Devour (Devoured)

I was reminded of Samantha Young's book Blood Will Tell (Warriors of Ankh #1) in that something inherently "evil" was struggling against its nature to behave "good". And just like Warriors of Ankh, this book is beyond enthralling. After discovering it as a kindle new release, I downloaded it and read it in one day. It really was too good to put down. Eli is a Devourer, an evil creature that lives/feeds off of the bad emotions of humans such as terror and jealousy, but years ago he turned from his wicked ways and does not hurt the humans. Clara Bell is an orphan whose boyfriend is kind to her but she doesn't love him. When she meets Eli, she finds an instant attraction to him that she unsuccessfully tries to weaken by paying more attention to her boyfriend. But then her possessive boyfriend starts behaving badly and she finds herself in danger not only from his persistent attentions, but from Eli's family members who don't approve of his straight and narrow lifestyle. I have to admit this story reminded me a lot of Twilight with Vampire Edward trying to deny his evil bloodthirsty heritage and Eli trying to overcome his evil tendencies for the love of a human. I liked Twilight so that doesn't bother me. I loved reading this story and despite the similarities, the plot was original and absorbing. The bad editing was definitely distracting because there were many words omitted and many sentences that would say (for example) "wouldn't" instead of "would" and you would have to go back to make the paragraph make sense. I do not take off stars for editing, just informing those who get bugged by this. I will definitely purchase the next in this series called Consume in the spring of 2012 when it comes out and recommend the Significance (A Significance Novel) series, also by Shelly Crane for anyone who has not read it yet. Would I/Did I buy it? Yes (.99) Would I read it again? Yes Would I recommend it to friends? Yes

"You saved me from my life." Clara Hopkins has it all. A popular wrestling star boyfriend, popular friends, and a normal life.The only rip? Her parents are dead and she's now living with her Pastor's family. But her life is still pretty good. Or so she thought. Eli Thames is about to turn her life upside down. Eli is sweet, protective, charming and gorgeous. With those starling violet eyes and beautiful smile Clara as well as every other girl can't keep their eyes away from him. He devours their attention and Consumes Clara's every thought. But Eli is much more then meets the eyes, as Clara is about to find out. As Clara and Eli start to spend time together she starts to realize that her life has been a lie. Her boyfriend is acting strange and her friends aren't the type of friends a person should have. Clara's eyes are finally opening. Thanks to Eli. But Eli has a secret and Clara is prone on figuring it out. When she finally does, everything she's ever known would never be the same. She finally grows the courage to part from the lie she's been living and finally be free. But freedom comes with a price. A price she is willing to pay, with Eli by her side. He's her protector, her friend, the guy she loves, but most of all her "mate". Together they stand to fight off the evil in both their lives. I have to say that I enjoyed this story. There were times when things dragged and Clara had me wanting to strangle her but at the end she made up for it. This story was not only about love for each other but about love for yourself. Finding the courage to love yourself enough to walk away from the poison in your life. Clara really blossomed in this book and it was refreshing to not have to read an entire book of her being stupid.Eli was also incredible in his way. He was very protective of Clara and loving but also very stern and direct with her. I loved that about him. The title plays honor to the book. You will devour this book! and want more to Consume more! If you haven't read this, pick it up! [...]

Although it was a fast read, it would have been faster had I not had to stop at all the grammatical errors, misspelled or misapplied words (immoral for immortal etc, etc), very awkward sentence structure and inappropriate use of words. I have never before read of someone matriculating their footsteps! PLEASE, either hire a proof reader for your editor or hire a better editor because the one you are using is either incompetent or just plain careless!!!! I liked the plot of the story and the characters. A Devourer is a demon who feeds off of negative emotions (lust, anger, sadness, hate) coming from feelers (humans). Eli chooses to run away from his kind and meets Clara Bell (could you not find a better name then Howdy Doody's clown? Since a man always played Clarabelle it gave me the creeps!) a high school senior. Here is where the book began to resemble Twilight a bit too much: Eli's sister and brother are not thrilled with him hanging out with a human, the humans are not to know that Devourers exist or they are executed, the Horde are hunters of traitors and feelers Eli and Clara Bell become mated and bonded even though both are still virgins. I felt that Ms Crane missed her chance to do a bit more exploring on the theme that high school is not that big a part of your life, that running with the popular crowd does not make you a good person and just going along to get along can hurt you in the end. The writing could have been so much better since I know from her other series she has the talent. Maybe a better editor could help Ms Crane elevate her craft. I am going to continue on with the second book because I think the author is worth my time.....

