Book Clever

You know, I wanted to like this, I really did, but nope.I liked Gavin, and I liked the story of the brothers, I liked the black guard, and the concept of the book itself was great. I didn't like Karris but she was alright-ish.But... I hated Kip with a passion. On the first few chapters he seemed okay, kinda funny (not as funny as he thought he was, though) if annoying. Then it all went downhill with him. He became more and more annoying and just not very... right as a character. I can't really explain it. But I'll go back to that in a bit.Most characters seemed to have the same sense of humour (or rather, lame sense of humour) and snarky-remarks at times, it felt a bit bothersome.The magic system was cool but complex- having to be walked by the hand through it was both nice and a bit annoying at the same time because at times it distracted from the plot.There were several parts that were quite repetitive. As in, three or four times the very same thing would be explained- in long, long detail -with different wording. Yes, I know, it's still the same book, you don't have to explain the world's politics or whatever yet again, I still remember it from the last chapter.And then, we go back to Kip.I hated him more and more as chapters progressed, so much that it made my reading of the book slow down and my enjoyment of it die a little with each new appearance. Hence the 1 star rating.The fact that Gavin is "proud" of what the boy does bothers me to no end. Proud? The boy is a smart ass, loud mouth, rude, idiotic, annoying brat who could use some spanking. Sure, you can argue it's your average teenager, but he takes it just one step beyond.More than once I rolled my eyes at what he said that made it seem like we were supposed to think he was oh-so-funny-and-witty. He was not. He was a damn brat.I knew Liv would be annoying and troubles too, when she was so easily pushed into things.I nearly drop the book when we came to the part Kip decides to be a "not-really-a-hero" and go save the "damsel in distress"... and is promptly followed by stupid Liv instead of being turned in to the Prism.Really?Seriously?From then on I just skimmed through the chapters because I wanted to know what happened with everyone else, but Kip's complete and utter idiocy made me not want to read any more, even if I'm curious about Gavin and what will happen to the Guiles next. I just don't think I can put up with Kip's smart ass ways for yet another book.