Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. It was very hard to get through. The writing was very much like a high school student was writing the story... and not in a good way. The book had a big build up, but the wimpy ending left me disappointed.

Unfortunately I felt compelled to give up on this book before being halfway through.
The writing wasn't bad nor was the whole concept behind the plot but to me it felt too full of teen angst. Not my cup of tea. Sorry!

I really thought I was going to like <i>Piercing the Veil</i> by Nicole L. Taylor. The introduction to the book was utterly <i>fascinating</i> and really pulled me right in. I was eagerly awaiting the rest of the book, basically on the edge of my seat to find out what would happen next and what had lead up to that moment. And then we entered the real world with a character who was crazy dull and suffered from the unfortunate circumstance of her author trying <i>way</i> too hard to make her nice and interesting when she was really only rude and dull.

I didn’t hate Alexa, exactly, but I didn’t like her either. In the moments that she wasn’t rather boring and just...stagnant, she was just kind of awful. And no one else in the book was really all that memorable. Her relationship with her siblings was interesting, but ultimately never really developed into anything that was fun to read. I felt like a large portion of the story was just a massive struggle to read through and I literally had to put this book down and pick it up so many times that it just wasn’t enjoyable anymore. It was a real struggle to finish this book, which upsets me largely due to the fact that I had been so genuinely excited to read it initially.

The romance felt unrealistic, leaving me with a lack of understanding for how they possibly fell for each other. Not to mention the fact that it was so stupid instantaneous. While I can, on occasion, ignore insta-love if the book is pretty exceptional, most of the time and especially when the writing is just <i>okay</i>, it becomes just another frustration while reading. The characters never really had any significant development and often times felt placed into the story to be useful in some manner or another to the main character. And I’m sorry, but when such little effort is put into supporting characters, the book suffers for it.

Maybe this one just isn’t for me, but overall I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy it.

I enjoyed this book because of all the mystery and family secrets as well as the magical and paranormal parts. I really liked Alexa because of how strong she is even with all these secrets and changes going on, she still manages to keep herself together and not fall to shit. The fact that she has a dark backstory makes her all the more intriguing. The romance between Alexa and Roman I could do without because it's just so predictable. Also, the whole "Cuz" thing whenever the cousins are talking to each other was kind of annoying, but then again, the characters are teenagers so I guess. Lastly, just warning you that this has a cliffhanger ending which irritated me. This book left me with so many more questions than answers. Just when I was excited to learn more about Alexa's powers, family history and Aurandia, the book ends and I have to wait until the next one comes out to find out what happens.

This is a tough one to rate and review. I’ve reworked this review a couple of times… here’s my best shot at reviewing...

During the first 30% of this book I was engaged with a number of things. I like the charity work our main gal does, love her siblings, was intrigued by some magic and overall felt like maybe there was something here. That was before I read for the fifth time (the author even tells you how many times they’ve shown up in case you lost count) about the crows. I get when you want to portray an ominous coming event, or that something is happening but crows showing up everywhere is just plain boring. The foreshadowing throughout this whole book is poor. You’ll get a foreshadow maybe ten pages ahead of the reveal. I think there should have been subtle little foreshadows all throughout the first 200 pages leading up to the larger reveals. Additionally by the 30% mark it had been established that all the boys loved her and there were no women anywhere in this town... ugh.

Ultimately Piercing the Veil suffers from trying to do too many things at once. In this story we have fantastical creatures, magic, talents (like magic but not quite the same), unknown places, scientific analysis, abusive events, multiple romantic love interests, dark family secrets, orphans AND a coming of age main character. Now you can take two, maybe three things off that list and do them well in a novel but you don't need all of them (at least not in a series introduction).

It felt like Nicole L. Taylor (to be fair she's a new author) wanted to tackle everything in 300+ pages. I would have removed a couple of things out of this immediately including; the unnecessary multiple men chasing our lead gal (at least one of them could be a female friend), the science (it’s a fantasy book not a science fiction book), and have limited the amount of fantastical creatures or references to other creatures significantly. I’d have focused more on our gal’s abusive past (this was barely scratched at and had no depth emotionally) and her desire to get away now that she’s graduated college. Then I'd have had all these crazy things start happening around her (and not just crows). Just because the world has gone a little crazy shouldn’t have take away from her ultimate goal which is to go somewhere and do something, and yet that completely fell off the map by the halfway point (if not sooner). I'd also completely eliminate the prologue as at no time is it even remotely relevant, helpful or does it link back to the story in a way that adds value. Additionally there is never any veil mentioned at all throughout the story and I can't figure out what the title is meant to represent. We also never have mention of a Crusader (and yet that is the series title). It's like someone changed some key wording and forgot to apply it to all aspects of the novel.

