Gillie has a rare gift of healing. She spent twelve years incarcerated at The Foundation, a place that experiments on humans. Sometimes she wishes she were dead. It wouldn't be so bad if she had some control when she uses her gift, but The Foundation took that from her. T-89 'Taye' is also incarcerated at The Foundation, and his gift is to manipulate energy. He uses his gift to help them and other patients escape. Now, Taye will do everything within his power to keep Gillie safe. The Foundation wants them back though, at any cost. They hire mercenaries to get them back, but Gillie and Taye stay on the run for months. Mockingbird, the leader of a group of previous patients, wants Gillie and Taye to join him on his mission to destroy The Foundation for good. Gillie and Taye don't want to do that because they will have to split up.Eventually though, they decide to join Mockingbird, and they both go their separate ways even though they love one another. Taye will do whatever it takes to keep Gillie safe, even if it means staying away from her. He is dying, and he knows that she can heal him, but if she does, she will take his pain into her own body. He will do anything to keep from hurting her.SKIN DIVE is a thrilling paranormal jaunt that is brimming with romance, action and thrilling suspense. The bond between Gillie and Tay grows during their journey, and their chemistry absolutely sizzles. SKIN DIVE can be read as a standalone, but you won't want to miss the other two books in this series, SKIN TIGHT and SKIN HEAT. Ava Gray's 'Skin' series is a must read for fans of an alternate paranormal romance. Instead of vampires, witches and the like, we have humans with extra abilities, kinda like Heroes or the X Men. What made the series stand out though, was the fact that Gray didn't try to recreate Heroes or the Xmen, but rather show the lives of these special people and how they intersect with normal humans and the backstory of how they came to be that way. Now as the series devoloped, I understood that eventually it would become more detailed in the paranormal action, however I think it was executed poorly in the book and made for a mind numbing read.Let me clarify that I love anything sci-fi/paranormal/action whether in books or in movies. I think that when it gets mixed in with romance though, things can get tricky. I loved how the book started out, then by midway to the end, it sorta went downhill from there. My main issues with Skin Dive are : 1. Gillie. After reading about Gillie in previous books, I had conjured up an image of a very precious, very strong and innocent girl. In this book, IMO, her innocence came across as naivetee, and her strength as being whiny. There is a scene towards the end, where Taye is grovelling to Gillie and he sends her every day a stuffed animal to make up for the one's Rowan took away from her on her 16th birthday. This reflects the issues I have with Gillie's characterization. On one hand she wants to be the dirty talking sexy girl but yet she still pined for her stuffed toys. The other issue I had with her, was WHY she was mad at Taye. For the most part he was trying to protect her knowing that he was dying and KNOWING that she would try to find a way to heal him (and that can hurt HER). I don't like the way he did it, but Gillie overreacted and came across as being spoiled and whiny. I mean Taye is sacrificing for her (joining the Mocking Birds etc) and all she can think is 'He's treating me like a child'. It's because you act like one ma'am. 2. The new 'team' - Ok- I'm not a bird enthusiast, and I was irritated by the Crow/Gull/Hawk yadda yadda yadda. That would translate better in a movie than reading. I had to think to myself 'wait, was that Silas?' 3. The action scenes were boring to me and I had to force myself to read them. But that deficiency could be with me, and not the author :) What I did like though, was the fact that we got to see the mastermind behind 'the Resistance' against the Foundation. I sorta wished we got some cameos from old characters.It's a definite must read for fans of the series though!
What do You think about Skin Dive (2000)?
what a tough read. I liked the book, but could put it down and I was happen to get to the end.
—Tier
Ugh, overwrought and too thin. Ok as an action flick, but I had higher expectations.
—emily
