Review: Doon by Carey Cory and Lorie Langdon

Title: Doon
Authors: Carey Cory & Lorie Langdom
Series: Doon Novels (#1)
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Publication Date: August 30, 2013
Publisher: Zondervan
Page Count: 368

Veronica doesn't think she's going crazy. But why can't anyone else see the mysterious blond boy who keeps popping up wherever she goes? When her best friend, Mackenna, invites her to spend the summer in Scotland, Veronica jumps at the opportunity to leave her complicated life behind for a few months.
But the Scottish countryside holds other plans.
Not only has the imaginary kilted boy followed her to Alloway, she and Mackenna uncover a strange set of rings and a very unnerving letter from Mackenna's great aunt—and when the girls test the instructions Aunt Gracie left behind, they find themselves transported to a land that defies explanation. Doon seems like a real-life fairy tale, complete with one prince who has eyes for Mackenna and another who looks suspiciously like the boy from Veronica's daydreams. But Doon has a dark underbelly as well. The two girls could have everything they've longed for...or they could end up breaking an enchantment and find themselves trapped in a world that has become a nightmare.

There are some good things in this book and some things that frustrate me so much that make me want to rip my hair out. OKAY, so this review is going to be a bit weird because of both good and bad things in it, so just bear with me :) 

The Plot:

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you should probably know that I'm obsessed with fairytale retellings, and I think Doon was one amazing fairytale retelling! The plot of the book was really something that I've never read before, because it takes place it SCOTLAND! Now come on, tell me if you've ever read a book that takes place in SCOTLAND before. (I have no idea why am I putting Scotland in caps) It had a really enjoyable and unique plot, and it's something that you'd pick up if you want a fun and cute romance/fantasy novel. So basically, the plot is this: two best friends end up in Doon, a Scottish kingdom where they meet pretty attractive princes. The plot was very well thought of and I loved every second of the plot!

The Characters:

I hated Veronica. Her character is disgusting. 

She's innocent, naive, beautiful and talented without knowing it. She's wounded, helpless, hurt and a daydreamer. *rolls eyes* 

And she swoons over Jamie every 5 seconds, about how his golden locks of hair hung over his eyes, how his warm brown eyes captivated her, and how hot he was. *rolls eyes some more*

If you've ever read those books where the main character is a girl and she's innocent and dependant on others, that's the kind of character Vee is. She's what you would call Miss Perfect, and damn she was annoying. 

The other characters were alright, but if you asked me who was my favourite prince, I'd say Duncan for sure! He's got more of a prince-like character than Jamie McCrae and I found Duncan funny and pretty likeable out of all the characters.  

The Writing:

I was impressed on how well the writing was in this book. It all seemed so real and the whole story flowed really well! It's written in 2 POVs and for me, I hate multiple POVs. They just confuse me and sometimes when I'm halfway through a chapter, I have to skip back to the beginning of the chapter to see who's POV was it. But for this book, it was actually pretty easy to understand and it was pretty clear on who was speaking at the time. I don't know how the authors did it, but it just was :) The pacing was pretty good too, though it was a bit too slow in the beginning, but then again, almost all book beginnings are slow and boring! 60% of the time at least. 

The Romance:

OK. On to the romance. 

There are two ships in the story: Veronica & Jamie and Mackenna & Duncan. 

Vee & Jamie? 

Pass me a plastic bag. 

Veronica & Jamie:

For 80% of the book, Veronica visits Jamie somewhere and they just talk about Doon and stuff and then Veronica gets rejected by Jamie. And the whole time I was like: 

In the story, there's something called a 'Calling'. It's kind of like love at first sight kind of thing, but the person sees these visions of their soul mate, and Veronica had a Calling of Jamie, the crown king of Doon.  When Veronica see's visions of Jamie, she was all like:

I understand the concept of a Calling, but Veronica and Jamie was just like me running for food. 

Plus the sad thing is, it kind of felt that Jamie was trying to push Vee away and Jamie was hostile towards her until he finally gave up. So it didn't really look like they were 'soul mates' calling for each other. 

However, Duncan and Mackenna, I could actually see it working out. It was way more believable than Vee and Jamie, and I was actually kind of sad when Kenna left Duncan in the end to continue her dreams. 

Overall, I enjoyed Doon, despite the romance and  "Verranica" as Jamie says, because of it's uniqueness and originality. Vee is annoying, but I'm definitely sticking around for Duncan! If you're ever bored and looking for a book to read, you should give Doon a try! I can't say its the best book, but it wasn't that bad either.