Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton

Title/Author: Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton
Publisher/Date published: Clarion Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), November 15th 2010
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley
Why I read this book: it sounded interesting.

Goodreads summary: "Teagan Wylltson's best friend, Abby, dreams that horrifying creatures--goblins, shape-shifters, and beings of unearthly beauty but terrible cruelty--are hunting Teagan. Abby is always coming up with crazy stuff, though, so Teagan isn't worried. Her life isn't in danger. In fact, it's perfect. She's on track for a college scholarship. She has a great job. She's focused on school, work, and her future. No boys, no heartaches, no problems.
Until Finn Mac Cumhaill arrives. Finn's a bit on the unearthly beautiful side himself. He has a killer accent and a knee-weakening smile. And either he's crazy or he's been haunting Abby's dreams, because he's talking about goblins, too . . . and about being The Mac Cumhaill, born to fight all goblin-kind. Finn knows a thing or two about fighting. Which is a very good thing, because this time, Abby's right. The goblins are coming."

I thought the summary sounded really interesting and after reading raving reviews about it on more than one blog, I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, this book wasn't for me.

I couldn't warm up to any of the characters, the only one I could relate to somewhat was Finn, the only reason I kept reading was that I expected it to get better, that the story would suck me in somehow. And that never happened.

The story revolves around Teagan and her family: little brother, mom and dad; Finn, who's the incarnation of a legend: the Mac Cumhaill; Abby, who's Teagan's best friend and has family connections to the maffia. Abby dreamt that globins were after Teagan and is convinced her life is in danger. Which is pretty weird, because later on she doesn't seem to believe goblins are real. Abby was a bit weird overall, she's constantly mentioning her connection to the maffia and threathening Finn, thinking he's some kind of criminal for reasons unknown. I'm all for being protective of your friends, but I didn't really understand this.

Teagan is a very serious girl, she plans to get into a good college and doesn't have time for boys, why she's so convinced the two can't be combined, I'm not entirely sure, but she is. Which is why her instant attraction to Finn is a problem for her and she doesn't know how to handle this.

Combine that with goblins attacking and weird family relations and you've got yourself one stressed out girl. And still I found it hard to relate to her angst. I was so disconnected from the storyline and the characters that I didn't even really feel antyhing when one of Teagan's family members died, which is rare for me. To me it also didn't come across as if Teagan was that devastated by it and that made me even less sympathetic.

The story dragged, there wasn't a lot of action and the way the characters reacted to the things that happened were unrealistic in my opinion. I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. The only character that felt a bit more real to me was Finn, his emotions were more relatable and I was hoping he'd kiss Teagan already (sadly, the romance didn't go further than them feeling sparks and him asking to kiss her once).

My rating: 1 star