Ashleigh Paige

Also appears on my blog, The YA Kitten!Don't enter giveaways for sequels to books you haven't read. I hope that lesson isn't necessary for anyone reading this and I doubt that it is, but I'll say it anyway. A Need So Beautiful was never on my radar simply because I wasn't interested, but I stupidly entered a giveaway for its sequel A Want So Wicked and won, meaning I had to read the first book. It didn't feel right to win a sequel from the publisher and instantly get rid of it without reading it, so I got myself a copy of the first book and started reading.I didn't expect terribly much from the novel and that's what I got: not terribly much. Not to say it's oatmeal in the YA supermarket, though--it's got some great highlights. Charlotte was sympathetic and I understood her conflict is written very well, as are all the scenes where she gives in to the Need and helps people. The climactic scene and the Need Charlotte fulfills just before then nearly made me cry! The other characters didn't quite get the same depth, but they weren't annoying caricatures either. I got the lesser of two evils.A little more focus on the capricious nature of Charlotte's gift (why this person and not this person when both are equally deserving and in need of help?) would have been great. The length of the novel is perfect and I don't think it needs extra pages added to it just for that; cutting down on the huge focus on Harlin and replacing it with a little philosophical stuff would have worked. Their romance was a little cloying, especially because it didn't feel authentic to me and I didn't care about whether or not things worked out for them, and that reduction wouldn't have bothered me at all.For most of the novel, I was bored. I skim-read at least eighty percent of the time and kept trying to wander away to something else. Only my determination to get this finished today got me through to the end. Charlotte's dilemma was well-drawn, but for the most part, I had no emotional investment in the novel and there wasn't much to keep me reading. Whether it was my YA expertise coming out or issues with the novel itself, I saw much of what was thrown at Charlotte/the reader coming and it lacked the impact it was supposed to have.There's more I could say about both the positive and negative aspects of the novel, but I care so little about it that I keep forgetting what I want to say. Now that I have book one out of the way, I can start on book two... as soon as I get some other required reading out of the way first. If you want to write about angels and want books that adequately exhibit an angel character's conflict with who they are/what their higher purpose tells them they have to do, this is a good place to start. If this never seemed like your kind of book or reading this review has made you wonder whether or not you should read it, I suggest skipping it.