Book Review: Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Title: Illuminate (Gilded Wings #1)
Author: Aimee Agresti 
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 
Release Date: March 6th, 2012
Format: eARC 
Source: Publisher for review (Thank you!)

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

Illuminate is an exciting saga of a teen’s first taste of independence, her experience in the lap of luxury, and her discovery she may possess strength greater than she ever knew.

*Phew*! Finally finished it! So, immediately after finishing it, I heaved a sigh of relief and gave myself a pat on the back for sticking with in until the end. Don't get me wrong, the book itself wasn't necessarily bad, but it WAS unnecessarily LONG. I started it last year, read until half-way, picked up another book, and didn't come back to it until early this year. I'll be honest, I did skim through quite a lot of pages, and due to the incredibly long time in which it took to build up the suspense and tension, the climax unfortunately felt very anti-climatic to me. I was reading for the sake of finishing, so the second- half of the book didn't appeal to me the way I would've liked it to.

The characters unfortunately felt bland to me; I never connected with Haven nor Lance, and they just seemed devoid of personality. While I didn't dislike Haven, she truly doesn't stand out amongst all the other YA heroines out there. The only characters that made an impression on me were Lucian, and Aurelia, but neither were exceptionally memorable either ( unfortunately ). I remember Aurelia as the cold, stony-faced boss who would order Haven around and demand everything be done on time, yet there was also a frightened and vulnerable side to her; one that she kept hidden behind her mask of beauty and confidence.  Other than her, ( and sometimes Lucian) the other character failed to leave a lasting impression on me.

Like I said above, the book's downfall is definitely its overly long length. It really killed all my initial excitement until I was soon begging for something, ANYTHING interesting to happen. I'm certain that had this been half as long, with all the parts that dragged cut out, I would be here, gushing and raving about how incredibly amazing it was!

What did leave an impression on me was the special friendship the main characters shared with one another. For a change, friendship takes priority over romance, and I'm sincerely glad for this change! While I wasn't overjoyed at what became of Haven's relationship with Lance (friendship definitely suits them more!), but I'll take comfort in the months they spent as trusted, loyal friends who worked together and helped each other out in times of crisis.

Overall, a highly recommended read for anyone who likes a change from the normal, romance-driven PNR, ( and of course who isn't affected by scary 500+ pages of words to read). There is definite potential in this series, so I'll be looking out for the second book!