Awakening by author K. Lippi dives into a world full of demons, werewolves, hybrids, and all sorts of supernatural creatures. Fifteen year-old Emilia (Mia) Miani always thought that such beings existed only on the TV screen and amidst the pages of her books. But while visiting her father in Japan, Mia meets Shin, a demon acting as her personal guardian to protect her from her destiny, one Mia didn't even know she had. Throughout the book, Mia, along with Shin and other newfound friends, attempts to thwart the schemes of the villain, Markus, who is creating monsters and stealing the souls of innocent children. Along the way, Mia discovers secrets about her past that will play a very important role in her future. That is, if she lives to see it. I started this book with high expectations. It had received rather good reviews on several websites that I looked at. However, I had a lot of trouble getting in to it . For me, the first half of the book presented flat characters, questionable editing (I found quite a bit of grammatical errors), and a bland writing style. I believe that most of this was caused by the author's attempt to force all of the necessary background information into only a few chapters in the book. I do have to say that the book improved a bit when I hit the halfway point. There was a bit more effort put into the characterization, the plotline took some interesting twists, and the writing seemed to improve. The book also had a cliffhanger ending (obviously there's a sequel planned), which I enjoyed. If the sequel would fall into my hands for free or for a fairly cheap price, I would probably read it to see if it continued to improve. I think my biggest problem with this book was that, to me, the entire storyline seemed rushed. The author did have a creative idea, but I think if the book were drawn out a bit more it would have been much more enjoyable. Also (as I mentioned earlier), I found quite a bit of spelling and grammatical errors in the book, which interrupted the flow of the story. The author does have talent in the way of ideas, but has some room for improvement in regards to writing style. Awakening falls into the young adult fantasy category which has been on the forefront of teen pop culture since the emergence of the Twilight series. While I found it lacking in depth and development in several areas, it is most likely to please those readers looking for another fantasy romance.