Review: Elixir

Title: Elixir
Author: Hilary Duff with Elise Allen (co-author)
Date Released: October 12th, 2010
Pages: 327
Rating: 4 out of 5

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:
About a year after her father's disappearance, Clea Raymond is still trying to cope with the loss, but she starts seeing this same person everywhere.  She sees him in the same places as her and her pictures.  When she's sent on a trip to Brazil, she finally meets this mysterious man, and together, they go on quite an adventure to find her father.  On this adventure, they not only unravel the mystery of her father's dissappearance, but also their past lives together.

First off, I really hope that this review doesn't contains spoilers.  Secondly, Oh my goodness.  This was such a good book!  When I first heard that Hilary Duff was writing a book, I was like, "WHOA!  What?  The Hilary Duff?  The one who starred in Lizzie McGuire???"  She probably got that a lot, because it's not like every day you see an actress or actor write a book.  However, Hilary Duff and Elise Allen managed to write a really, really addicting book.  I finished it in two days, and let's just say that two days is really fast for me.  I was also supposed to be studying for finals, but that didn't really work out for me...
 
I thought the whole thing about an elixir for life and the idea of having a soulmate was really cool.  Although, for me it kind of seemed to parallel the Fallen series with the whole thing about the female character being reincarnated and the male character being able to live forever (even though in this book he's not an angel), so, maybe it's not exactly original, but it was still a really great and addicting book!  It just had it's own twist on the reincarnation aspect of the book.

I liked Clea.  Notice how her name is almost like mine?  It felt so weird when reading it!  It actually kind of annoyed me how her name was so close to mine, but was off by one letter!  Well, anways, Clea probably wasn't the strongest character, but you can relate to her because imagine that your dad went missing and you don't even know for sure if he's dead or not?  I thought it was the coolest thing how her hobby was photography because I totally wish that I could actually take a decent picture and get it published in a magazine.  Sage seemed like the total hot guy that everyone would just absolutely die for.  'Nuff said (I think).  One little annoying thing about Elixir was how Clea fell way too fast for Sage...  Overall, a really, really great book.  Don't let the fact that a famous actress wrote this book stop you from actually reading it.  Give it a try!  It totally captivated me and I can't wait until the next book comes out.

Rayna was super duper cool!  Maybe she's a little pushy and sort of like that stereotypical rich girl (I don't think that she's actually wealthy though...), but she tries to do nice things for Clea and help her cope with her loss.  I actually found it ironic because Rayna was described as loving the limelight and everything, where as Clea doesn't like all the attention, but Clea has the famous parents, where as Rayna's mom worked for Clea's family.  Just wanted to point that out...  Ben was like the other hot guy that everyone wants to like, but they like Sage, so they can't choose between the two (that would be me).

Ben and Sage are both smart and seem like fairly attractive guys, so if and when this book reaches Twilight status, a battle will probably break out between the two male leads.  Kind of like Edward vs. Jacob, but instead it's Sage vs. Ben.

Overall, Elixir is a pretty good book!  In some ways, it seems to have taken some things from other books such as Fallen, not really making some of the ideas in this book totally original.  Don't let the fact that a famous actress wrote this.  Give it a try!  If you're not sure if you'll like it or not, just get it from the library.  I honestly think that it wasn't all that bad.  Now I'm totally waiting for the sequel to come out (it left on a cliffhanger)... *sitting here, waiting*

Cover Review:
I. LOVE. THIS. COVER!  It's purple (!!!) and simple, but that beautiful iris really makes the cover stand out.  This was actually one of my Cover Crazy covers.  So, click here if you want the full reason why :D

Cleo :)

*Description from Amazon.com
**Review copy borrowed from library.