It’s disappointing for me because there’s a good story in here somewhere and the writing itself is pretty good, it just needs some help to get rid of the clichés, tighten-up overall writing, better foreshadowing and a real ending!

I wanted to give this book 3 stars for a good effort but I can honestly say that had I been reading it over the course of a week I probably would have DNF’d it and given up (thus giving it one star). I think the saddest part for me is that even though the ending was literally in the middle of the climax I don’t think I’ll read book 2. I just don’t care what happens to our lead gal (maybe her brothers, but not her).

Parts of this story I became lost and confused as there were so many characters to keep track of. The veiled family history, combines to make the story be part romance, part thriller, and part fantasy. It didn't keep me engaged and I just couldn't stay with it

Firstly, I didn't particularly like this book. Yet it showed huge potential. I didn't think it went anywhere, nothing really happened, no character development. And yet... I found myself finishing it. I liked the character s even though they didn't grow, I liked the plotline - what little of it there was. It was gripping enough to make me want to know how it ended. I hated the ending, it ended too quickly in my opinion. Will there be another? I should hope so!!

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It was a good story. I like the parallel worlds/Ireland/Merlin mythology. I thought the story moved along rather quickly, which is good. However, there is forbidden love, that isn't really forbidden because no one comes out and says "No, you can't date." The main character is an eighteen year old college graduate who lets her grandmother ground her. Is it the lack of money if she leaves? Nothing was explained. I know that at 18 if someone tried to ground me I would've been out the door.

I am looking forward to reading the next book.

DNF 50%.
Look don't get me wrong it's an all right book but thats just it.... It's alright. Nothing in this book was really new or original. It honestly felt like every other fantasy book in present time.
Beautiful girl with astonishing powers + hot male lead + falling in love for no real reason = this book.
Basically I was bored so I stopped reading.

It’s the little things that matter.

Piercing the Veil has a classic plot: a coming-of-age Lost Princess, complete with family secrets, mysterious powers, and a forbidden first romance. Nicole L. Taylor wraps all of this together with a pinch of darkness and some serious geeking out over Shakespeare. When the plot got going, I was happy to be swept along for the ride.

Unfortunately, it’s the little things that matter. Things like the inconsistent italicisation of pop culture references, or the misspelling of –esque as –esk. The devoted and overprotective grandmother okaying her 15-year-old granddaughter going on a date with a 20-year-old. The refusal of the main character to accept magic, when she and her cousins are already telepathic and she’s an empathetic mindreader. The love triangle I saw from a mile off, which I thought had been killed off nicely but appeared to rear its ugly head afterwards. The overly-analytical first-person narrator who was so self-aware it jarred me out of my suspension of disbelief. The excessively ornate turn of phrase, stilted dialogue, and constant telling, not showing.

This is a debut novel and it shows. It’s an original twist on some classic tropes, but it’s dressed for prom on the first day of school. It ends on a semi-cliff-hanger and I want to know what happens next, as long as Ms. Taylor leaves the purple prose at home.

An adventure from the first page. This story of magic and romance is spellbinding. It sucks you in and keeps you enthralled till the end.
It almost seems like a mystery to find out what everyone is hiding and who is on which side. It makes the story that much more intriguing.

A great supernatural, suspenseful novel for young adults. This novel will keep you turning the pages and wondering what will happen next!

I really enjoyed reading this book! Alexa and her family are a very different bunch of characters that I have not read about before, and her romance with Roman made my heart very happy.

This story is about 18 year old college graduate Alexa, her brother Serge, and Cousins James and Natasha who all can communicate telepathically. The children all live with their grandmother, who is very strict and dictates their every move. One day, the grandmother says that they're going to have a visitor for the summer which they all think is weird because in the past, they were never aloud to meet their grandmothers guests.

When Roman and his uncle Leo come to visit, Alexa is head over heels for Roman from the moment she sees him, and their relationship blossoms beautifully while everyone is trying to figure out what is going on with Alexa after she develops telekinesis and more powers that she doesn't quite understand. With the help of her brother,her cousins, her friend Mike and Roman, they set out to figure out the truth behind all of their grandmothers secrets.

I gave this a 4 out of 5 stars simply because it was rather hard for me to get hooked on, but once I did I could not stop reading. It can be a little slow in some parts, but the characters and plot are really interesting and I will definitely be recommending this book to the handful of friends I have that also love reading!

