Born at Midnight (A Shadow Falls Novel) [Kindle Edition]

C. C. Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Don't miss this spectacular new young adult fantasy series from C.C. Hunter! Born at Midnight will steal your heart and haunt your dreams. Welcome to Shadow Falls camp, nestled deep in the woods of a town called Fallen…

One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong people, and it changes her life forever.  Her mother ships her off to Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren't just "troubled." Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control their magic and live in the normal world.

Kylie's never felt normal, but surely she doesn't belong here with a bunch of paranormal freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn't complicated enough, enter Derek and Lucas. Derek's a half-fae who's determined to be her boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin' hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn't be more different, but they both have a powerful hold on her heart.

Even though Kylie feels deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Born at Midnight is addicting.  Kylie’s journey of self-discovery and friendship is so full of honesty, it’s impossible not to fall in love with her and Shadow Falls..and with two sexy males vying for her attention, the romance is scorching.  Born at Midnight has me begging for more, and I love, love, love it!” –Verb Vixen

“There are so many books in the young adult paranormal genre these days that it’s hard to choose a good one. I was so very glad to discover Born at Midnight. If you like P.C. and Kristin Cast or Alyson Noel, I am sure you will enjoy Born at Midnight!” –Night Owl Reviews

“I laughed and cried so much while reading this…I LOVED this book. I read it every chance I could get because I didn't want to put it down. The characters were well developed and I felt like I knew them from the beginning. The storyline and mystery that went along with it kept me glued to my couch not wanting to do anything else but find out what the heck was going on.” –Urban Fantasy Investigations Blog

“This has everything a YA reader would want…I read it over a week ago and I am still thinking about it. I can't get it out of my head. I can't wait to read more. This series is going to be a hit!” –Awesome Sauce Book Club

“The newest in the super-popular teen paranormal genre, this book is one of the best. Kylie is funny and vulnerable, struggling to deal with her real-world life and her life in a fantastical world she's not sure she wants to be a part of. Peppered throughout with humor and teen angst, Born At Midnight is a laugh-out-loud page-turner. This one is going on the keeper shelf next to my Armstrong and Meyer collections!” –Fresh Fiction

“Seriously loved this book! This is definitely a series you will want to watch out...

About the Author

C.C. Hunter is the author of the young adult fantasy series Shadow Falls, including Awake at Dawn. She grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she's still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is so not a frog. When she's not writing, she's reading, spending time with her family, or shooting things--with a camera, not a gun.

 

C.C. Hunter is a pseudonym. Her real name is Christie Craig and she also writes humorous romantic suspense romance novels.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 498 KB
• Print Length: 417 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 29, 2011)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004L2LGOC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,644 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #70 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
  • #74 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful paranormal story with a coming of age twist. March 29, 2011

By Wendy L. Hines VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Kylie Galen is at a rough point in her young life. Her boyfriend just dumped her for not putting out, her parents are getting a divorce and her dad is moving out. To top it all off, her night terrors have come back.

Kylie decides to shake it off with a night out with her friends. She goes to a party but really isn't having a good time. However, when the cops come, she is holding a drink. Her mom comes to get her out of jail and announces to Kylie that she is sending her to a summer camp for troubled teens.

Kylie knows she didn't drink or do any drugs at the party but all of her whining and wheedling doesn't get her out of camp. She feels alone; that her mother doesn't love her and her father doesn't want her. But the kids at the camp are unique. They look goth and all have their own looks. When Kylie is oriented, she learns that everyone at the camp has a special gift - supernatural gifts. Camp leader Holliday tries to convince Kylie she is special too, but she is having none of it. Sure, she may be seeing ghosts, but humans can see ghosts too, right?

Then, she meets a half-fae boy who really reminds her of her ex-boyfriend, but she is still attracted to him. To further confuse her, a boy she knew when she was little is at the camp too, and he really makes her tingle. But the Feds keep coming to the camp, interrogating the teens, looking for something, even though they are vague.

