Review: Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter

Born at Midnight
(Shadow Falls, #1)
By: C.C. Hunter
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publisher: March 29, 2011
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating:

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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…

Kylie is sent to a summer camp after being arrested. She thinks it’s a camp for troubled teens but it doesn’t take her long to realize that that is not the case at all. This is a summer camp for supernaturals and even though she doesn’t think she belongs there, her night terrors and the “stalker” that no one else sees are proof that she’s right where she needs to be.

I liked that even though this story focuses on Kylie, we get background information on a handful of other characters as well. So I found myself getting attached to more than just the main character. She has two quirky roommates, one is a vampire, and the other is a witch who seems to have a pet toad, but is later revealed as a spell gone wrong on a sleazy man. There’s a cute guy who instantly takes an interest in Kylie and a bad boy who is of course also interested in her. However, I feel like he gets first dibs since he’s a neighbor from her childhood. Yes, this has the makings of your typical eye-rolling love triangle but I really enjoyed it.

I’m a huge fan of the title and series name. Too many times the series is named after the first book. However, the title comes from the fact that all supernaturals are born at midnight and Shadow Falls is the name of the camp where Kylie realizes that she’s not who she thought she was and will ultimately come into the supernatural that she’s meant to be.

And can I just take a second to applaud the author for not turning this book into a clique teen story. There is no “popular girl” who makes Kylie’s life hell. There really aren’t any cliques either. I liked that all the kids were there to not only learn about who they are but to get to know about other supes as well.

I’m most definitely going to be keeping up with this series. We still don’t know what Kylie is but I have a feeling that we will find out in the next book.

“I personally think the downside of being able to change into anything is the fear that you don’t know who you really are.”