Information:
Title/Author: Unnatural Deeds by Cyn Balog
Series: Standalone
Release Date: November 1, 2016
Publisher: SourcebooksFIRE
Genre: YA, Mystery
Rating: ✭✭✭✩✩

Some secrets are worth killing to protect.

Victoria Zell doesn’t fit in, not that she cares what anyone thinks. She and her homeschooled boyfriend, Andrew, are inseparable. All they need is each other. That is, until Zachary Zimmerman joins her homeroom. Within an hour of meeting, he convinces good-girl Vic to cut class. And she can’t get enough of that rush.

Despite Vic’s loyalty to Andrew, she finds her life slowly entwining with Z’s. Soon she’s lying to everyone she knows and breaking all the rules to be with Z. She can’t get enough of him—or unraveling the stories of the family he’s determined to keep hidden.

Except Z’s not the only one with a past. Straight-laced Vic is hiding her own secrets…secrets that are about to destroy everything in her path. 

I just wanted to start this review by saying thank you to SourcebooksFIRE for sending me a copy of this book!

What I liked…

Now, I had never heard of Cyn Balog prior to looking into Unnatural Deeds, but the mystery aspect of this book really appealed to me. It isn’t often that I pick up a straight up mystery novel. For the most part, I end up picking fantasy novels with mystery aspects in them. Seriously, every book comes with mysterious unanswered questions. This one is filled with so many unanswered questions that your mind might explode. But, I kind of thought it was cool how the author wrote this book in a way that you get loaded with questions that aren’t answered until the end.

I also thought it was really cool how there were little sections at the beginning of every chapter that had interviews with some of the more minor characters of the story. It really reminded me of some of the interviews in These Broken Stars by Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman. But it was kind of cool to see what other characters thought of Victoria and Z.

Talking about Z, TOTAL SWOON! Ahh, he was so respectful to anyone and extremely charming. Seriously, he is one of those guys that would charm an old lady. His good looks and courteous actions earn him a spot on my book boyfriend list.

What I didn’t like…

I don’t really know how this happened to me, but I think I missed something. I was so lost during the ending that I wasn’t able to enjoy it. It was basically as if I read a page too fast and skipped past some information. But, I also believe that it might’ve been because I spaced out reading this book. School kept getting in the way and I was lacking so much reading time. Since this was such a short book and it took me longer than a week to read, I truly just think that life decided to get in the way.

Victoria Zell was so freaking annoying. I mean, her every thought was about Z. Katy Swartz from the Lux series didn’t even think about Daemon as much as Victoria thought about Z. And, to be honest, Daemon is a god. But really, Victoria’s whole life revolved around Z, and we didn’t even get to see what she did in her personal time. I was all Z.

Overall…

I ended up giving this book 3/5 stars. It was okay. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed it slightly more if I had more time to sit down and read this, but I ended up reading the majority of this book during school nights. But, if you are a mystery fan, I think that you would really enjoy this!

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Happy Reading,
Alaina