Book 1., The Gift: The Butterfly Effect

The Gift is the first book in The Butterfly Effect series. I love this idea of cause and effect and what happens to the person that changes the course of another person’s life.

Something has happened to Lexi when she had an emergency appendectomy. She is not the same girl that she was when she went in. When people touch her she is seeing into their life.

I really liked Lexi, She is almost 17 when she has that emergency and comes away with The Gift. Lexi handles all the changes in life after that the way most of us would. With a lot of confusion. She manages to formulate a plan, if she could just keep to it she would be alright.

I really liked this book even though it is not a romance. The main character is only seventeen. There was a lot of suspense and Lexi was thrown into a new world that she had to navigate. I don’t want to give anything more away because it was so good. Be warned though, there is a cliffhanger. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for book two.

This book has an interesting premise, but chooses to squander it.

About halfway through the book - some spoilers ahead, I'll try to keep it minimal - all the character development, roles, and worldbuilding are dropped in favor of developing an abusive romantic relationship. This is very clearly what is happening, and I kept reading the book to the end in hopes that it wouldn't be what I thought it was, but I was let down.

The book also ends very suddenly on a cliffhanger, and no arcs are resolved - it's very clearly not an actual "book one", but instead half of a book sold as a single unit.

I would not recommend this book.

[Review Contains Mild Spoilers]: 17 year old Alexa gets the same gift as Johnny from Stephen King's The Dead Zone - she gets a vision off people she touches - after her appendix ruptures and her surgery is perhaps meddled with by mysterious figures. So far, the sole purpose of getting this gift seems to be so that she can get kidnapped by, and have a romance with, a handsome but psychotically violent mobster who wants to use her gift to advance his criminal endeavors. Her primary "strategy" for dealing with the kidnapping seems to be to cry. That said, at one point she decides to seductively strip for the violent mobster who kidnapped her "to assert control". She also briefly decides that she will approach what the mobster wants as "her job," but then has a crying fit when he wants to dance with her. Bottom line: I had to quit about 2/3 through because I found the developing romance offensive (Alexa acts like a tween not a woman), Alexa is devoid of any hint of inner strength (she says things like "I'm only 17 I can't deal with this. I just want to see my parents" to the mobster while crying) and there is absolutely nothing else to the book -- i.e., no action, no exploration of powers, no self-empowerment. It never even occurs to Alexa to make a plan - she just cries and cries. Perhaps Alexa grows up in the final third of the book or some action arises, but the first 2/3 is solely a developing romance between a bawling 17 year old that acts like a child and an older and incredibly violent mobster. But he is handsome and damaged because his dad was worse, and he wants Alexa to imagine herself to be a guest. So it's ok then???

The positive reviews appear to be legitimate, but this author clearly has some passionate pre-existing fans from prior books that perhaps like this type of thing. Non fans that don't want a creepy romance should likely avoid this one.

The story kept me semi-interested, although it feels like it's turning into a romance between the victim and the kidnapper/murderer, which is just wrong, in my opinion. But what really turned me off is the end. It ends in a cliffhanger, and you have to buy the next book in order to continue the story. I really hate these kind of books. It's one thing to have a serial with continuing characters, and totally another to try to sucker you into buying the next book.

For me, I'll pass.

Entertaining read. Wasn’t so sure about the age gap and her being underage. Also I would sooner credit the “gift” to maybe a near death experience than someone putting something in her during a surgery. That part could’ve been handled differently as well as the kidnapping and romanticizing the kidnapper no matter how well he treated her.

The premise for this book seemed interesting, but it lost me almost from the very beginning. The scenario, a ruptured appendix that leads to near death already has me going huh? I did some checking (having experienced appendicitis myself and my mother actually experiencing a ruptured appendix) and this process doesn't happen quickly. There are symptoms and at minimum 24 hours between initial symptoms and the eventual rupture of an appendix. This girl doesn't live in a third world country, appendicitis hurts! She would have come and gone to the doctor way before it ever got to that point.

With that being said, the writing was sub par. The focus was on odd things (such as she looked at her expensive watch, she used her fob to unlock the car, she set aside her Kindle, he wore a fitted suit), things that were completely unimportant to the story line and were distracting to the actual flow of the story.

The characters were not well developed and the protagonist was not likable. I also hate wrongly placed guilt (such as her guilt over someone dying because she didn't realize that she was actually having a real vision rather than a drug induced hallucination). The person who pulls the trigger is at fault, come on people!

I could keep going, but I won't. This wasn't worth the read. Gave it two stars because I like the idea behind it, but that is all.

Another free first book w/o an ending. SPOILER
Girl becomes psychic , cute gangster kidnaps girl, ( #me too much ?) girl stolen from gangster. There , you're all caught up. These kinds of books are are the worst , not even a sub story with an ending.

Another book without resolution. The characters are okay although a bit too much Stockholm Syndrome and almost sadism at times. Too much, oooh I hate him but oh he's so sexy. The book is maybe half of a whole book? It just ends with nothing resolved and certainly nothing to make me buy the next one. Delete from device.

When the kidnapped girl with a gift is kidnapped from her captor - yep, you have to buy the next book segment if you want to learn more - total ripoff! I will not be wasting time with this author again.

