with her Mom and some other members of the family -- who are all really cool, by the way! It's so great to see how supportive they are of Michelle. Also, I didn't forget you, readers! I grabbed you some of this fun swag:
Leave a comment on this post and I'll choose a random winner. Some things you can comment about: What author would you drive through a tropical storm to see? Have you read The Evolution of Mara Dyer yet? What is your favorite scene in Reality Bites?