Kylie tries to deal with her ghosts, makes friends with a witch and a vampire, juggles two boys, adjusts to her parents divorcing, and tries to figure out who she really is. Together, with a bit of mystery tossed in, they merge into a wonderful paranormal story with a coming of age twist. C.C. Hunter does a wonderful job of world-building and creating likable and realistic characters. I look forward to more of Kylie and her friends! Great YA Read!!

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Like Camp Half Blood from the Percy Jackson series, but with older teen weres, vampires, witches, & fairies etc. March 30, 2011

By Abigail TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

BORN AT MIDNIGHT is like Camp Half Blood from the Percy Jackson series, except that the Shadow Falls campers are older teens, and instead of demigods there are werewolves, vampires, witches, fairies, and other paranormal creatures. Plus there is a whole lot of romance.

BORN AT MIDNIGHT starts off a little slow. Meeting all the campers at Shadow Falls and learning all the camp rules etc. is not as interesting as I would have hoped. Specifically Kylie's hormone driven responses to several of the male campers while still lusting after her ex made me lose a lot of respect for her.

Fortunately, the second half of BORN AT MIDNIGHT is significantly better than the first. Kylie's cabin mates gain some depth and dimension. One, a new vampire being torn between two sides of her family, the other a dyslexic witch struggling to overcome her disability and not disappoint her parents. Best of all, the three guys vying for Kylie's attention begin to distinguish themselves from one another and she starts to finally examine her attraction for each guy and consider their true motives (sex, control, and maybe love?). Even the issues with her parent's divorce and her perception of both her mom and dad takes an interesting twist.

The key to launching a new series is finding a balance between giving answers while holding back enough to generate interest in future books. BORN AT MIDNIGHT does that beautifully. I'll definitely be back for the next book in the Shadow Falls series called AWAKE AT DAWN when it's released in October 2011.

Sexual Content:
Kissing. A few scenes of mild sensuality. References to sex. Teen Pregnancy. References to masturbation.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing attempt at teen urban fantasy with an unsatisfying love quadrangle June 26, 2011

By Tammy Golden

Format:Paperback

Sixteen-year-old Kylie has lots of problems. Her parents are getting divorced and her formerly affectionate dad has moved out and is ignoring her. Her mother is cold and uninvolved, too, and Kylie is in therapy. She wakes up screaming from "night terrors," and she's scared that she might be insane because she keeps seeing a soldier who stalks her everywhere that no one else can see. Just when she needs his support most, Trey, the handsome boy she dated for over a year, dumps her because she won't have sex with him and starts dating a girl who will. As if all that weren't bad enough, Kylie's best friend drags her to a wild party at which she sees her ex nuzzling his new girl, and Kylie is rounded up with most of the guests when the police raid the party. Even though Kylie didn't drink or do drugs herself, her mother takes the advice of Kylie's therapist and ships her to a camp for troubled teens.

Being shipped away is the mustard on the stink sandwich that is Kylie's life. Especially when she finds out that this isn't a camp of juvenile delinquents but something Kylie thinks is far worse--a place for teens with paranormal powers to find themselves. Kylie would rather have a brain tumor than paranormal powers, but she can't talk to her mom about her situation for fear her mom will ship her to a mental institution instead. So she hangs around and follows the program, which is figuring out who and what she is, and participating in exercises aimed at the different species of magical creatures getting along, instead of going to war with each other. These species are all the typical ones found in most YA urban fantasies these days: fairies/fae, witches, vampires, werewolves, all-purpose shapeshifters, and ghost whisperers, which is what everyone thinks Kylie is. There is mention of the magical creatures being descended from some unspecified "gods."

The only silver lining for Kylie is that she is able to make friends with her two roommates, a witch named Miranda and a vampire named Della, and two super-hot guys are attracted to her, a werewolf named Lucas and a fae who can talk to animals named Derek. Not to mention that Trey is attending a camp only a few miles from where Kylie is and is determined to rekindle his relationship with her.

