Here’s the thing. Obviously scary things don’t scare me. I can watch horror movies and not really flinch. In order to have me freaked out, things can’t be obvious.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer had me freaked out. Mara isn’t the most reliable of narrators, even though I knew she wasn’t crazy. She’s still a little bit unstable at times. And I loved that. It makes everything just a little bit unknown. I knew she was telling the truth, but I also knew she didn’t know the whole truth. When things in the novel started to change, I was getting freaked out.

In The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, I felt like the balance between paranormal and romance was off. There was too much romance and not enough paranormal. The Evolution of Mara Dyer found the balance. There’s enough of Noah Shaw being romantic to keep me swooning and smiling, but there was more than enough paranormal to keep me turning page after page.

Noah Shaw was another issue I had with Unbecoming. He was too perfect. Tall, British, rich…it was just a little too much. His perfect exterior started to crack, though, in Evolution. He’s still the same tall, British, rich boy, but his imperfections are starting to break through. They are making me love him a little bit more each time I see one.

Mara. I like her. She does what she has to in order to keep fighting. She doesn’t wait for the guy to swoop in and save her. She knows when to take things on herself and when she needs help, but she does things for herself. She may not always trust what she sees or hears, but she trusts herself to do what she needs to. I wish there had been a bit more explanation of her powers and what in the world is going on, but I get why that wasn’t in this book. And I can’t wait to read it in the next one.

After being a little let down with The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, I didn’t want to expect too much out of The Evolution of Mara Dyer. Hodkin wrote a book I was not expecting, even a little bit. It has that creep factor that had me on edge. It has that sweet teen romance that makes me smile. It has everything I like to read in a book and then just a little more. I’m riveted and after the ending of The Evolution of Mara Dyer, I need 2013 and The Retribution of Mara Dyer to get here now.