Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee

I'm in love with this cover!

Title: Gates of Thread and Stone

Author: Lori M. Lee

Page count: 336 pages

Publishing year: 2014

Publisher: Skyscape Publishing

My rating: 3/5 stars!

Blurb:

In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret- she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her "brother" has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn't know where her ability comes from- or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai's only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper's son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her. Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she's ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power. 

I have mixed feelings about this. While the premises of the story is really cool, I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. When I saw the cover, I thought, "Ahhhh, this looks awesome!" And then I read the blurb, and thought, "Omg, this is going to be epic!" Really, I did. I was excited and everything. I picked it up from my local library and held it to my chest as if it were a baby. 

This is why I'm kind of disappointed. I wanted to give this 5 stars and put it on my favorites list on Goodreads. I really, really, really did. It had the opportunity to be amazing, but it fell short. Why, you ask? Because something was just off about it. It wasn't horrible at all. In fact, it was actually pretty good. But there was something about it, when reflecting on it, that just didn't do it for me. It could be the way the plot was handled or slow parts in the story, but I'm just going to go with both. 

If not read carefully, this book can be confusing. I got confused many, many times. Okay, maybe I'm just a ditz or whatever, but please tell me that readers felt the same! I understood everything up until the last few chapters of the book. And then I was like, "What the hell-o is going on!?" I was totally confused. I didn't have a clue what was happening. At all. It occurs to me that maybe the author was trying to throw in a plot twist, but all the twisting that happened was my brain twisting into a knot because it was so confused. LOL. 

This leads me in to the plot. While I like the idea of this story, it wasn't well executed. Things were utterly boring at times. I could have dealt without the first couple of chapters. I was starting to think that this was going to be a complete bore when suddenly, out of nowhere, things started happening. Yay, right? But, no, don't get happy because things only get awesome for a bit before it gets boring again. It's like someone giving you candy and letting you put it in your mouth before punching you in the face and taking it away forever. You can still taste the candy on your tongue, but it's gone forever. Depressing, right?

The characters:

Kai: I really enjoyed her. She's got some spunk to her. She's tough. She's fierce. She's loyal. Great qualities, right? I like that she's flawed as well because I firmly believe the main character cannot be perfect. It's impossible. The only thing I didn't like about her was how she would be doing something important (or even in imminent danger) and be thinking about Avan. 

"His shoulders curved around me, legs cradling mine as his arm draped over my waist. I felt light-headed and a little flushed, my skin tingling everywhere we touched. I didn't mind the hard ground. Or that we were both dirty and sweaty and covered in bruises."

Get a grip, girl. 


Avan: I'm assuming Avan is supposed to be the knight-in-shining-armor. He's handsome, sweet, daring, and can even brood at times. He's imperfectly perfect. He's portrayed like he's the perfect guy for a good chunk of the book. Sure, he has a temper, but who doesn't, right? I don't know. I feel 50/50 about him. I like him at times and then others I just don't really care about him. Though I will say that I felt bad for him at the end. So maybe I do like him, at least enough to care. 

Reev: I like Reev. He's strong, capable, and very caring. He's protective like all big brothers are. Although we don't see much of him in this book, I still thought he was a strong character. I can see why Kai went after him. If he'd been a major jerk, I wouldn't have cared two craps about him. I'm glad that he was the nice guy that Kai claimed he was. 

G-10/Mason: LOOOVEEEE HIM. He's the best ever. 

Everyone else: Here's where things get confusing. The reader gets introduced to so many different characters in the last few chapters that it gets confusing. One minute there's the characters we've grown to know and then all of a sudden here comes ten new characters all at once. It's not cute. I didn't like it AT ALL. I would have liked to see the characters spaced out some- not popping up all at once. A NOTE: one character introduced at the end has MY NAME. Yes, people, my name! If you know me or you've talked to me before, you know that my name is Kalla. I've struggled with the endless depression of never finding my name on a souvenir keychain and now a character has my name? You can imagine my surprise! It made me smile. And I took a picture of it. Duh. 

I really don't have much else to say about this title. I did enjoy the "threading time" power that Kai has, but sadly it wasn't in the book that much. Because the time weaving is in the cover AND the blurb, I thought it weird that it wasn't in the actual story that much. I would have liked to see more. 

Romance? Romance, anyone? Well, there's not much. It took a back seat to the plot, I guess. There were hints for romance everywhere; pent up emotions, electrifying stares, hand touches, etc. But none of it really amounted to much. I would have rather it be a strong friendship or a strong romance. Not in between. Not a fan. 


Overall thoughts?

While slightly disappointing, I did find this title enjoyable. It wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. I got confused at some parts. There were some boring parts that almost made me want to put down the book. The ending felt really rushed. And it seemed kind of weird; out of place. Still, I enjoyed most of the characters and the OVERALL plot; not the confusing parts. Still, a 3/5 rating is good. Like I said, I didn't hate it.