Review of Bridger, by Megan Curd

Ashlyn McVean doesn't believe in fairy tales. That is, until Ashlyn is thrown into the crosshairs of grudges her grandmother created long ago. After finding out she is one of two people able to cross between faerie realms, Ashlyn is faced with trying to understand her abilities, along with navigating a new relationship with her boyfriend, Liam. As if being on a centuries old hit list and dealing with crazed pixies isn't enough, her new abilities mean trouble for Liam. Knowing her new life puts everyone she loves in danger, Ashlyn must decide what's most important in her life between friends, family, love, and ultimately, realms. (From GoodReads)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was  looking forward to reading Bridger, and it got off to a pretty thrilling start. The opening of the story was full of action, drama and foreshadowing. But beyond that, much of Bridger, to me,  just felt sort of forced.

From the beginning, the fact that there was a big secret regarding Ashlyn is pretty apparent. The uncovering of that secret was fairly drawn out. And call me impatient, I just wanted to get on with it. To be fair, what Ashlyn learns about herself was a very creative and unique concept. I just felt the revelation was too slow.
Another problem I had with Bridger was the pace of the story. The scenes felt abrupt to me. Ashlyn meets Liam and within minutes they are snuggling and sharing secrets? Really? For example, on the first night they meet, Liam tells  Ashlyn his little brother was kidnapped by faeries. What?  She doesn’t exactly believe him, but just shrugs the story off, thinking that he’s gorgeous but crazy. Without giving spoilers, I’ll say that there were several decisions by the characters that I just didn’t get.

Lest I come off as Miss Crankypants, there were some things that I did like about Bridger. I genuinely liked the actual premise of the story. The Bridger was an innovative concept that I haven’t read before. Such a relief. Even though I didn’t feel a full connection to the characters, there were some that I liked.  Tess, Liam’s mom, was a warm and loving mother with a few secrets of her own. Ashlyn’s grandmother, Memaw, was funny, protective and a total ninja-style badass. Even Ashlyn, though I didn’t love a lot of her choices, was courageous and loving.

I had no intentions for this to be a purely negative review. But I do have to “call it like I see it”.  I didn’t hate Bridger, it just wasn’t the book for me.

*I received a copy of Bridger from the author, in exchange for an honest review. *