Book Review – Riven by Lissa Del

Riven
You guys… OMG you GUYS!!! This author. She’s just MY thing, ya know? *ooooooomph!!!!*

Yes, you may not recognize this pen name exactly, but look a little further, and you’ll see it’s another form of THE “Melissa Delport” (remember?? Her book Rainfall rocked my world), and to this day, is still one of my #1 jaw droppers that continues to haunt me to this day.

And she’s just written another haunting romance. Total TOTAL love story, and true to her psychological intrigue, it had that *oomph* reveal that I didn’t see coming. The kind of thing that I had to analyze from both sides of the fence. And that I could TOTALLY “get” from both… angles.

Whoa. This one, okay, may not haunt me as hard as Rainfall did, but when I love an author, and I hope to get something different from each of their stories and yet something TOTALLY their “style”? This author does that. I need more. PLEASE. Please write another one for me!!!!!

Okay… here are some reader reactions, but if you want to go in blind(er), just skip these altogether. They are highly exciting, and enticing reactions and made ME want to read it badly, but at the same time, I don’t want anyone to get any preconceived notions from some of these comments. 😉 ‘kay?

*spoilerish reactions ahead*

Ela: I am so in for Riven!!!!!!!!

Jean: Riven is by the same author as Rainfall?!?!?!? OMG….I need it, I want it, and I want to BR with you guys!!

Ela:SO YEAH, EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ RIVEN EXCEPT LESLIE!  MARYSE!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS YOUR BOOK!

Lisa: May I add – Riven…yeah, total Melissa Delport hand your heart to you book. Marmies…you will adore this!!!

Amy: ELA!! I’M SHOUTING IN CAPS SO YOU’LL HEAR ME…DON’T SAY TOO MUCH SO NOTHING IS GIVEN AWAY WITH RIVEN, M’KAY?!?!? I WANT TO BE BLINDSIDED!!!

Jean: Finished Riven this morning and I think it is a must read for all of you!

Amy: I’m starting Riven tonight and I’m so excited!!

Lisa: I posted in my review of Riven that I’m filing a restraining order against all prior and future Melissa Delport books!! All our BR buddies need to hurry up so Ela and I have someone else to rant at…and I can’t WAIT to see Maryse’s review!!

Maryse: LOL!!!!!!! OMG. And all I want IS MORE of her books. MORE MORE MORE! This lady can write, and boy are her stories intense and surprising!

Charity: Just finished Riven and OMG what an amazing completely shocking ending! Balled like a baby!

In a good way or bad way? I won’t say, but now I know what she means. *smirk*

*sigh* Holy moly. There’s not a thing about this story-telling that I would change. Well… er, maybe I take that back.  I mean. Umm… I’ll let you read it and find out for yourselves. But this one has all of that oomph and impact and that gasp-worthy (and yet totally feasible) reveal that makes you second guess all the rights and wrongs. The shoulda-coulda-wouldas.

So what’s it about? This part will be short and sweet, ’cause it’s about SO much more than what I can say here. But I’ll give you a jumpstart (and still you’ll have no idea where’s it going, from this). Tee hee! 😉

Okaysolike… there’s this girl. Her name is Sarah and she’s in her last year of University studying to be an architect and competing for a highly coveted internship, and … well, she WAS dating one of her teachers (Noah). Young and kind hot but a total bore, and totally narcissistic, and in her last year of school, she cuts the ties, and he doesn’t take kindly to that. At all. But you know… the passive aggressive kind of guy (and reactions).

Noah, despite the tedium of the subject matter that he teaches, is good-looking and charming. He is also young enough, at twenty-nine, not to be considered pervy for dating his students. I know for a fact that I’m not the first student Noah has become romantically involved with, but I am the only one who ended it before he could. I think it is the brutal blow to his ego that has him so worked up, rather than the actual loss of me as his girlfriend…

But then, one day, she meets Leo in one of her classes (one of NOAH’s classes). He’s a new student (kind of feeling the whole “architect-major” thing out). He’s hot, smirky, and cocky, and all sorts of into her. And she can’t help but be intrigued.

He doesn’t even try to hide the fact that he is staring, and I am so flustered by his brazenness that I flush, the heat rising from my neck and up to my cheeks. I should look away, but I don’t.

Noah doesn’t think it’s funny at all,

Noah, who is now apoplectic with indignation and outrage. Of course he saw the note, how could he have missed it? My amusement diminishes rapidly as I gaze down at Noah’s sullen face.

…but Leo doesn’t really care, teacher or not. And neither does she. Their attraction is just THAT intense.

In the few seconds that I’d held the stranger’s gaze something had shifted within me – something that could never shift back. I was drawn to him from the moment I laid eyes on him and our story would play out with, or without, my consent.

And they start dating, and Leo is everything Sarah’s ever wanted, and nothing like Noah. But there’s so much more to Leo than she realizes. Quite a few iffy things about Leo, in fact. Like, his age, how he has so much money (and yet just starting out in this major)? And how she keeps eavesdropping on his weird and tense phone calls with… who knows??

Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping I bolt back down the hall. By the time he comes to check on me I’m in the shower, the warm water cascading over me doing nothing to melt the cold grasp of anxiety that has settled in my bones.

It doesn’t take too long before she realizes he’s holding a very deep secret from her, and oh boy oh boy is it!

If you love reading an unpredictable love story, that could go…. anywhere… one that will make you think, and then… think again? Just read this one.

4.5 stars <— I loved it! Rainfall is still my favorite of the two. Mind you, while the stories are not connected, there’s a definite psychological theme that factors in deeply, in regards to falling in love… and the difficult love stories as a whole. They BOTH thrilled me, and chilled me and warmed me. But best yet, they BOTH haunt me.

P.P.S. I loved Rainfall so hard, but originally gave it 4.5 stars (and that’s what I give this one, too). And since I still remember every single thing about Rainfall, and still feel that intensity and ache, and haunt… I’m upping that one to 5 stars. Years later and I still feel that book? Yeah. Five stars for sure!