3.5 actually - Cracked fooled me a bit I have to say. It starts off with one hell of an opener - literally just freaking cool. A girl that is a demon essentially, raised by a parent that wanted her to fight her nature. She does, or at least she tries to fight it, of course you know it wouldn't be any fun if she succeeded. So instead she finds ways to indulge and still feel like she's sticking to what her mother wanted, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't enjoy what she does, or what she can do. These creative ways to indulge her instincts? - you'll love this: feeding off of those evil rotten people you wished didn't exist. Rapists, killers, child molesters - the dregs of human society. You go girl, bon appetite I say. Thus this is where we enter - she literally devours and tears limb from limb a child molesting, abusing nasty mental hospital steward by posing as a patient. 
 Fantastic - I was pulled right in. But then things cooled off for me considerably and for some reason I just disconnected from Meda. I think it was the introduction of the new characters and the change from what I initially liked in the beginning and it went in another direction than I started to anticipate. That and well - I'm pretty tired of the gosh damn Knights Templar. I feel like they are in so many books. At that point I ended up setting the book aside. Meda was so kick ass and conniving though that I didn't stop thinking about her. She just had one of those personalities that stays with you. 
 Plus, I had a few friends who really really enjoyed Cracked and I thought - you know why not pick it up and finish it. After I let my disgruntlement settle I went back in with no expectations getting in my way and I really enjoyed it. 
 The author leads you in and instead of giving you exactly what you think you will get she has a way of turning the story in another direction. So rather than your typical teenage angst, romance laden young adult novel you get something just a touch enough different but still fitting with the genre. So yeah, there is still angst...they are teenagers what do you expect? But its more like personality angst rather than 'they are growing up and dealing with hormones' angst. 
 There were a few areas I felt could have used more polish. The direction of the plot needed a bit of focus for me. Oh and I just think the Knights Templar thing bugged me. I'm not a big fan of of commonly used organizations like that popping up in fiction. There also could have been a bit more of a presence from the villains. I think this slowed things down for me and might have been part of why I set the book aside originally but who knows it could have been my mood. 
 On a positive note, the teens in this book have great personality and balance each other out while clashing in a fun way. Did my statement even make sense? Oh well moving on. I like Meda, she's conniving, sneaky, kick butt and honest with herself. I have the feeling that any second installment would be even better than the first.