Review ~ Halflings ~ Heather Burch

Title: Halflings

Author: Heather Burch

Published: 1st February 2012

By: Zondervan

Source: netgalley

First line: Fangs sank into Nikki Youngblood’s leg, setting her skin on fire.

Last line: Now, maybe it was time to learn to fly.

Synopsis: After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret—and the wings that come with. A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.

Halflings is a nicely written tale that squeezes itself perfectly on to the YA shelf. The tone is fairly light, telling the tale of Nikki who is for some strange reason being hounded (literally) by a variety of dark forces who seem to be out for her blood. As the synopsis suggests, it is the Halflings who come to her rescue which brings in the love triangle and eventually leads to a rather dramatic finale. I enjoyed the tone of this story. It was fairly light and Burch’s writing style flows nicely. I also enjoyed the way that she describes the characters, calling them the lost boys, a race who don’t belong to heaven or earth, so in essence nephilim but the twist was nice. There were however several aspects of the storyline I found myself questioning.

At times it feels as though plotlines are not as well developed as they might be. That said, it may be that there are answers in the sequel to Halflings but I felt that a greater level of explanation and indeed closure in some places might have made for a stronger storyline overall. There were also aspects to Nikki’s personality that didn’t sit right. At times she felt too much like a damsel in distress who was being dragged along for the ride although this does start to change towards the end. Also, I didn’t understand how she went from clueless about the people trying to save her to all knowing without any steps in-between. I thought I knew why she was being targeted but by the end of the book I wasn’t so sure and there were several characters whose back story could have been better fleshed out. As I said, these things may become clear in the next in the series. I’m looking forward to finding out the answer.

3/5 I liked this story but the lack of detail in place sometimes left me wanting. Having said that I still look forward to the pieces of the puzzle coming together in the sequel.