Lailah by Nikki Kelly Review

Lailah (The Styclar Saga #1), by Nikki Kelly
Publication: October 7, 2014, by Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Vampires, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Source: Gifted
Rating: ½

The girl knows she’s different. She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.
On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely Allie – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.
In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?
Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

My Thoughts: 

I find myself being the kind of chick who's willing to go for almost any kind of YA read. Whether it's contemporary or fantasy, I have some favourites for each genre, and I can't get enough of it all. But this isn't about me here (but it is about my opinion), it's about the hype surrounding this novel. I mean yeah, it was published onto Wattpad and went viral, but I feel that there's no need for all of the useless hype and craze surrounding this book. *breathes in and out*

Lailah could've been much better and could've went in a whole other direction, I feel. I'm totally not into paranormal romances these days, and even if this book did happen to capture my attention (and be released) back in the day of my amateur YA-happy days, I still probably wouldn't have liked it. Yeah, there's vampires, angels, and all of that info-dumping about the causes and effects of these weird situations. It's everything you can possibly expect a simple paranormal romance to have. There wasn't anything special about it and I felt rather bored with the entire concept. 

"Fluttering my eyelids closed I placed my hand over his chest in return. He wrapped his hand over the top of mine, pressing it down more firmly. It was like his soul was enveloped around me tightly, and I imagined cupping his light, watching his purity dance in the palm of my hand." (Hardcover, page 146)

Imagine the purity all right, because this had no sense of purity. It was just a knockoff of everything else you've read all mixed up together in one, just with a gorgeous cover that I still can't keep my eyes off until today as I'm writing this review. Every time I take a peek at it now, only the negative memories float back to me, sadly. Don't readers choose to purchase and devour a book out of utter interest and happiness? What's happening to this genre now?

Whoa, just take a look at the first sentence of this synopsis: "The girl knows she's different." Ohmygosh. We have never ever heard of this thing before! *says sarcastically* Of course we have. IN EVERY. SINGLE. PARANORMAL. BOOK! Kelly definitely should've taken that aspect in a whole other route. Ugh. Moving on with my own personal tiny snippet of a summary, we have our sassy (but cool) main character, Lailah. DUH. She actually doesn't realize that her name is Lailah until later in the novel, but you could say that she's an immature clueless freak at the start of her story here. She has visions of this guy (BEAUTIFUL CREATURES?!) and then one day on her way home from work, she encounters this vampire dude named Jonah (who's pretty hot if you ask me) and what do you think this'll lead to? You've guessed it, and I bet that there's no need for me to waste sentence space and time to say it. Keep it to yourself. *winks* ;)

In a paragraph, that's one way to explain what this book provided for readers. You're probably thinking that it was horrible for me and I'm a weirdo for giving it a 2.5 star rating if all I'm doing is complaining so far, but you have to comprehend that there's some positive sides to it, too. Always remember, that if there's a dark side, there's always some kind of good, light side somewhere. Okay? Okay. *hates using cheesy quotes but it's the only way to proclaim my thoughts out loud* In one sentence, I'll tell you that I hated the concept and setting: I hated the concept and setting. That's a 1/5 star rating since I dislike vampires and angels, both smashed together into a book. And of course, one guy is one creature and the other is the other creature. Love triangle, you speak of?

"No, love, the darkness inside him cost him his existence, [...] His life was taken from him a long time ago; you need to separate the two." (Hardcover, page 238)

When beginning to flip through the pages and hope for the best, I believe that it did start off as the best. Okay, it literally wasn't the best the best, *hopes you're getting this* but I was liking it. The plot seemed that it was about to explode into a million action scenes that would gather my feelings and hopes and wishes and throw them around like confetti, but I found it all rather boring. It was too philosophical, too wordy and weird for the genre itself, and it stayed that way towards the end. Why did I not DNF it instead?

THE CHARACTERS, OF COURSE! Woot. I finally can grab myself and throw my words into this paragraph, forming it in my mind with pure happiness. Lailah's character is what helped me stay. Think of If I Stay, that kind of staying and not leaving anyone/anything behind. *thinks about it* Lailah was kick-ass, totally not annoying, and she resembled the total opposite of Bella Swan in this case. And plus, in the love triangle, there weren't any humans! Mostly. *laughs* She was normal, and unusual both at the same time. What other bad-butt protagonist could you possibly ask for? *thinks of Celaena Sardothien* 

Then we have the men—Gabriel and Jonah. So I grew to actually LOVE Jonah although he was really creepy at times. *thinks of the moments* BUT GABRIEL WAS TOO SENSITIVE AND SYMPATHETIC, LIKE A WHINY PUPPY. Jonah was the hardcore man who could back Lailah up in any situation. And he's just like her, kick-ass and real. But I'm afraid that the love triangle thing here is a little too cliché for this situation and for the genre itself. I don't recommend reading this if you're against them. 

"Love is light. Hate, evil is darkness. Polar opposites. It would never matter what she did, even with a being such as Gabriel, he could never love her like that." 

Despite the bad, negative factors that I've continuously mentioned throughout this review, Lailah wasn't horrible, but it wasn't that good, either. I can add that it was well written, though the concept just isn't my kind-of-read and I do believe that many others will fall in love and pet it happily day and night. You may even want to read the sequel. *gives a suggestion out* But for me, and voicing to the many paranormal-haters, this wasn't as good as expected. Stay away from hyped-up reads if you feel it's not for you, there's a tip!

What is a hyped read that didn't go well for you?