Doon

Ever since I first heard that Zonderkidz or Zondervan Teen was branching off with it's own new imprint known as Blink YA Books I have been intrigued. Every once in a while I still really enjoy a good teen read, or young adult read even though I'm beyond that age range and it will be a decade and some before my daughters are ready for them. When I was looking through a digital catalog and saw the cover and then description for Doon I just knew I had to read it, and boy am I ever delighted that I have gone on this adventure with Veronica and MacKenna.

Doon is co-authored which gives it a flare to the personality and the characters, although I do not know exactly how they broke it up to write it I think they did a really nice job in the end. Overall the story is enchanting. Vivid descriptions and details to go with the amazing book cover image are through out as our duo is taken from the American state of Indiana to the Scottish countryside.

Our two main characters are very different and amazing in each their own rights. From the book cover of [b:Destined for Doon|18866743|Destined for Doon (Doon, #2)|Carey Corp|/assets/nocover/60x80.png|26859243] I'm going to assume that the story with continue with more details for MacKenna's journey, but I'm not certain.

This is a romance, an adventure, and a teen or young adult read. While early on I was thinking that any teen could read it as I got further I would recommend that it be a mature teen. As there are phrases or relative terms that not all early or sheltered teens might be ready for. Overall to my opinion it's as harmless as a PG-13 movie might be with a little fear and maybe (to some opinions) a little language or imagery (ever had the gone to school naked type dream - mentions)through out that a parent just might need to make the judgement call on.

However this book is about fitting in and finding your place. While I have never seen the stage show Brigadoon, I'm definitely enchanted and curious about this land and it's people. Veronica comes from a difficult background that many kids will be able to relate to. MacKenna is the bizarre one and theatrical to boot. I think that no matter the reader, they might find themselves in one of our heroines.

The storytelling is fun and elegant at the same time, and my goodness you've gotta love the Scottish hotty princes. It's the flavor of the novel and a great start to a series. I'm definitely planning to read more. You may see my four stars, and truly the only reason it didn't rank in the five stars is because I do feel that the bits where maturity are needed could have been left out, but then maybe that will be the bit that captures a certain teen that wouldn't have otherwise gotten the message about the over-protector and destiny. But four stars is still quite grand in my book.

I received this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details.

posted: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2013/12/04/doon/

So... I read it only because of bad reviews being so dang funny.

One thing, though. This is NOT science fiction. The presence of time travel doesn't make it scifi. For a time travel story to be scifi, there must be a scientific reason for it, like a machine or something. Here it's purely magical. Also, there is no time travel here.

This reads like fan fiction. It is very hard to believe that this is actually not self-published, but published by HarperCollins! 8-[
It's worse than Outlander and Twilight. Yeah... it's like fan fiction by someone who really liked Twilight, but didn't like the vampires, but wanted something supernatural, and also like Outlander, and musicals, so she chose Brigadoon, but then also loved these “prince meets an American girl” stories, so let's put that in, too, and then a sprinkling of God, because this is Christian fiction after all - there's no magic, just God and Satan working through people, which makes it OK for the good guys to use witchcraft, because it's obviously not witchcraft, but God.

It starts with the MC, Veronica, seeing her boyfriend snugging with another girl. Her “arch-rival”. She asks him what he's doing and he tells her that Veronica treats him like he was a boy, and he wants more, that she's cold, and that he gets what he wants from the other girl. And MC goes to her car and cries her eyes out, not because her heart is broken, but because HER boyfriend cheated on her, everyone else knew before her, he humiliated her, with her arch-rival! And then she sees this GORGEOUS guy and her former boyfriend is all forgotten. How would I know? Let's say that she loved her ex so much than when this GORGEOUS boy finally kisses her and her best friend asks her if he kisses as well as her former ex, she seriously asks “who?”. TWO MONTHS LATER. So much for her eternal love. No wonder the ex moved on. She obviously cared a lot.

