Elixir by Hilary Duff and Elise Allen

Release Date:  Oct. 12, 2010
Pages: 327 pages
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 1 star

Goodreads Summary: Clea Raymond lives an extraordinary life. The daughter of renowned surgeon and a prominent Washington DC figure, she has been in the spotlight her entire life.

Clea has a unique gift. A proficient photographer, in all her pictures, there is little something extra, and it's not just a result of her talented eye. There is always an extra photo that she didn't take.

Two years ago, her father disappeared while on a humanitarian mission and is presumed dead, but that doesn't stop Clea and her mother from continuing to do good throughout the world. On one such trip to Columbia, she meets Sage, the guide for the trip. She feels a connection to him but cannot explain why. Was it something in their past or possibly in their past lives? Whatever has brought them together is threatening to tear them apart forever.

Review: There is a good point about this book: Clea’s sadness over her father’s disappearance and her determination to find out what happened to him is heartfelt. Unfortunately that’s where the good ends and the bad begins.

The book starts with Clea and her best friend Rayna, both 17 years old, on vacation in Europe, alone. We are told that Rayna finds a new “soul mate” every night and hooks up with this new love of her life, every night. Rayna is considered the romantic of the two and is the one who gives Clea relationship advice, and the advice it bad.

Clea is supposed to be homeschooled, but it’s like she lives alone (her mom travels on business a lot), does what she wants and goes where she wants. He mom is an extremely absentee and permissive parent. Clea jets around the world with Ben, the boy who is barely older than her that her parents hired to protect her as she is traveling and taking pictures. What parent does that?

The plot, situations and characters in this book are all flat and unbelievable. As for romance, two of the characters have sex in a parked car after knowing each other for a week. Not very romantic. As for Sage, Clea’s love interest, she spends a good portion of the book trying to figure out if he is a stalker or her true love. His character is never fully developed and most times he comes across as a jerk.

I hate to write bad reviews. I know people poor their heart and soul into writing books. Hopefully Hilary and Elise’s second book will be better than this one.

Content: Sexual situations, swearing, underage drinking