Review: Turned by Morgan Rice

Title: Turned
Author: Morgan Rice
Published: January 24, 2011 
Overall: 2 out of 5
Series: The Vampire Journals #1
Source: My personal library
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge


Summary: In TURNED (Book #1 of the Vampire Journals series), eighteen year old Caitlin Paine finds herself uprooted from her nice suburb and forced to attend a dangerous New York City high school when her Mom moves again. The one ray of light in her new surroundings is Jonah, a new classmate who takes an instant liking to her.

But before their romance can blossom, Caitlin suddenly finds herself changing. She is overcome by a superhuman strength, a sensitivity to light, a desire to feed--by feelings she does not understand. She seeks answers to what’s happening to her, and her cravings lead her to the wrong place at the wrong time. Her eyes are opened to a hidden world, right beneath her feet, thriving underground in New York City. She finds herself caught between two dangerous covens, right in the middle of a vampire war.

It is at this moment that Caitlin meets Caleb, a mysterious and powerful vampire who rescues her from the dark forces. He needs her to help lead him to the legendary lost artifact. And she needs him for answers, and for protection. Together, they will need to answer one crucial question: who was her real father? 

But Caitlin finds herself caught between two men as something else arises between them: a forbidden love. A love between the races that will risk both of their lives, and will force them to decide whether to risk it all for each other…

Review: I hate to say it, but this book really disappointed me. I really do think that it could have been a good book, there just wasn't any development of characters or plot. You never really learn what's going on with Caitlin except that she's a vampire, which you can find out from the summary. 

Also, this summary is quite misleading. Caitlin and Caleb never set out to find out who her father is, ans I wouldn't say that she's "caught between two men". Her and Jonah have one date and it never seemed like they had a connection. This also had one of those love at first sight plots. After literally maybe an hour of knowing him Caitlin and Caleb were professing there love for each other. 

Overall Turned lacked development. There was no clear plot and nothing was ever discovered. I was left almost clueless as to how the covens are set up and what exactly they think Caitlin is. I'm hoping that this was just a first-in-the-series-fluke and that it was meant to set up the next in the series.