Undertow Review by K.R Conway

Luckless Eila is unknowingly the last of her kind: Rare. Gifted. Breakable. Stunning Raef is her kind's historic enemy: Soulless. Lethal. Lost. A legendary death 160 years before would set their lives to collide, forcing a beautiful killer to become a savior, a simple wallflower to become a warrior, and ruthless destiny to become a death sentence.
Seventeen-year-old Eila Walker’s new home has defied the brutal Atlantic for over 160 years. Abandoned since her 4th great grandmother Elizabeth vanished, the town legend declares that she drowned . . . or was struck by lightning.
Unbeknownst to the town and Eila, however, is that someone does know what really happened to Elizabeth, and he has returned, determined to protect the last surviving Walker from a history of violence.

But what starts out as a quest for redemption, evolves into something more and soon young guardian, Raef, is forced to reveal the truth to Eila. As hidden secrets about their warring families come to light, Eila begins to realize that she may be their best shot at survival, even if it means following in her grandmother’s fearless footsteps to save her killer bodyguard.

Every once and a while a reader comes across a book that just speaks to them. Ok, maybe not speak per se, but a book that catches the attention of the reader with just having read the first page. Undertow is that book for me. The summary did not really tell me exactly what the book is about. Personally, I like to know what is going to happen in the book beforehand so I do not get confused. I took a chance with reading this book and I do not regret it at all.
The first chapter was a prologue. That is what hooked me from the start. I had no idea what was going on but the scene itself that I read was impressive. With fresh diction, structural syntax and creative ideas, Ms. Conway did a superb job of capturing my attention.
Now for the rest of the book. Yes, this a supernatural, teenage romance book. However, as with some of my other reviews about there being too much teen romance in the book, this one had just enough to make a person blush, but also not too much to question the genre of the book. All teenagers are going to have romantic notions and Eila Walker is not any different. What I appreciated about this book is that it was not solely focused on the romantic portion of the book, but the supernatural aspect of it as well.
There are many different supernatural creatures that have been written about. I am not going to list them all because I am pretty sure that everyone is familiar with supernatural creatures.
Undertow is so creative because what Raef O'Reilly is not something you hear about in just any book. Neither is that of Eila Walker. The mere idea of what they both are is impressive because they are original, not something that has been written about time and time again. The history of their kind that has been created in this book is also a piece of literature that cannot possibly be surpassed in the supernatural world. Not many authors can create something such as Eila and Raef and have it make sense. Ms. Conway did so and I applaud her.
However, as with all books, there is one little detail that questions the sanity of the author. The end. Sure, in most books, you can predict what will happen. The boy and the girl will end up together and everyone will live happily ever after. I cannot tell you if that is what happens in this book or not because that would be the world's worst spoiler of all time. There would be no point in reading the book, now would there? Despite all the good things I have to say about this book, of which there are many, the end is the one thing that puzzled me.
All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who is ready to explore a whole new world of supernatural creatures. 

My Rating 

About the Author

I have been a journalist for 15 years and serve on the Board of Directors for the Cape Cod Writers Center. I also drive a 16-ton school bus because I am ENTIRELY NUTS.
In addition to working jobs that should come with a warning label , I hold a BA in Psychos (Forensic Psych), torment the tourists about Jaws, and occasionally jump from the Town Neck bridge in an attempt to reclaim my youth.
I live on Cape Cod with two smallish humans who apparently are my kids, my fishing-obsessed husband, two canines (adept at both flatulence and snoring), and a cage-defiant lovebird that sleeps in a miniature tent. Nope - that's not a type-o. The bird is quite the indoor camper.

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