Actual rating: 2.5 
 I don't need a new person to suddenly spring up under my skin and push out who I was, who I've already decided to be. Those feelings have no place in my life and I will not let myself be a fool in love, with love, let it take over and destroy me. 
 It would be so easy for me to list what I disliked about this book, and rant about what a little bitch Isadora is and how much I hated her, but it's not so simple as that. You will get no arguments from me that our main character is an easy character to hate, but I find myself empathizing with her more often than not. 
 Why? Because she was me, at one point. Because she could be your sister, your cousin, any one of a million teenaged girls out there, during those oh-so-troublesome teenage years. That is why I cannot find myself detesting her completely, because really, is any teenaged girl ever so perfect? I'm sure they can be, I'm sure there are plenty who are, but I know damn sure I wasn't one of them. 
 The plot: Isadora is the daughter of the goddess Isis and the god Osiris. Despite being the daughter of ancient Egyptian gods, Isadora is mortal, she will grow old, she will die, she hates it. There is not much she doesn't hate, actually. She is resentful towards her parents, her brother, her own mortality; when Isis announces that she is having another child, Isadora takes that as the final straw. 
 I feel a wave of bleak sadness, a desperate, gasping sort of terror. This new life coming to our house forces me to face my own impermanence in a way I try to avoid at all costs. I'm replaceable. Utterly, completely replaceable. 
 Isis has been having dreams, of danger to come. With her pregnancy, Isis is afraid that she won't be able to guard Isadora of any imminent danger, so she decides (or rather, Isadora connives) to send her daughter halfway around the world, to her brother Sirus in San Diego, California. 
 I know that the United States is a relatively new country, but Isadora's opinion of it is pretty harsh. 
 America has no culture. There's no weight of history, barely even centuries to pull on people. You can be whoever and whatever you want, genealogy and history and religion as fleeting and unimportant as the latest trend in style that'll be gone as quickly as it came. 
 America has no roots. Nothing here lasts forever. I'll fit right in. 
 Once in San Diego, she is horrified at the prospect of yet ANOTHER inconvenient pregnancy, in this case, her brother's wife's incoming baby. It's like all these babies are conspiring to pop out of the place to diminish Isadora's existence in the world. It's damned selfish, these parents and their new babies and wanting to have them is so "self-centered," and "selfish." Isadora's also aghast at the fact that she has to work. It's a pretty cozy job, working to organize her family's donated Edyptian artifacts at the local museum. She meets new friends, a cute new boy with whom she is absolutely determined not to fall in love. 
 I think if I fell in love with someone, I'd never be able to breathe, never be able to function because of the fear. 
 Meanwhile, strange things are happening, her house is looted, she has strange, dark dreams. What is the danger she has been dreaming about? 
 Does that last question sound terribly exciting, terrible dangerous, terribly intriguing? That's because, as hard as I tried to make it sound more...exciting, this book really wasn't exhilarating at all. The mystery took a side stage to the antics of Isadora and her teenaged rebellion, her exploration of San Diego and its beaches, her interior decorating skills, Isadora's enjoyment of her newfound freedom, which includes cutting her hair, dying it purple, and eating all the sugar she can stomach, and trying not to fall in love with Ry. 
 The details of Egyptian myths were really well-explained, but they felt so completely out of place with the rest of the novel. It may be accurate, but it just didn't work well in terms of the plot. This book worked better as a contemporary YA romance than as a Paranormal or an Urban Fantasy, as it is categorized. The paranormal is so unnecessary and so light that I would rather classify this book in Magical Realism than anything else, because there is nothing grand or godly about this book and its characters, even the gods themselves. I wasn't drawn in by the danger, because it was so sidelined and so briefly brushed over by Isadora's uncaring attitude, and when it finally happened, the climax just fell flat because it was unexpected and nonsensical. 
 Isadora: I didn't like her, but I can see where she was coming from. I was a pretty hate-filled teenager myself, so I can see a lot of myself in her. I understood her feelings of hate towards her unborn sibling and niece, as an only child for years and years, I felt like my little sister was usurping my parents' attention away from me. Yes, it was selfish, yes, it's irrational to hate someone who's that tiny, who's not even born yet, but when you have been the focus of your parents for so long, it's understandable to project that hate and that anger onto something other than yourself. I'm not saying it was right, but I can empathize with Isadora's anger towards everyone involved. 
 It's also really grating to hear Isadora's adamant insistent that she will never fall in love. It's also understandably teenager. Her cynicism, her fear of getting hurt, it's all understandable. I'm not trying to excuse Isadora at all, but there is a process of growing up. It is scientific. It is a process of growing up. It is a mixture of brain chemistry, of hormones, of self-realization, and Isadora just has not reached that stage of maturity yet, for most of the book. But you know what? Isadora grows up, she does so far too quickly for my liking, but she comes to realize that she is wrong, that her fixed opinions may be incorrect, that her parents are not as uncaring and selfish as she believes them to be, that maybe being hurt isn't a bad thing, that pain is momentary, and love is necessary in the long scheme that is a mortal life. 
 The Romance: There's insta-love, but it didn't bother me so much, mostly because Isadora is so determined to suppress her feelings completely. She sees this boy, who is inhumanly attractive, and he's not a bad guy. Isadora comes to realize that she may be developing feelings for him...and she runs away. She makes it clear that she wants friendship only, and even if we feel her attraction for Ry, the potential teeth-achingly sweetness of the situation is tempered by Isadora's bitterness in intently shooting his attempts at romance down. I have to admit, Ry is pretty cute, even if he seriously needs to give Isadora some space. 
 "I didn't fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you." 
 Great character development, not so good on plot.