DNF Review: Beyond the Eyes

Synopsis:

Paige knows evil exists in this world, but she never imagined it would want something from her.

In the small town of Astoria, Oregon, surrounded by deep forest and endless mountains, another world thrives . . . a menacing one where dark spirits dwell in soulless humans. Seventeen-year-old Paige Reed lives in this lush, picturesque setting. She’s not your average teen, though she appears to be. Not only is she heartsick, but she’s been receiving cryptic premonitions from a ghostly voice since the age of four. After she hears a haunting message about herself, supernatural occurrences begin to confuse her.

Nathan Caswell seems to peer into Paige’s soul, evoking a magnetic energy between them they cannot deny. They’re connected. But he’s no ordinary guy. He tracks dark spirits and becomes alarmed when they set their sights on Paige.

When two power-hungry malevolent beings make demands on her, she realizes then the fate of mankind rest in her hands. Her world quickly turns inside out where the impossible becomes possible, and in the end she’s faced with a life changing decision that will not only alter her existence but the world as she knows it.

Can a deeply troubled teen overcome her own demons in order to fight those lurking about? With the past and present colliding, Paige must make the ultimate mortal choice. Will it be the right one?

This is so disappointing because the first chapter of Beyond the Eyes   really drew me in. I was 100% on board with everything. And then by the time we reach chapter 5, we have a romance that I just could not continue to stomach.

And that is really saying something, since I’m a hopeless romantic.

So there’s some paranormal hocus pocus that goes on in the first few chapters, but it is vastly overshadowed by the suffocating and cringe-inducing romance. The main character Paige has these premonitions, rather, she hears voices that tell her things like YOU’RE GOING TO DIE VERY SOON. What a great way to start a book, am I right? And then she starts seeing freaky things in people’s eyes. These are all great things to have at the beginning of a book. They are intriguing, and made me want to know more.

And then Nathan shows up. And Paige is all

At least in Twilight they had known each for a good amount of time before declaring their love for each other. In Beyond the Eyes it was like

Because lets not forget Nathan and Paige have known each other for TWO DAYS before things start getting serious.  I stopped reading when he asked to spend the night at her house. I don’t care that he wasn’t trying to sleep with her. You don’t let a strange boy sleep at your house (Especially when your mom goes away for months at a time—but really, where the heck is CPS?). Come on Paige.

This kind of behavior is acceptable once you’ve known the guy for a while and you actually know something about him. Like, you should probably be a little worried about his paranormal secrets that you know he has, but you don’t know what they are.

I really am quite sad about this. Especially because Beyond the Eyes was a review request and I HATE not finishing a review request. I try extra hard to keep reading them, but at some point, if you just hate what you’re reading, there’s really no point to keep going, right? It’s really a shame for this book because the writing, from a technical standpoint, is quite good. Ford just needed to push her love story timeline back a few chapters.

So if intense insta-love doesn’t bother you (and it obviously doesn’t bother many Good Reads users since this book has quite a good rating), then you’ll probably like Beyond the Eyes. The paranormal stuff seemed like it was going in a really good direction, but unfortunately, I just couldn’t wade through the mess of love at first sight.