Torn [Paperback]

Erica O'Rourke (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 28, 2011

Everyone has secrets.

Even best friends.

Swirling black descends like ravens, large enough to block the glow of the streetlights. A dull roar starts like a train on the 'L', a far-away rumbling that grows louder as it pulls closer, until it's directly overhead and you feel it in your chest, except this doesn't pass you by. Verity, white-faced and eyes blazing, shouts through the din, "Run, Mo!"

Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo--quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo--will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys--protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?

"Who doesn't love a character torn between two dangerous worlds and two risky guys? The only thing safe about this book is how good it is." --Lee Nichols, author of Deception, A Haunting Emma Novel

"Dark, exciting and totally addictive! Just...wow!" Kristi Cook, author of Haven

"Dark, magical, and delicious!" --New York Times Bestselling Author C. L. Wilson

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp; Original edition (June 28, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780758267030
• ISBN-13: 978-0758267030
• ASIN: 0758267037
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A super exciting YA paranormal. July 12, 2011

By thefictionalbookshelf

Format:Paperback

Holy cow this was a super exciting read. I sat down one evening and stayed awake until I read every page. I maybe 30 but I do enjoy YA books and this one is now one of my new YA favorites. I can't wait to read the other books in the series.

Mo (Mouse/Maura) tries to go unnoticed all her life except her quietness is what she becomes known for thus the nickname Mouse that is shortened into Mo. Between her sudden new found unwanted `fame' because of a terrible tragedy and the attention of two slightly older men Mo's life gets turned upside down in a hurry. Trying to resolve the issues at hand, she uncovers family secrets and her best friend's secretive second life.

What I loved about it;

1. Torn is very fast-paced.
2. The opening line is unique and grabs your attention.
3. The characters (good and bad) are all well rounded and help make Torn what it is. Without either the good or the evil characters, I don't think this book would have been as great.
4. The ending was perfect and created a level of excitement/anticipation to know more about Mo.
5. The leading men Luc and Colin were both yummy in their own way. Like Mo, I think I would have a hard time choosing between the two men.
6. The romance was sweet, soft, and not rushed to the point it felt unbelievable.
7. The actual plot was crafty and refreshing.
8. There were no slow points.
9. The attention to detail in the book created a very vivid picture in my mind as if I had sat down and watched it on TV.
10. The level of magic and how it was used in the book was also fun and thrilling. I liked the paranormal element Erica, the author, added. The witches (if you call them that) were amazing. The Darklings were just creepy but in a good way for the book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Torn in my thoughts ... February 3, 2012

By Aimee Laine

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was really torn on how to rate this book. I was totally intrigued by the premise and the opening chapter or 2 (that I had in the sample). But then the first 10 ish chapters seemed to be the same thing over and over. And over and over. And over ... you get the point. Maybe not that many, but that's how it seemed. All Mo was doing was fretting over Verity. I get that she was sad, but it kept the pace incredibly slow for me and I'm the kind of reader that ...if it's slow, the story still has to progress.

That made keeping up with it hard. Because I kinda wanted to know more about Luc and Colin, but I was worried I'd read yet another chapter that didn't make the story go anywhere.

I also wasn't really into the Luc/Colin/Mo relationship stuff that was underpining the ultimate plot of the story. It's like it was there, then it wasn't there. It was there then it wasn't. Kinda like the opener. Back and forth. It wasn't so much a love triangle because we were always seeing it from Mo's perspective.

I also found her insistence that SHE find the killers and get her justice a bit out there for a good girl. I was the epitome of the good girl when I was young. The epitome of it. If my parents had said 'no', I did not. Or only went up to the grey line, but didn't cross it. So Mo was setup as the BEST of the BEST of the good girls and she just goes off to find the answers on her own? I had a hard time buying into that. It seemed forced.

I really did like Mo because I saw a lot of myself in her. I liked Luc and Colin too, but again, from my past experience, love triangles very rarely exist. So, how she can go all through high school and then have these two non-teenagers get so close just also seemed improbable.

Then again, magic isn't 'real' per se, so maybe in a magic world, anything goes. But it started in reality, so I would really think the human element should have stayed human.

Maybe I'm being too critical, but these issues bugged me enough that it took me MONTHS to finish and in the end, I started skimming just to make the pace pick up.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Murder, magic, and the Mob July 3, 2011

By Abigail TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Murder, magic, and the Mob. That's TORN in a nutshell. Well if you add in one of the better love triangle I've read this year with two very different, but equally appealing guys, and a hidden magical world that lies at the brink of destruction.

I have no comment on the cover, but the title of TORN is perfect. Maura "Mo" Fitzgerald is torn. Torn between her incarcerated father and the uncle who stepped in to take care of her and her mother. Torn between the life she led in the shadow of her vibrant and beautiful best friend and the future she must embrace in the wake of her friends murder. Torn between a new world of magic and the mundane world she's always known. Torn between the human guy assigned to protect her and the magical guy who needs her to save his people.

As much as I liked the romances and the choices Mo had to make, I did have a couple issues. The first half of TORN reads like a contemporary YA with only the barest hint of anything paranormal going on. I wish the author had speed up the narrative and kicked in the paranormal elements much earlier as the excitement, danger, and romance really took off once they came into play. I also never got over the protagonist's name. Her name is Maura but everyone calls her Mo (or even Mouse). It never stopped sounding weird every time I read it.

Overall, despite the slow start and odd name, the last half of TORN rocked. The love triangle works exceptionally well and, like Mo, I felt torn between Collin and Luc too. There is so much more to learn about the magical world that hides along side our own and Mo's role in saving it. I'm already looking forward to how it all plays out in TANGLED, the second book in the Torn Trilogy, which will be published in February of 2012.

Sexual Content:
Kissing