Sweet Unrest Blog Tour: Review

Welcome to my stop on the Sweet Unrest blog tour! Today I'll be sharing my review of the book with you!

Sweet Unrest

Author: Lisa Maxwell

Genre: YA Paranormal

Release Date: October 8, 2014

Publisher: Flux

Description:

Lucy Aimes has always been practical. But try as she might, she can’t come up with a logical explanation for the recurring dreams that have always haunted her. Dark dreams. Dreams of a long-ago place filled with people she shouldn’t know…but does.

When her family moves to a New Orleans plantation, Lucy’s dreams become more intense, and her search for answers draws her reluctantly into the old city’s world of Voodoo and mysticism. There, Lucy finds Alex, a mysterious boy who behaves as if they’ve known each other forever. Lucy knows Alex is hiding something, and her rational side doesn’t want to be drawn to him. But she is.

As she tries to uncover Alex’s secrets, a killer strikes close to home, and Lucy finds herself ensnared in a century-old vendetta. With the lives of everyone she loves in danger, Lucy will have to unravel the mystery of her dreams before it all comes to a deadly finish. 

Sweet Unrest is a gripping and mysterious young adult paranormal novel that finds our main character, Lucy Aimes, stuck in both the present and the past as she attempts to solve two mysteries at once. Lucy was a great main character for the story. She's determined, smart, and logical. She has her flaws and weaker points - not wanting to move away from everything she loves in Chicago to live in Louisiana. All Lucy wants to do is hold up her end of the bargain she made with her parents so she can return to Chicago to live with her aunt for her senior year. Things are going well until Lucy meets the handsome and mysterious Alex. She feels as if she already knows him, although that is impossible. Alex begins to take over Lucy's dreams along with her waking hours, although in a strange way. She dreams of the past - where she is a different girl and is in love with a guy who is unmistakenly Alex. Lucy doesn't understand what's happening to her - Alex couldn't have been alive over a hundred years ago. Did the people in her dreams actually exist - if they did, what happened to them? Lucy must hurry to solve the mysteries of her dreams and Alex before someone she loves is killed.

I thought that using an old sugar plantation in Louisiana as the main setting for the book - along with some scenes in New Orleans - was absolutely perfect. There's a feeling of mysticism associated with New Orleans, so the ties to Voodoo, ghosts, spirits, past lives, and everything else paranormal fit in perfectly. Just being set in that part of the country made the book eerie from the start, which set the mood for the story almost instantly. I loved all the information the author included in the book about Voodoo - its history, beliefs, rituals, and everything else - along with the belief in spirits, ghosts, and magic. I devoured all of it and still wanted more. The plot wasn't wholly unique, but it was definitely original and had great aspects that set it apart from others in the genre. The mystery surrounding Alex was complex and took me a while to understand, which is unusual. There were a lot of different ways the plot could have gone and then a new twist would be thrown into the mix. The use of dreams to "visit" the past instead of something more common - like time travel - was a breath of fresh air to me. I loved how the author took that part of the story and put a whole new twist to it. I have to admit that parts of the story did have me rolling my eyes due to predictability - mostly Lucy loving/hating Alex and not making up her mind - but those sections didn't really deter me from my overall thoughts on the book. The writing was well done - it had a decently fast paced and a natural flow - so it ended up being a quick read. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy paranormal fiction and what to mix things up a bit.