[Elixir]

Series: Elixir Series
Elixir by Hilary Duff
My Rating: 4 Of 5 Stars

Not bad! Not bad at all!
I decided to into this blind like I always have with Hilary's music. When her debut album "Metamorphosis," came out, I recall them talking about Lizzie McGuire and I knew they were talking about the show that I tuned into one night because Aaron Carter was making a guest appearance. Gawd! I used to have the hugest crush on Aaron; Anyway, as stated, I decided to go into this blind like I do with her music. I feel it gives me an already unbiased mindset. Sometimes reading reviews kind of gives you a pre-created opinion of whatever 'it' is and I just feel the type of person to just get my own opinion. Basically because when you have a pre-created opinion based on what other people say, it's not really YOUR opinion.

I'm so glad I went into this book blindly. All I knew about this book was that it had to do with an Elixir, hence the title. Hilary always seems to earn my respect with all of her works and when I heard she was becoming a novelist, I admit, my brow furrowed, BUT I thought to myself, "She's stepping out of her comfort zone." Then I was curious to read her book. And at risk of repeating myself; i'm so glad I read this book. Aside from merely perusing ratings of this book, I did watch the interviews of the Author (Duff) and one of them, I felt so bad for her because the interviewer was treating her like a CHILD. I felt like reaching into my computer screen and slapping that guy silly. In those interviews, I heard about the character's: Clea, Ben, Rayna & Sage. I was only worried that they would have Hilary reveal too much about the story line, but to my relief and delight, they did not. So I was able to generate my own opinion without knowing what was going to happen in the book. I really liked it. Not bad for a first novel!

We follow Clea after she just successfully became a homeschooled student for her Senior year in high school (She's 17) and one of her passions is Photography. That truly was one of the things that lead me into this story. During her trip, she takes random photos then after arriving home, she decides to go through them and narrow them down into her faves and the ones she doesn't like so much. Suddenly, she notices a man in several shots and the story begins. Her father's disappearance, a variety of cultures, a surprising event that I NEVER expected in Teen Fiction (but it shows that Hilary knows the common truth. Teenagers already know about certain things LoL) and a hidden compartment that leads to the big revelation of the whole first novel. I truly enjoyed this book. I give this four out of 5 stars because I respect Hilary and 4 stars means I really liked it. What does this all mean (the tidbits I mention after the man in her pictures? hmm...i'm sure you can find the book somewhere ;)...)