Published May 2012 by Immortal Ink Publishing
Source: publisher for review
My rating: 2/5
Goodreads | Amazon
Goodreads Summary: Kathleen Hayson thinks her biggest problem is her mother. The only runner up—her mouth. With a wit sharper than her mother's perfectly manicured nails, her clever remarks create more problems than they solve.
But it's not her clever remarks landing her knee-deep in trouble. This time, Josh Colby is to blame. Kathleen's former childhood friend has become the school's most stuck up jerk. Before, she'd have told him to piss off and write his own stupid letter to the town slut/minister's daughter. Now Kathleen's escalating problems at home force her to reevaluate how flexible her principles are. She agrees to write the controversial letter Josh has requested.
Enter Rigel, a smartass magical creature who invades her room one night, promising he has come to help. When a boy Kathleen hates turns up dead and her mother goes missing, the letter becomes a key piece of police evidence—implicating Kathleen. As she fights her way out of a web of lies, the trust she has in those closest to her shatters. In the end, she's pushed to a terrible choice: who lives, and who else dies.
As I'm writing this review, I'm contemplating what rating to give it. By the time I spill my thoughts, I may decide to leave it ratingless (starless?) because from where I stand, there's no convenient rating for this novel as a whole.
At the beginning of the novel I was more than satisfied. Kathy, the main character is my favorite kind of character-imperfect, intelligent, sharp-tongued and quirky. Everything flowed well, Goddard brings Kathy to life and gives her a fresh and engaging voice. When Rigel appeared-a talking white skunk with a British accent, I may have raised my eyebrows, but decided that this would definitely be fun. Well, it was. The banter between Rigel and Kathy often made me laugh. At that point I didn't question anything, but waited with bated breath for the story to explode. It held so much promise and potential to be, if nothing else, insanely entertaining. Until 60% percent into it, I saw myself giving it four stars.
But sadly, that's when things get messy. As the demons start wrecking havoc in Kathy's life, more and more questions popped up, most of them never answered, the others resolved into something completely unsatisfying. What's the thing with her mother(s)? How does Aka, the wonderful and protective best-friend-becomes-love interest, know so much about Rigel? And then, when the climax came, I was so completely let down. It was such a major disappointment.
SPOILER ALERT: highlight the section below to read
Ok, I understand that demons are quite malicious and nonsensical creatures and don't need good reasons to do what they do, but...but...a bag of beef jerky and a snow globe? That's it? People dead and lives devastated for a bag of beef jerky and a snow globe? Sorry, that is just not enough. All that build-up for nothing.
From there, my enthusiasm plummeted into depths of impatient despair. Add to it the perfect sister who is constantly mentioned but makes a short and useless appearance, a rushed romance and confusing ending, and I was completely lost. The final third of the novel was thin and felt unfinished and I didn't like it at all.
So there you have it. Now you see why I'm torn on the rating. I have very mixed feelings about Four In The Morning. I liked it a lot in the beginning, but was so disappointed later on that it ruined the entire book for me.
Final verdict:
