(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Teagan Wylltson lives an ordinary life.  She's just a 16-year-old girl from Chicago who spends her days studying, hanging out with her BFF and working with primates at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  She's no one special.  And she's certainly not crazy.  Except that she's been seeing things.  Strange things.  Things that cannot possibly be real.  

When gorgeous Finn McCumhail shows up out of nowhere raving about goblins, Teagan knows he's telling the truth.  There's no other way to explain what she's been seeing.  But, if Finn's stories about the ancient creatures from Irish folklore are real, that means Teagan and her family are in grave danger.  Finn claims they were born to fight all goblin-kind, but just the sight of the horrible monsters makes Teagan want to run away screaming.  Can Finn teach her how to resist their strange magic?  Can Teagan trust the beautiful boy who is, after all, a stranger?  What will happen to those she loves if she puts her faith in the wrong person?  What evil will she bring down on them all if she chooses the wrong side in the goblin wars?  With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Teagan must decide where her loyalties lie.  

Because I've read so many YA urban fantasies like this one, I put off reading Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton.  And really, the only reason I finally picked it up (so to speak) is that it caught my attention when I was browsing through books on my phone's Kindle app looking for something to keep me awake during a snooze-worthy Diamondbacks baseball game.  Tyger Tyger did the trick.  At least for the duration of the game.  The story drew me in enough that I kept reading, but in the end, I found the novel disappointing.  Why?  Generic plot, annoying insta-love, abrupt transitions between scenes, underdeveloped characters, and just general over-writing.  To me, the novel felt over-long and underwhelming.  I finished it, but I didn't care enough about the characters to bother picking up the sequel.  

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of The Iron King by Julie Kagawa)

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