[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy of this book in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]This book is a solid ‘meh’ for me. There were some things I thought were really awesome and some things that weren’t so awesome. So first I’ll talk about the awesome things.I loved how Intrinsical sounds pretty much like your typical YA novel from the blurb but Lani Woodland completely deviates from the usual formula. Yes, there’s romance and ghosts but there are so many plot twists you won’t be able to predict the ending. One of the strengths of Lani Woodland’s writing is definitely her ability to plot a novel so that you’re not really sure what’s going to happen next but you’re very, very eager to find out. I didn’t really have the urge to put this book down until I was actually done.One of the ‘meh’ things was that Woodland’s voice seemed far too sophisticated for a sixteen-year-old, even one going to an elite private high school. It was just too mature, too descriptive compared to Yara’s actions. It’s a shocking contrast to hear Yara thinking like a thirty year old woman but acting like a three year old when she throws her temper tantrums. Some authors can pull this off but this was one of the things that distracted me from the admittedly great story.The characters were okay, aside from the voice-action contrast I mentioned. Yara is interesting in that she denies her heritage before finally embracing it fully. Brent is interesting in that he’s not a typical male lead because he’s not constantly trying to make out with Yara. He’s actually quite shy about the whole romance thing, which is a refreshing change from your typical bad boy type of love interest. They’re both well fleshed out characters so I can’t really complain about that.Essentially, Intrinsical is a good book and I’d recommend it to some people. But be prepared for the voice-action dissonance in Yara making this book go from a ‘good’ to a ‘meh’.I give this book 3/5 stars. This book was fantastic. No need for the usual build up this time around for the review, it was just fantastic! As soon as the book was started, I was hooked. It was a fun, creepy, edge-of-your-seat, thrilling, ghost (perhaps) story that also happened to show strong friendships, love, family ties, and so much more. I didn’t want to put it down for even a second waiting to know what would happen next. When I got to the end, I was just so glad it was the first of a trilogy because I wasn’t ready to let the story go just yet.I won’t give anything away at all about the story because I think when you read what the story is about in the book description you get enough and adding too much more might give things away and that’s not the point of a review! Not this type of review anyway so I won’t do it! You won’t get any spoilers out of me no matter how hard you try! However, I will add that the author does an amazing job making the characters likeable that should be liked and the opposite for the opposite, describes the scenery or the scenes in the book so well you can easily see it in your own mind, and doesn’t make it easy to guess what’s going to happen constantly. You might guess some of it, but you might find yourself wrong on some of it as well. It’s fun to try to get it right though!This book is just a really great start of a trilogy I can’t wait to read more of. As soon as I finished this one, I went and bought the second one. When I started it I wasn’t really planning to like it this much (sorry author person!!) but I like to read things with words and you never know, so I started it and couldn’t put it down! I really loved it and so this review was born and now I end it with a thank you to the author for writing something I couldn’t stop reading and thank anyone who actually read this far in this too long review! Now, consider reading this book if you will. It’s… well, it’s fantastic!
