Book Review - The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, Holly Black

Here's my review of . . . 

The Coldest Girl in Cold Town, by Holly Black

                                                                               

                                                                                    Insight into the book from GOODREADS:

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

  Let me start by saying, I haven't read a good vampire book in a very long time.  The last vampire book I read was Vampire Academy, and I didn't really like it.  So I was somewhat wary of purchasing this.

  More about the book . . . 

  Vampires have come out of hiding, showing themselves and scaring humans - no, turning humans 'cold.'  Vampires and infected people who are now "cold," are put in Coldtowns, a place for them to stay where they can't infect more humans.  

  The story begins when Tana wakes up at a party, only to find to her horror, that everyone is dead except for her ex-boyfriend (Aiden) who's been infected.  She barely flees with her life, and rescues Aiden and a mysterious vampire, before their killed with her by the vampires whom killed her friends.  However, as they were escaping, Tana was bit by a vampire, and doesn't know if she's going to go cold.  Frantically, Tana, the mysterious vampire Gavirel, Aiden, and two people they made acquaintances with on the way, head to the nearest Cold town.

  I can't say anything else without giving spoilers, but this book had its ups and downs.  The first few chapters were amazing, and I was thinking that if Holly keeps this up, then this book will  be one of my favorites.  Sadly though, she didn't keep it up.  Once Tana, Aiden, and Gavirel got away from the vampires pursuing them at the party, the book got somewhat boring.  It picked up slightly once they arrived in Coldtown, and was pretty interesting.  After that however, I found myself super-duper tempted to skim, and I think I did a little bit.

  I loved Tana.  She's a great character.  Smart, funny, kick-ass, and really caring.  I didn't care for Aiden at all really.  As for Gavirel . . . Him and Tana's romance throughout the book wasn't well thought out.  I didn't see any real chemistry between them whatsoever.  (SPOILER) in the part when Gavirel randomly starts kissing Tana, I sat there with a frown thinking, where the heck did that come from?  Don't get me wrong, I found Gavriel really intriguing, as Tana did too obviously ;)  But I didn't feel a real connection between the two.

  All in all, I really enjoyed this book.  The story and setting Holly created was great, exciting plot twists, interesting characters, and a great vampire premise. 
  What did you think of this book?