Veronica is one of the most egocentric MCs I've ever read about.
Everything is someone else's fault.
She complains about everyone making decisions for her, but that doesn't stop her from making decisions for others. But that's OK, because it's her and she's doing it for the best of the others.
She assumes a lot, never discuss anything, never asks, never answers any questions, has her tear-jerker stories about her ex, her mother, her father, but doesn't care one bit about anyone else's stories. After all, they can't be as bad as hers. She doesn't seem to care much about her best friend, but as we are told they are best friends, and would do anything for each other, I suppose we better believe it. (To be fair, there IS some best friend behavior and reactions going on. Some. Not consistent.)

I am bothered by how she just snatches the friend's great-aunt's ring and puts it in her finger without even asking her friend, and then everyone just acts as if it was HER ring.

There is a lot of drama queenery here. Someone says or does something totally fine, and the girls get offended and all huff and puff. I don't remember anyone who has been this quick to react negatively, and getting all abusive and aggressive about it. The prince says something funny, but she isn't in the mood, so she is all snarky and mean to him.

And the name calling! The prince doesn't accept her help, so she is so angry she beats a pillow into feathers, and calls him everything between heaven and earth. He's an arrogant pig, a jerk, jerkwad, “a rude, egotistical pig” and “conceited jackwagon”, and a lot more. And then they drool over the princes. “Yes, he's a jerk, but look at those abs!!!”

The magic kingdom is really stupid. It's open to the surrounding “real” world only once every 100 years, but that doesn't stop the kingdom to have been equipped with every modern comfort and nicety. Like fully equipped modern toilets, pizza, sushi, chocolate eclairs and cotton. There's oranges and lemons. (If you don't understand the meaning of this: this is a country with no connection to sea. Now, you can make sushi with salmon, but not without rice. And one cannot grow rice in Scotland. Now, think about all the other things you need for these things. Do cocoa grow in Scotland? How about oranges? Lemons? Maple syrup? Black pepper? And all the things one needs that don't grow in Scotland... you brought in the last batch 100 years ago. Not so fresh... And just imagine the volume of freight needed to bring in enough of these things for 100 years during one day... So, no. Might be a petty little detail for all who don't care, but a lot of people do care, and it would have been so easy to go around it. There's plenty of Scottish food that's delicious. You don't need to feed your American girls American foods, because you can't think of anything else. There's this thing called “research”. Do it.)
The horses work like cars. You can't ride if there's no road. And you just park your carriage in some side street and take your things from the trunk.

And it is full of rather offensive stereotypes. I mean, they are dressed in like Halloweed Scottish outfits all the time, like peasant shirts, skirts and a tartan sash and tam. Also, most Doonians speak some sort of Brogue, when the author remembers to add it, so you have a character saying something like “ye are verra pretty, lass” and “I know you don't” in the same sentence.

The girls are complaining all the time, misinterpretating everything, angry with people for being nice, angry when they are not nice, they complain about everything, except the American food, expect people to read their minds, and when they fail, they get aggressive, even violent.

The author has no knowledge or understanding of most things, she sprinkles facts all over the thing to make it sound credible, but does it so crudely it's painful.

“A flock of birds shot from the canopy of the forest like they were bent on avenging their stolen eggs. Duncan pointed to them. “Crossbills. They're a type of finch.”
If she doesn't know what a crossbill is, why do you assume she knows what a finch is? Besides, finches don't behave like that. But - the author has read that there are crossbills in Scotland, so she puts it in to add some local color.

And the ending... rolling eyes

It also feels like the authors had some sort of checklist there: “add comic relief”, “add feminism”, and then they just ticked these items off their writing list. Totally gratuitous scenes with no other meaning than to “add feminism” or some other such.

I wanted to like this book SO FREAKING BAD, but the writing made me want to vomit. Seriously. It was like a bunch of fifteen year old freshman sat down and wrote the most overly cliched book they could possibly imagine. I'm surprised I made it half way through before I called it quits. Do not recommend whatsoever.