Levitating Las Vegas by Jennifer Echols Published by Pocket Star on May 6, 2013
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 300
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss, Publisher
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Nothing up her sleeves...or so she’s been led to believe.
Showgirl Holly Starr is sick and tired of assisting her dad, a celebrity magician, in his Las Vegas casino magic show. As soon as he keeps his promise to her and shares the secrets to his tricks, she can break out on her own. But can she really make it? For years Holly has taken medication to stave off crazy hallucinations that she can levitate objects. Just when she thinks she’s ready to make a career and a life for herself, her medicine—and her luck—run out.
Elijah Brown suffers from a similar delusion—that he can read minds—and he’s out of medicine too. Determined to save himself and his old flame Holly, he kidnaps her and takes her straight to the source, a town high in the Rockies where their medicine is made. What they discover there leads them to suspect their powers are not imaginary after all...and neither is the intense attraction they feel for each other.
They make a pact to stick together as they return to Vegas to confront the people who kept them in the dark so long. But soon they’re pitting their powers against each other in a dangerous world where the nightlife is seductive, domination is addictive, the sex is beyond belief...and falling in love is murder.
Levitating Las Vegas is Jennifer Echols’ first ever New Adult title and I was really looking forward to it. Not only is it Jennifer Echols’ first NA title, but it’s the first NA book I’ve heard about that wasn’t strictly contemporary. I started Levitating Las Vegas with high hopes but those hopes were quickly dashed. I hate to say it but this was my first ever book that I didn’t finish.I obviously won’t be reviewing this like normal since I didn’t quite make it through the whole thing. I made it about halfway before I just had to set it aside. I’m sure there will be plenty readers who enjoy this title but there were just a few too many things that I couldn’t get past.
First off, like I mentioned above, this is a New Adult title. However, it felt even more immature than most Young Adult titles. The dialogue sounded like nothing that any self-respecting 20-somethings would ever say. Especially what was said between Elijah and Holly. And that’s not even mentioning what they were thinking. It was way too cheesy for me to take seriously. Also, this was a little thing that annoyed me but Holly always called Elijah, Elijah Brown. Why? What’s the point of calling someone by their full name like that? It got on my nerves!
Then there was the whole paranormal abilities thing. With powers such as mind reading, mind controlling, and levitation, I was expecting something kind of like X-Men. That’s not what I got. The powers were made out to be a mental disorder and they played a very small part in the half of the book that I managed to get through. Maybe if there had been more development and background to this part of the story I could have stuck with it but there just wasn’t.
The writing was mediocre at best. It was nothing special and it wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the book.
Overall, Levitating Las Vegas just wasn’t for me. I’m still a huge fan of Jennifer Echols and I will continue to check out her books but I just couldn’t make it through this one.
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Sassy Reads’ review
I read this a couple of days ago and it wasn’t pleasant. I also did not like how the whole paranormal thing was handled and how more than halfway through the novels the main characters still didn’t know they had powers. Also the characters were SO childish.. ugh.. i skipped through the last 60 pages because I couldn’t take it anymore.
Im also a big fan of Jen Echols and I believe she should stick to contemporaries because she’s good at those.
great review,
– Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf
How disappointing! This one sounded fantastic! I absolutely hate cheesy dialogue, so I may need to avoid this one. Thanks for the review!
Angie @ Pinkindle Reads & Reviews
Aw that’s so sad! I have an egalley of this one and I’m really excited to read it because Jennifer is one of my favorite authors. I guess I need to keep my expectations low going into this one now! I’m really interested to read this now to see how it actually is. Great review and thanks for sharing!
-Jessica (Peace Love Books)
Too bad this one wasn’t for you. It would be cooler if it was more about the powers I think.
At first the description really had my attention, sounded like a plot with potential, but your thoughts have changed my mind. Such a pity. Thanks for the review.
This was not the best JE book I’ve read. The whole story was so weird and strange and I agree on the character being childish. I didn’t notice that before. I did finish the book but it wasn’t a good experience.
Well that is just too bad that this one wasn’t that great. I have heard great things about this author and I’ve only ever read one book by her so I was excited for this one but I guess I shall just pass it up.
Thanks for the great review, sorry this one wasn’t to your taste.
Well that sucks. I was kinda looking forward to this one. I thought about requesting it, but I think I will just wait till maybe it come out.
Jenea @ Books Live Forever
Jennifer is my absolute favorite author – however, I couldn’t finish this book either. I’m at about 82% right now, been stuck there for a month thinking I will at least finish it so I can give it a proper review since I requested an arc. But I can’t seem to make myself get back to it. Having read all of her previous books, if this book didn’t have her name on it, I would never have known that she wrote it. The writing isn’t that great, the characters are childish, the special abilities and the way they were handled just didn’t do anything for me. I really didn’t like anything about the book at all, and that makes me sad.
Wow, this is the first book you’ve ever DNF? If I’m not feeling a book, I always set it aside.
I have mixed feelings about Jennifer Echols. I loved Major Crush, but absolutely hated Love Story. I probably won’t be reading this one. Sorry it was a disappointment.
Booo, I typed a comment and it disappeared.
Anyways.
TL;DR version of my comment: I am so glad I am not alone in the DNF, although, I only lasted 20 pages, so kudos to you for sticking it out way longer.
Like Quinn, I have mixed feelings about Jennifer Echols as well, but mine are the opposite. I like her more grown up stuff better than her comedies. But like you, I could not get through this book. I gave up 20 pages in though. It’s weird, but I am happy to know that it’s not just me.
That’s terrible! You love this author! I too am a fan of hers, but I never read this one. It sounded very unique.
It’s too bad New Adult doesn’t venture into genre books, I’d love more paranormal new adult.
The romance seemed too perfect in this one, nothing like her usual romances that are problematic.
Lovely review 🙂