As the first novel in the Devour series I have to admit it was good. It developed to unfold a unique story line with your usual characters. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the story influences and changes the characters. There are only a few things I couldn't get past. The constant spelling mistakes which now was meant to be not. Those types of mistakes makes it confusing as to whether you are making the character say the wrong thing or not. But it was evident after a while these were just mistakes in the novel. Secondly, I'm a little tired of reading about a main female character that cries all the time and is portrayed as weak. Hopefully that changes in the next book.

Zunächst muss ich einmal sagen, dass ich ein ziemlich großer Fan von Shelly Crane's Büchern bin. Ihre Significance- und Collide-Reihe ist sehr schön und man kann kaum diese Bücher aus der Hand legen. Mit Devour verhält sich das Ganze etwas anders. Mich konnte dieses Buch einfach nicht so fesseln wie ihre anderen, was wahrscheinlich auch an den beiden Protagonisten liegen mag, da der Schreibstil wieder einmal sehr schön war. Ich finde die Charaktere irgendwie zu flach und sie sprechen mich auch nicht so wirklich an und die Handlung ist auch sehr schleppend. Nichtsdestotrotz ist es aber trotzdem ein gutes Buch für einen gemütlichen Sonntag,bei dem man nicht zu viel nachdenken muss und einfach die Geschichte genießen kann, wenn einem das oben Kritisierte nichts ausmacht. Außerdem denke ich, dass ich mit meiner Meinung ziemlich allein dastehe, da nach Goodreads viele das Buch sehr zu mögen scheinen. Jedoch muss ich noch vorher eine kurze Warnung aussprechen: Wer sich die Bücher von Shelly Crane kauft, muss mit vielen Rechtschreibfehlern rechnen, die ziemlich störend wirken können, wenn man sehr viel Wert darauf legt. Denn auch wenn Englisch nicht meine Muttersprache ist, sind mir auf fast jeder Seite einfach sehr viele Fehler ins Auge gesprungen, die es manchmal einem sehr schwer machten, den Satz zu verstehen.

I kept reading this book until the end hoping it would improve. I gave it one star because I could not submit my review with my real choice of none. The only aspect I did like was the main character finally left her group of friends... petty, shallow, self-entitled bullies. Mind you, it took a paranormal stranger to make the social jump, so it didn't say much for Clara's character. The characters were too stereotypical. The writing style had me wondering more than once if this had been written by a young teen. I read the entire book hoping it would improve. The editing is lacking throughout. Glaring errors made a shallow, very predictable story worse. Simply put, the main character is as shallow as her mean friends. She does not actively participate in their cruel stunts. By virtue of sticking with this group regardless until the instant romance/attraction with Eli makes for an empty main character I could not empathize with. The ending was so uneventful it was as if the author got bored and ended mid-page. Certainly nothing to entice me to continue with the series. This was my first experience reading a Shelley Crane novel. I'd be hard-pressed to pick up another based on this read. With apologies to Shelly Crane, some of your fans expressed you have written other great stuff. I wish I had read those instead.

A great book that i loved! You lrean what you need to know at a nice pace. Not a pace that would bore you to death, or a breakneck speed, so you understand and appreciate the plot and how things develop. This book has action, romance and what you need to read a great book. Like the title of my review says, i'm so glad i bought it!

Bueno