Absolute Abandon

* Read this ARC via Once Upon a Twilight Book Tours

This book gets a deadly 4 gnomes out of 5 gnomes for having a great twist on underworld mythology and for a strong main character trying to figure out how to live after having an extremely unique near death experience.

The story is set up as a spin on the whole Hades and Persephone myth.  It's well done because even if you know the myth their are plenty of surprises.  The only set up I could have done without was the passage from Dante's Inferno before every chapter.  It would have been better to maybe have it before one chapter, not throughout the entire book.  I think it just makes the reader pause too much and is distracting.

Pierce has some issues sure and the incident that made her leave her old school is still talked about.  She's become really withdrawn from everyone and people think she's crazy and has anger problems.  So now she gets stuck moving back to where her Mom's originally from, an island that seems to be teeming with secrets.  Pierce is now part of a program for troubled kids at her new school, she of course has problems but they are more of the paranormal variety.

Seeing how she interacts with the new friends she makes and her family shows how distant she has become and the reader can sense that something weird is going on.  Pierce is protective of people and thinks that she needs to save them from evil.  This hero complex has got her in trouble before and you can see her trying to save her new friend and her cousin too.  I wish this whole aspect of why her cousin has issues with certain people was explored more.  There are a lot of questions but with more books in the series I'm sure they'll be answered.

I love that the potential love interest in the story is this kind of ambiguous guy that you can't really be sure of.  For a good portion of the book it appears that there won't even be a love connection.  If you like your male leads more bad to the bone versus sweet and nice then John may be just the guy you're looking for.

The most brilliant twist in the story is who the actual bad guy is.  There are clues to who it is of course but I know I sure didn't put the pieces together before the big reveal.  This twist will definitely have repercussions for Pierce's life and well, piece of mind.
The end of the book was surprising and a tad bit aggravating.  It's one of those endings that makes you wonder how exactly the main character will find her way out of trouble.  I can't wait to see what happens next in the series because it looks like Pierce is going to have to make some very hard choices.