Book Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia
Series: The Legion #1
Young Adult, Paranormal, Supernatural, 
Publication Date: Oct 1st 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 320 pages  
Source: Bought
Amazon | Goodreads | Website

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon — a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother’s place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon — battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.

Suspense, romance, and the paranormal meet in this chilling urban fantasy, the first book in a new series from Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels.

OPENING SENTENCE:

"As my bare feet sank into the wet earth, I tried not to think about the dead bodies buried beneath me."

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia is an action packed story with tons of supernatural elements: we're talking ghosts, vengeful spirits and demons. Unbreakable takes you down a dark and atmospheric path that leads to some ultra creepy settings you won't soon forget!

THE SETTING AND SUMMARY

Unbreakable takes us on an action packed ride, and leads us to a world where a secret society known as The Legion of the Black Dove exists to destroy and hunt ghosts. It’s a world of secrets, symbols, codes, and demons exists. A world where the supernatural exists beside our own. Kennedy has just lost her mother, and now almost loses her life to a vengeful spirit before she is saved by the Lockhart brothers. Kennedy soon learns that she may be a missing member to the Legion.

As members of the Legion of the Black Dove, each of the five teen characters in Unbreakable have different and unique abilities they use to fight the Ghosts, Demons and other supernatural entities they hunt. These abilities have been passed down from the original Legion members, abilities that take an alternative form in our teens, but are originated with- symbology, weaponry, alchemy, mathematics, and engineering. It's important that the group works together as a team to balance each others strengths and weakness. And Kennedy just might be the missing key to this family of misfit teens who have banned together in order to fight demons, and who need each other in order to survive.

CHARACTERS

Kennedy Waters has just lost her mother, and almost her life on the night a ghosts tries to kill her. Her life is forever changed when she is rescued by the Lockhart brothers and introduced to the a dark world of the supernatural, one that she never believed existed, and Legion, a group of ghosts hunters. It took me awhile to warm up to Kennedy’s character. At first she comes off scared, weak and argumentative, but as the story progresses and she starts interacting with the other Legion teens, I really liked the changes in her. She becomes a team player trying to find her place within the groups dynamic, to belong and does her fair share of fighting to protect them in her own unique way.

"I was a girl whose mother was taken from her by something supernatural. And something evil."

The Lockhart Brothers are identical twins, both handsome and tall, and members of the Legion, but their personalities are as different as night and day.  Both have come to save Kennedy, and both want to protect her.

Lukas Lockhart is sweet, affectionate, and loves to tease Kennedy (and others), who cares about her. I found Lukas character really interesting, as a member of the Legion, he has inherited some pretty cool gifts that enable him to zero in on the supernatural, but at the same time, he has this playful attitude about him that I really liked.

Jared Lockhart has a dark and intense personality.  The reluctant hero who has been hurt before, who keeps a protective wall around him- until he saves Kennedy.  I liked Jared's character, he's tough and not afraid to take down a demon, but when he's around Kennedy, a sweet and almost shy side comes out.

Alara is both gorgeous and bad-ass when it comes hunting the supernatural. I really liked her character and the refreshing change of a second lead female character with so much potential. At first, Alara comes off as being jealous and into herself, but it soon becomes clear that’s not the case, and this is one friend you want on your side and watching your back, especially when demons and ugly spirits are around.

Priest is the youngest member in the group, and has this cute, boyish charm while at the same time he’s such a brainiac.I couldn’t wait to see what kind of cool gadgets and riddle solving he’d come up with next, and his sweet personality made it so easy to like him, while wanting to protect him from harm.

THE ROMANCE

The romance involves both Lockhart boys to some extent, and I could easily understand Kennedy being drawn to both since they are both such polar opposites. They are light and dark in personality, and you don’t want either to get hurt. I will say one brother seems to have Kennedy’s attention more that the other at this point, this could change, but I hope not.

THE SWOON LEVEL: Crush

THE SWOON QUOTE

"All I want to do is be near you.  He spoke the words slowly, his face so close I could feel his breath on my skin and smell the on his.  "Kennedy, what do you want?"                                                                                                    

"I want to matter. I want to be the kind of girl someone can't just walk away from and forget.  

He ran his thumb down the center of my bottom lip. "No one could ever forget you."

WHAT I LIKED

Unbreakable has some amazing scenes in it that makes you feel as if you are right there in the presence (creepy) of the vengeful spirits, ghosts, and/or demons. The closer the Legion gets to destroying the vengeful demon, the scarier the details are and heart-pounding tension there was. Unbreakable definitely had some “scare the crap out of you” scenes that I loved.

WHAT I WOULD HAVE LIKE

The story in Unbreakable has so much potential with these really cool young adult characters but fell a bit short in character development for me.  I wanted to know much more about them, their capabilities, and their families histories relating to the Legion of the Black Dove.

RECOMMENDED FOR

Readers who enjoy reading paranormals filled with spine tingling suspense, horror and romance. Fans of the tv show Supernatural will feel right at home with Unbreakable's  Lockhart brothers, it's fantastic and chilling settings, plus all the cool gadgets and codes it has to offer. This was my first book by Kami Garcia, and I'm so glad I picked this one up. I can't wait to see where she takes this story next, and getting to know more about these fascinating teens and the paranormal world around them.

MY RATING: 4 Stars. I really liked it!