Bookends: Review of Mirage by Ashley Suzanne (Review by Sparkles)

MIRAGE (Destined #1)

By Ashley Suzanne

A N/A CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON, B&N, & iTUNES

Synopsis:

Mira and Kylee meet Danny and Skylar during freshmen orientation, their first week of college. Two sets of best friends embark on a new adventure together, forming life long bonds. Mira and Danny are looking forward to their future as husband and wife.
Everything is going according to plan, until tragedy strikes them on graduation night leaving three broken people to pick up the pieces. Skylar has always stood in the background, watching his best friend begin a life with the woman he’s always been in love with until he can no longer keep a distance.
Right when Mira thinks her life is back on track it spirals out of control. What if everything you thought you knew was nothing more than a mirage?

My Review:

3.5 Stars!

This was a hard review for me to write. It's taken me several days to be able to sit and put my thoughts into coherent sentences but as fans and readers we owe an author our honest opinions on their work, right? Otherwise, how are they to grow and improve? So without further ado, here are my honest thoughts on this book...

Mirage was just ok. It wasn't a bad book but it wasn't a great book either. The storyline had a ton of potential but it could have used a lot more editing, in my opinion. Besides, the grammatical issues, the story was fairly decent. Danny and Mira met on the first day of college, at freshman orientation, and had one of those instant connections that most people only dream about. From then on, they had eyes for only each other. Their love grows throughout their 4 years at U of M and before graduation arrives, Danny proposes and Mira says YES! On graduation night the fearsome foursome (Danny, Mira, Skylar, and Kylee) head out to an alumni party and on the way, there is a terrible accident. An SUV swerves into Danny and Mira's lane and they crash. Mira makes it. Danny doesn't. He will be pronounced dead at the scene. Mira (Danny's fiance) and Skylar (Danny's best friend) spend the next year grieving and trying to move past the loss of someone who was such a huge part of their lives.

As I said, the storyline was fairly decent. It had a great concept. The characters, however, were not very easy to connect to. They were kind of all over the place. Mira had 0 willpower. One second she would be telling herself not to do something and in the very next sentence she would be doing it anyway without a second thought. Skylar, though madly in love with Mira, was incredibly mean and cold to her for the majority of the story. The only one who stayed relateable throughout the story is Danny and that's because he dies in the beginning.

I know what you're thinking. "You gave this story 3.5 stars. It can't be that bad." Am I right? I wanted to give up on this book several times but what can I say? I am no quitter. Thank Gawd! This book has got to have, by a long shot, the best ending I have ever read. Ever. And that's saying a lot. I'm not saying I agree with the way the characters handled themselves but c'mon, you've got to hand it to this author. That ending was pure literary genius!

I don't do spoilers and I would never disrespect this awesome ending by giving it away before you have the chance to experience it for yourself so I won't give you any hints as to what went down but I will say that it was absolutely worth sticking it out in my opinion. And any author who can blow my mind so thoroughly has definitely earned a second chance in my book.

"INCEPTION" here I come!