I admit I wasn't extremely psyched up about this story when the blurb on the back of the book warned me there was going to be a love triangle which, frankly, I'm really getting tired of reading in YA paranormal novels. The main issue I have with triangles is that I personally like to know who to root for when a heroine is interested in more than one guy, or vice versa. A friend of mine who really likes the whole triangle thing told me that she doesn't like it when the third prong of the triangle is obviously not a viable option since the other guy leaves him in the dust (for example Jace vs Simon in the first three books of the Mortal Instruments series). She likes it when there is a little real competition.

I guess you could say there is some real competition in this book, but only in the sense that the three males are all almost equally one-dimensional as characters, because almost the only thoughts Kylie has about any of them is to admire their handsome faces and lust after their muscles. To the degree that Derek and Lucas have magical powers, Kylie is more scared or disgusted by that than impressed. So for most of the book, that isn't even a real advantage to the two supernaturals.

The other thing the two "supes" have going for them, though, that I think the reader is supposed to put strongly in their favor, is that Lucas and Derek, unlike Trey, are "gentlemen" in that they are very attracted to the beautiful heroine, but they don't push her to have sex. Personally, I don't see how their restraint is particularly impressive. Any male who hasn't even had a single date with a 16-year-old virgin, only a one-hour walk in the woods as a camp assignment, who suddenly tries to jump her bones is, plain and simple, a would-be rapist in my book. Failing to try and force sex from the heroine, either by mind control (which one of the two supes is capable of) or force (which both are physically capable of, even if they were only human), simply puts them in the category of a non-predator. Whether either has any virtue, remains to be proven.

Though one of the three contenders actually has a chance in the climax to prove he has some virtue, the only other viable romantic contender can't prove himself virtuous because he isn't around due to complications of the plot. So the story is wide open for at least a triangle to continue on. I don't think it is much of a spoiler to say that quadrangle end of the equation, Trey, never had much chance from the start. It is pretty clear from the moment Kylie goes to paranormal camp, she isn't going to choose Trey. He is merely human, and he has already made himself non-redeemable in the audience's eyes by dumping her to have user-sex with another girl--not to mention that his "seduction" technique involves pouting when Kylie refuses to progress from making out to having intercourse with him. (By the way, fair warning, this makeout session takes place on stage and does little to improve Kylie's standing as a sympathetic heroine.)

As for the action-adventure part of the plot--which is something an author really needs to deliver if she is going to have a bunch of magical super heroes running around in an urban-fantasy story--it is incredibly tame. Kylie isn't in any real danger, other than a minor run-in with a snake, until the book is almost over. The vast majority of the book is spent with her thinking passively that she doesn't know if she has any paranormal power, and what will happen to her if she has power, and well, maybe she might possibly want it, but maybe not; and also, "dad-blast it" but those hot boys look kissable, and who do I want to be with, or do I want to be with no guy at all because my life is so complicated? And so on, and on, and on. Nothing but page after page of endless dithering. (What is it with passive heroines lately? I just read Abandon by Meg Cabot, and that story has the same problem, a want-nothing, do-nothing heroine who just whines in her head all the time.)

As for her friendships with Della and Miranda, those might have been interesting if done well, but unfortunately, they weren't either. Most of the time all they did was listen to Kylie vent out loud about her dithering that we've already heard in her head about boys and her presumed paranormal powers. It would have been more interesting if the dithering had been confined to conversations which contributed somehow to an action plot instead of being merely a pretty boring rehash.

The actual writing itself, though, is okay in the sense that the author is decent at putting words on the page in a way that flows, and there weren't any editing problems I saw.

More About the Author

C.C. Hunter is the author of the new Young Adult Paranormal series Shadow Falls published by St. Martin's Press.

C.C. grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she's still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is so not a frog. When she's not writing, she's reading, spending time with her family, or is shooting things-with a camera, not a gun.

C.C. Hunter is a pseudonym. Her real name is Christie Craig and she also writes humorous romantic suspense romance novels for Grand Central. www.christie-craig.com

C.C. would love to hear from you. Because of deadlines, it may take her a day or so to get back with you, but she will reply. [e-mail]

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