Supernaturally was just missing something

Four out of five stars

You ever read a first book that you just loved and had everything you were looking for: a good MC, no love triangles, action, suspense, not a lot of vanilla characters, was fun, and had an ending that wraps everything neatly with just enough strings left unattached that leaves a smidgen of mystery to rope you into the next book? 

Well, for me, that was Paranormalcy, the first book in this series. I just loved it. Evie was smart, badass, had a funny voice, and really good character depth. I totally devoured that book and have re-read it quite a few times; I just wanted to be sucked back into her world that White created so well. After I finished that book I was really excited to read Supernaturally, and waited with baited breath for its release. And you can believe I bought this sucker the second it was on the shelves. 

Well, what did I think after such high expectations? I'm going to use another rhetorical question to describe my feelings here: 

You ever read the next book of a series and feel like something you thought was indelible is now gone? It was like that for me while reading Paranormalcy. The best way I can explain it is that there was some sort of spark the first book had that was missing here, and I just couldn't connect to Evie, Lend, or really the book as whole as well as I did the first time. 

Part of the problem for me, which I thought I'd never say, was Lend. He wasn't in this book nearly as often, and even when he was all he was doing was nagging Evie and not letting her make her own choices (although Evie did tell him uh-uh mister I make my own decisions) or his being there was further clouded by Evie worrying about telling him that he was immortal. Bleh. I seriously just wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her! Just freaking tell the man already! He deserves to know something so personal about his own life, dammit! Oh, and did anyone else find that his solution to the problem that he lives forever and Evie could die before she turns 30 was kind of stupid? It wasn't really even a solution. It was just some blanket statement that solved nothing; which wasn't something I expected Lend to come up with, but it seems some of his sense has flown out the window. I mean, how does saying "I'm just going to live my life" solve anything! You're going to live forever, Lend! I'm sorry, but that just sounds like a pussy answer; you can't just put in on the back-burner! Then he never really said anything funny or witty, he just ran around worrying about Evie the whole bleeping time, and that was not cool with me. 

And I'm even more shocked to say that some of the reason that the spark was gone was because of Evie. For one, she was so dependent on Lend that she seemed to stop thinking or having many coherent ideas of her own. She even says herself towards the end that she wasn't thinking (view spoiler) I mean, what!? In the last book, if Evie was in trouble or had a big problem to solve, she figured it out and was smart about it, but in Supernaturally she seemed to turn into a bit of a Bella Swan and think that the dangerous, stupid, things were the best way to go, like follow Jack who she doesn't really even know and leave Lend. And she was so scared of sharing anything with Lend because he'd be mad at her. That's not the Evie I knew at all. She makes her own choice for what she feels like is best, and if someone doesn't like that well, screw them. I feel like she lost some of that spunk that I've always admired about her character. 

I thought that Jack was a nice addition to the story, but not necessarily needed, per-say. I think White could have just stuck with faeries and could have been fine. (with more Reth, another thing I was bothered about; I needed more of the sleezeball!) I think that there were flashes where I could see Jack becoming a good main character, but it just never stayed there and I didn't connect with him. 

Now, I did rate this book four stars, so I still did like it and White's writing was fine, Evie still had her moments, and there was a nice suspense and plot. I will read the last book in the series; maybe with not nearly as much fan-girl action as I had before, but hopefully this is just a common case of MBS (middle book syndrome) and it will go back to the series I adored with her last installment.