Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

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Publication date: 2013
Publisher: Blink
Pages: 395
My rating: 2 stars
Ages: 14-16

After McKenna's aunt leaves her Scottish cabin to McKenna in her will, McKenna and her best friend Veronica decide to spend the summer after high school graduation there. Veronica needs to get away from her mom and her ex-boyfriend--and the visions of a strange boy in a kilt she has been having. When two rings lead the friends across a bridge into the mythical land of Doon, they must prove that they aren't witches, while being pulled to Doon's princes.

While I felt that the story held a lot of promise--digging deeper into the story of Brigadoon, the town that only appears once every 100 years--I was sadly disappointed by this book. It took me a long time to read because I wasn't drawn to it and the only reason I finished it was because I knew that to give a fair review I would have to. While the story is told both from Kenna's and Vee's point of views, there didn't seem to be any pattern of which chapter was told by whose point of view. The viewpoint only seemed to change to Kenna's point of view when the authors thought that we needed to know something and Vee wasn't there.

As for the writing: It was predictable and cliched. The romances were unbelievable, and every romantic scene kind of made me roll my eyes. The backstory of Doon was convoluted and hard to follow. And then I discovered that it was the beginning of a series, which is always disappointing to discover when you aren't expecting it. I did give it two stars instead of one because the writing is technically good--the story just wasn't delivered well--and because I think that middle school girls would like it (handsome princes, falling in love, the girl saving the guy, soulmates, etc.), but for a more mature reader, this is a pass.

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