Review: Elixir by Hilary Duff

My edition: Paperback, published in 2010 by Simon & Schuster, 327 pages.

Description: Clea Raymond has felt the glare of the spotlight her entire life. The daughter of a renowned surgeon and a prominent Washington DC politician, she has grown to be a talented photojournalist who takes refuge in a career that allows her to travel to the most exotic parts of the world. But after Clea’s father disappears while on a humanitarian mission, Clea’s photos begin to feature eerie, shadowy images of a strange and beautiful man—a man she has never seen before.

When fate brings Clea and this man together, she is stunned by the immediate and powerful connection she feels with him. As they grow closer, they are drawn deep into the mystery behind her father’s disappearance, and they discover the centuries old truth behind their intense bond. Torn by a dangerous love triangle and haunted by a powerful secret that holds their fates, together they race against time to unravel their pasts in order to save their lives—and their futures.

Review:

This book started out very promising: extremely well written (I'm not commenting on by who as I think the quality should be central in a review about the story, not the debate about whether it was ghost written or not) and mysterious from the start with the unexplainable appearances of the image on Clea's photographs.

However as soon as we were getting closer to the truth behind the mystery, the story started making less sense and it seemed more time was spent on building a romantic relationship between two characters that lack chemistry, rather than on developing the plot in a satisfying matter.

About halfway through Elixer dropped from a solid 9 to a hesitant 8 out of 10 and the open ending as well as the unbelievable change of Ben's character towards the final chapters made me reluctantly decide on the final rating. It's a real shame that this novel got dragged into the currently overhyped young adult paranormal genre - focusing on romance rather than plot - as it had a lot of potential.

7/10