Finished The Charge by Sharon Bayliss today! I was surprised at how I got totally sucked into this book. I felt very emotionally invested in the characters, which is rare for me when a book’s written in third person perspective and especially with alternating narrators. But The Charge did exactly that.

I felt that Warren was very relatable as a main character: a well-executed, typical but loveable anti-hero. The other characters as well, were well-rounded and realistic, even the ones we once see a glimpse of. Victory intrigued me quite a bit. I liked Lena too, but would’ve liked her more with another name, simply because there are so many Lena’s in fiction these days (Delirium and Beautiful Creatures for example) that it’s getting hard to keep track.

Another thing I liked about The Charge is that Sharon Bayliss leaves a lot to the imagination and supposed interpretation of the reader. She doesn’t feel the need to explain every little detail, from which the pace noticeably benefits.

If I had to point out some negatives, it would be that the beginning of the story is rather out-of-the-blue and, well, simply too convenient – lazy, almost. I feel it could have been done differently and better. The end was rather sudden and vague as well, but the middle entertained me more than enough to earn it 4 stars!

It had lots of twists, an interesting historical backstory, original use of fantasy aspects, realistic characters and a seriously sexy vibe.

On a personal note: this was actually the first New Adult novel I read as being conscious of that label, though I guess one could categorize The Host by Stephenie Meyer New Adult as well, in hindsight. It definitely won’t be the last NA I read! I noticed a lot of things that sometimes slightly bug me about YA, altogether absent in this NA-novel. In YA you have, as a writer, a responsibility to moralize sexual relationships and limit swearing. In NA, this is lifted. Even though the characters are all around 18 years old, they felt much more mature than 18-year olds in YA.

So The Charge was definitely very refreshing to read and I’d be eager to recommend it!

Add The Charge to you Goodreads ‘to read’ list here, and while you’re at it, add Tweedehands Vleugels too? 😀