I wanted to like this book, but it was almost painful to read. The characters were pedantic and the plot was boring. I tried, but could only get through about half of the book. I admit to reading the ending and was glad i did not waste my time reading the entire book. ( )

You know that moment when you have such high expectations for something? When you are certain you know this book will be amazing? I'll be honest when I say that it fell short of my expectations. I hate saying stuff like that because there really was so much I liked about this book but I hesitate to give it a higher rating than three stars.

Enchantment by Pati Nagle tells the story of a girl that visits a spring with her sister only to see a boy sitting in the water. It catches her off guard but it leaves her intrigued enough to return multiple times. Throughout the process of the story, she falls in love with this boy that no one else can see.

Okay, so here's my issue with the story: Ohlan, this boy that only a few people see, has fallen in love multiple times and yet seems unchanged by their disappearance or deaths. I have a difficult time accepting Holly's feelings for him because it seems like he wouldn't care whether she came or went. If a character has been in love before, I expect some sort of life-changing alteration to the way they act in this new relationship which makes it different. It was hard for me to agree that he loved her or that he cared for her outside of the moment they were in. Would her death or disappearance effect him more than any of the other loves of his life? I felt like probably not.

Even though I had a hard time with Ohlan as a character with his emotions, I loved the plot of the book. It's a beautiful idea with enchanting (get it?) possibilities for what could unfold. I didn't expect for a lot of it to play out the way it did. In fact if you would've been with me while I read it, you would've seen my surprise and frustration as I realized that my imagination wasn't what drove the book.

Holly and her family are a great bunch of characters that accurately portray the real problems that each family faces. I think that everyone assumes a sort of fake persona around their parents, especially after they move out and become their own people. I thought that the family as a whole was refreshing.

Overall, it was an alright read. I wished for it to be so much more than it was and it just didn't follow through. ( )

I have liked Pati Nagle's other work but wasn't crazy about this one. I didn't connect with any of the characters. ( )

I really hate writing reviews for books I didn’t like or just couldn’t read. It goes against everything I believe. I love books and most of my reviews are glowing because I only review what I like. As I get asked to review more and more, it means finding that I don’t like some books. More often than not, I push through unless it’s NetGalley then I politely decline writing a review. I can’t remember when I was asked to review this book but it’s been sitting in my tbr pile for far too long. I have spent the last week trying to muddle through the first 50 pages. I finally made it to page 86 when I said that was it. I was done. I was going to walk away and call this once lost in the tbr file. I can’t even remember who asked me to review it and they haven’t gotten back in all this time so would anyone notice if I just overlooked this review? The truth is – no, no one would notice but I would feel like I was lying. Am I a bad journalist if I only post reviews of books I like? Okay, it’s not quite that bad but it was when I started. I need to share the bad with the good. This isn’t the worst book ever written. The language is fine. The plot is okay. It’s just really boring. Just before the start of her senior year in high school, Holly discovers a being living in a spring near her house. The being is dying. She wants to focus on him than on finding a college to attend the following year. In 86 pages, I could tell you very little about Holly (to be honest, I’m not positive that’s her name). In one meeting, she is madly in love with the guy who she knows is not human and can’t leave the spring. She’s nearly obsessive. Day three she has to go with her sister, as her sister returns to college. The whole time she’s sure that the man in the spring believes she has abandoned him. Um, hmm. I found the characters very one dimensional – there was no feeling in this book. I wasn’t being pulled in. Maybe, it’s me. Maybe I just was the wrong audience. Maybe this was the wrong book. I don’t know. I just know that Nancy Pearl said to subtract your age from 100 and then that’s the number of pages you have to read before deciding a book is just not going to work for you. I’d love to say that I read those pages but truth is – I gave it many more and even trying to skim over the story didn’t help me like it. ( )

A super fun and exciting book! i read it in one sitting and ant wait for the next one