Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't usually go for teen/YA books, but this one had (I thought) an interesting setting and characters that could have made it go to the next level, as in being a decent read for anyone. Okay, it did have cool elements. BUT...the heroine, exchange student Sam. Like, OMG, you guys, she totally is so desperate for male attention. She will DIE if he doesn't say she's pretty. "Really? You think I'm pretty?" Tee hee. She lies to go meet a strange boy in a strange country. She pines for him even when he's inexplicablly distant and angry and ditches her at a pub (but OMG, you guys, she totally didn't even get carded!). The cool premise, of a family suffering a 270-year-old curse of bleak, cold immortality takes a back seat to the young heroine's dithering over, "Should I call him? No, he should call ME!" and her sudden blinding belief that she is in love. As far as I know, she doesn't know the guy's last name and she met him him maybe a week or two ago. Girls, listen up. That is NOT love. That's INFATUATION. Do NOT go and change your lives because you develop intense feelings for a boy over the summer. OMG! Those will totally fade. Seriously. Some rather cursory descriptions of local landmarks and history are thrown in, more as filler. The mystery, the curse, the history are elaborated on somewhat, but...the story never leads up the the fascinating potential of the first chapter. So. I realize this girl is 17 and hasn't yet kissed a boy. But can girls REALLY not think of anything except how being near that special boy makes their no-no area warm up? Even with a huge supernatural event going on, and danger, and, y'know, stuff like that. The other issue is the same I have with Edward Cullen. This 19-year-old boy is really a 289-year-old man. Has he learned nothing in almost 3 centuries? Matured at all? Why does hanging around an immature high school girl appeal to him? Would you want hang around high schoolers if you were 300 years old? I sure as hell wouldn't. To sum up...teen love story, typical teen angst, backgound circumstances that could have been amazing if Sam had been able to think beyond buying a suede minskirt to impress a boy and hoping he will kiss her. Two stars because, while the description of the book made me want to read it, the execution of characters and plot are a big disappointment. Unless you're 13 or so. Then it might be, like, pretty cool, I guess, y'know. Whatev.