Fairly engaging, although somewhat predictable in places. Good escapism though and the characters are well developed and sympathetic. Not something I'd read again but still enjoyable enough.

this book is a little dark, perhpas gothic? still was interesting and wonderful book to read

This review was very difficult for me to write. The most frustrating thing about this book was that it has SERIOUS potential. I could see this as easily being a hit -- one of those *ohmigoshIcan'twaitforthenextone* books. The author has an undeniable talent for writing.

I normally read the sample on Amazon before agreeing to read the entire book. I ignored my rule this time because after reading only the first few pages of the prologue, I was hooked. My excitement at possibly finding an awesome new series blurred the memory of the previous times I'd been burned. That was my mistake. Lesson learned.

The prologue is absolutely beautifully written with enticing descriptions, lots of action, mystery, and suspense. Coming from someone who typically hates prologues -- that's really high praise. However, the tone of the rest of the book is VERY different from the prologue. It almost felt like it was written by someone else and belonged to a different book.

While the content of the prologue was somewhat dark, the rest of the book was almost bubblegummy in comparison. That edgy darkness just wasn't there. That would have been fine, but it felt a little like a bait and switch. Prologue aside... the book was riddled with problems. By the time I finished it, I was downright pissed off -- and not in a good way (i.e. because the next book isn't out yet).

Within the first couple of chapters, I wanted to bitch-slap the main character, Alexa Moore. A guy in a store flirts with her a little bit and after she makes him run around collecting her hard-to-find items, he asks her out for coffee. Instead of a polite "no thanks" and moving on, she blows up at him and comes across as this moody bitch with a stick up her ass. The author makes pains throughout the book to point out how the main character is so beautiful, giving, and thoughtful -- even donating her time to the less fortunate -- but her actions and dialogue gave me the impression that she was an annoying, angsty, self-absorbed bitch.

I could have gotten past all of that, but there were some serious mechanical issues in the book that should have been addressed. A lot of these things should have been caught by the content editor. There were numerous problems with the author's timeline (to the point that I wanted to stop and email her a calendar). In addition, the prose in the beginning of the book was meandering, redundant, and repetitive. It evened out after a while, but the beginning was somewhat confusing with an influx of character names that were very similar (Mike/Mark).

The supporting characters weren't very well-developed or memorable... to the point that I stopped bothering to try and remember which one was the brother or the cousin. There just wasn't anything noteworthy about their personalities and they seemed to have no real bearing on the plot.

Then one of my biggest pet peeves made an appearance...

Please, for the sake of God's little green apples... stupid misunderstandings should NOT be used as a major relationship plot device. This happened not once, not twice... BUT THREE TIMES! It got to the point that I was hoping that the evil baddie would make a sudden appearance and put one or both of these characters out of their misery.

No such luck.

Putting that aside (because it's a personal preference), I finished reading...and then shook my head.

The story ended with the hint of a cliffhanger (no satisfying ending) -- no huge build up, no big climax... it just fizzled and was stamped with a big "To Be Continued...".

Not only that, but the ending also had major issues because the character's reactions didn't make any sense (given the secrecy through the entire freaking book). Their seeming acceptance of everything just made me shake my head and wonder if the characters had jumped trains mid-read. Without giving away any spoilers, I can't go into more detail.... but let me tell you, it was really frustrating and anticlimactic.

If the author reads this, I hope she doesn't take this review as overly harsh criticism. She does have a lot of talent and I think her writing will undeniably improve as she continues to hone her craft. I honestly think she should consider taking this book off-market, hire a good content editor to identify all these issues, fix them and tighten up the writing, and then resubmit it. The storyline is fairly typical for the genre (nothing groundbreaking), but the series has the potential to be a real hit if she expands on the world-building and fixes the problems.

Overall, I just can't recommend this book or series in its current condition. With revisions though...I think this book could easily be a 4 or 5 stars.

I was blessed enough to be able to download a free ebook copy of the book via Netgally's "Read Now" option(Meaning that I didn't have to be approved by the publisher first) in exchange for my honest review of the book which is as follows:

I liked the characters a lot especially the main character however the magic/the mechanics of how it works really threw me off when it came to trying to figure out the storyline.

I have a love hate relationship with the love story angle of the book(I can't really explain why without giving away plot points that might give away the whole book). Overall I personally rate this book a 4 and half out of 10.

I had no idea this was already out when I requested this from Netgalley but I was given it in exchange for an honest review.

I liked this. It was a nice edition to the YA genre (mages instead of vampires, zombies, et al) and it was a quick read. While most of the story goes along quickly I feel like something was missing at the end that didn't wrap up the events of the book (my fault if this is part of a series) and left a whole host of unanswered questions in regards to the mystery surrounding a few characters but nonetheless this is a solid and well written debut.