The author had an interesting idea for the book but the delivery is boring, the characters are tiresome and immature. There isn't enough happening to keep you interested or entertained, the author tried to be mysterious with too many characters at one time and the mysteries weren't good enough to make up for entirely too long to reveal nothing surprising or worth the tiresome buildup or wait.

Another book without resolution. The characters are okay although a bit too much Stockholm Syndrome and almost sadism at times. Too much, oooh I hate him but oh he's so sexy. The book is maybe half of a whole book? It just ends with nothing resolved and certainly nothing to make me buy the next one. Delete from device.

When the kidnapped girl with a gift is kidnapped from her captor - yep, you have to buy the next book segment if you want to learn more - total ripoff! I will not be wasting time with this author again.

The author had an interesting idea for the book but the delivery is boring, the characters are tiresome and immature. There isn't enough happening to keep you interested or entertained, the author tried to be mysterious with too many characters at one time and the mysteries weren't good enough to make up for entirely too long to reveal nothing surprising or worth the tiresome buildup or wait.

There's not enough character development from either the protagonist or the love interest for me to like either of them. The protagonist gives off extremely ditzy vibes "he'll kill my parents but he's soooo cute" and the love interest (said threatened) has done nothing to cause the reader to warm up to him or understand him in order to see him as anything other than a bad guy. Really he isn't absolutely terrible, but it's the protagonists wishy washy stance of being defeated and crying one second to staring at him in adoration that really bothered me, because it seems like it's supposed to read as star crossed lovers and hard pasts but it came across as Stockholm syndrome with a girl whose personality is a bit flat. Two stars because I did read to the end and there was some intrigue, I did enjoy the beginning of the book, but once she was kidnapped it went downhill fast.

The premise is reasonably good. I just can't identify with the main character so I never really got hooked into the book. Even the cliff-hanger ending isn't enough to encourage me to read the next book.

The narrating style is not my preference, but the concept appealed to me. We spend a lot of time setting up the main character, but you don't know much about her by the end of the book. I only finished this book, because I kept hoping it would turn back. It did not.

*Spoilers*
Once Lexi is held captive, I started skimming. It became too Stockholm Syndrome, until she remembered she should be angry. I feel no connection to the main character. I wish the plot would have developed differently.

The Gift is Margaret McHeyzer's latest release and is a paranormal YA that will mystify readers until the very end.

Seventeen year old Alexa was a normal teenager until she has surgery for a burst appendix and awakens with an ability to touch a person and see their future. Scared and struggling to understand her new gift, Lexi makes the choice to save the life of a dark and mysterious young man by telling him of his future unaware that the choice to do so will see her kidnapped and held hostage in exchange for the lives of the ones she loves.

Admittedly this is the first novel by Margaret McHeyzer that I have read as I was intrigued by the description and the stunning cover. I'm also still a big fan of YA with a supernatural element so I knew I had to read The Gift as soon as I saw it. Overall I found it to be a quick and easy read that intrigued me enough and kept me eagerly following along to see what would happen to Lexi next.

That being said, I wasn't as hooked by this book as I anticipated. Though I quite liked Lexi and thought she had fire, spunk and sass while also being a normal teenager, I'm not sure how to wrap my head around Jude. He was contradictory at times and considering the ease at which he became violent, lost his temper and hurt people, the way in which he treated Lexi on occasion was at odds with the stone cold indifference and brutality he often displayed.

I won't give away too many spoilers but I am interested to see what happens next. The Gift ended on a cliffhanger and with readers still not clued in on what exactly Lexi's gift is and how she got it, I'm keen to see what happens next and hope McHeyzer explores this in the second novel.

The Gift was well written, paced and full of suspense. Margaret McHeyzer has aroused my curiosity and left me wondering what happens to Lexi next.

WOW! Well written book with an intriguing storyline that will grab you from the first page right to the cliffhanger end! Yep, it's a cliffie! But that's ok because that just means that there more to read, more intrigue, more mystery and excitement and more of Mr. Hotness that is one Jude Caley.

Lexie is just sixteen years old when she after receiving emergency surgery, is given the "gift". When she touches someone, or someone touches her she can see the future, their future and that scares the hell out of her. She's only sixteen, how does she process this, who can she tell what's going on without them thinking she's needs a padded room. After going home from the hospital everything goes back to normal and the visions stop, until she goes back to school and is hugged by her best friend. She is floored and panicked. What's wrong with her and why is this happening to her. She agrees to go with her best friend to the mall (which is the vision she saw when she hugged her), and in fact, her vision comes true, but it goes a bit further when her friends puprosely trips her into the path of the "really cute" guy in a suit from her vision. When he touches her, the vision she sees is horrid and she runs, but realizes by her not warning him would only lead to another person losing their life by her keeping quiet so she rushes back to him and tells him about her vision. From that point on her life is never the same, as a matter of fact, her life isn't her's again.

An amazing read that will keep you on your toes and turing page after page to see where the story leads. Jude is a bad man, but he is also good to Lexie and is trying to protect her. He seems to know what has happened to her and although he wants to use her ability, he also want's to keep her safe. But can he? Something strange is going on and there is something shadey going on. But you will have to wait to find out what! I promise you will not be disappointed in this book and I highly recommend it!