Book Review - A Skinful of Shadows by Francis Hardinge

I loved The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge, and had high hopes for her next offering. I wasn't disappointed. This was the perfect blend of history, magical realism and dark fantasy.

Set in the early days of the English Civil War, Makepeace has been raised by her mother to fear and fight off the dead who want to inhabit her body. When events force her to leave her home and live with her powerful father's family, Makepeace must confront the shadows that lurk in the dark and learn more about her 'inheritance' in order to retain her freedom.

I loved the background of Puritan England. Frances Hardinge paints a vivid picture of this time period, and I really felt part of the story. I never felt at a disadvantage for knowing little about this historical period because everything is explained so well - although I'm sure I would have gained even more from the text if I knew more about King Charles I. There also wasn't extensive details about various battles or sieges aside from what is integral to the plot itself - which allowed me to really just enjoy the story, and stopped it from getting bogged down in facts.

The plot itself starts out a little slow. I wasn't fond of Makepeace's mother, and I found the possessions in the early sections confusing. With no backstory yet developed for Makepeace's family, her mother comes across as extremely strict and almost zealous in her religious fervour without really having a reason behind it. Thankfully, these chapters are swift to get through, and the rest of the story is well paced and carries a good 'adventure' feel to it. The magical realism aspect is well explained, with a good level of mysticism and air of dark fantasy. The Fellmottes are great villains, and the opportunity to have a family completely devoted to living forever through their absolute belief in what they call 'The Inheritance' is wonderful. It's such a unique concept, and I loved it.

Makepeace is great. She's almost a shadow herself in the beginning, an almost parallel to the ghosts who wish to inhabit her. Yet we see as she sets out to save her companions, and with each subsequent possession, how much she grows as a character, and develops an aspect of each character she possesses. She's deeply kind, loyal and at heart a just individual. Unlike James, she doesn't try to better herself in front of her Elders, nor is she swayed by the enticement of power. She's also practical. Whereas James has numerous ideas to escape the ancestral home on discovering her families secrets, she's the voice of reason.

I didn't really warm to James. Aside from when we first meet him, and he rescues Makepeace he comes across as a 'jack the lad'. Easily swayed and taken in, he also readily drops Makepace when a better offer comes along - leaving her behind to face the music.

The story itself is well developed, and well concluded. I felt Makepeace really comes full circle, and I was left feeling satisfied and yearning for more.. Hardinge really is shining at the moment. I don't know anyone who quite blends fantasy and history together quite like she does.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

Good Me, Bad Me had me interested from the first line, and delivered a suitably thrilling look into the mind, and motives, of a child left behind after the killings have stopped.

Milly is the daughter of a serial killer. A serial killer that she's helped to put away. Given a fresh start away from the past, and thrown into a normal family life, Milly hopes to move forward and leave her demons behind her. However, when her new family life begins to fall apart behind closed doors, will Milly be able to keep her bad side in check? Or is she more like her mother than she'd like to admit?

I enjoyed the plot for this. We see Milly go from the early days away from her mother with a middle class foster family, up to and beyond her mother's trial for the murder of several children. As the story develops we see more of Milly's background and childhood, and begin to understand who she is, and why she behaves the way she does. The murders are, thankfully, left largely to the imagination, but I really felt the claustrophobia Milly must have experienced while living with her mother, and the desperation that resulted in her going to the police. At times these flashbacks were quite intense, and I admit I had to put the book down several times to catch my breath. It wasn't an easy read.

The story is told from Milly's point of view, as if we the reader are inside her head. Because of this, the writing can be difficult to get into with short staccato sentences. This sometimes made the story jumpy and confusing - much like Milly's frame of mind, and at times I found this hard to wade through - although I felt it added to the overall feel of the story. We also only see the other characters from Milly's perspective, who at best could be described as an unreliable narrator. Milly's mother is never properly introduced, and we only see flashes of her in Milly's nightmares and flashbacks. This made the mother appear as very enigmatic, and perhaps even more intimidating.Her total control of Milly goes above and beyond. We also never get any insight into what the other characters are really feeling, which I might have appreciated - although I admit this is definitely Milly's tale to tell. 

Milly really carried the story well for me. As a character she's vulnerable and yearning for love, yet her manipulation of her foster family, especially her foster mother, is delicious. It's the off-hand comments and subtle remarks that lead her family to doubt themselves that show she's really coming into her own. The student becoming the master. The slow unravelling of her foster family's life, and Milly at the heart of it, begs the question - is Milly the puppet or the puppet master? I thought this was wonderfully done.

Phoebe, her foster sister, is another great character. In some ways she's Milly's twin - yearning for the love of her mother, yet not receiving it in the way she craves. Acting out, bullying Milly at school, reflects her insecurities with her home life - and you can see the jealousy she has with regards to Milly muscling in on her taken-for-granted family time.

The ending I found strong. The build up to it paid off in such a way that I knew something was going to happen, but not quite what and when. The consequences of actions pans out perfectly.

A great thriller, that I feel has rightly been called one of the best this year.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - The Hanging Girl by Eileen Cook

A book with a lot of potential, with plenty of plot twist and turns, that unfortunately left me a little bit lacking.

The Hanging Girl opens on Skye, a girl who uses her acute observation skills to 'read' her fellow students and give tarot card predictions. Because of this 'gift', she's drawn into an uneasy game with the mysterious Pluto that involves kidnapping one of her school colleagues, the daughter of a Judge running for office. However, the kidnapping doesn't quite go to plan, and we see Skye trying to deal with the aftermath as things start to spin widely out of control as the police start to question her 'gift'.

Unfortunately, I'm somewhat restricted in what I can write in this review without giving too much of the twists away. The plot itself I found rather slow. For a good 60% of the novel, all we see is Skye trying to deal with the kidnapping and the immediately aftermath with 'Pluto', and her inner turmoil regarding the police scrutiny she's placed under. I found the first plot twist clever. I hadn't anticipated it, and found it was a different route for the typical 'mystery' story to go down. However, the further plot twists come a little too late, as so much of the story needs to be wrapped up and concluded in a short space of time. Although the story kept me interested enough for me to continue reading, the ending felt rushed, and a little underwhelming. I felt it would have been better to spread these plot twists throughout the book, to give us time to process them instead of jumping onto the next plot twist so quickly. I also think more of the novel should have been spent on the aftermath of the kidnapping going wrong as apposed to the build up the kidnapping.

I also found myself having to suspend my disbelief with regards to the plot line rather frequently. The police just seem to accept that Skye and her mother have these 'visions' without question, and repeatedly go along with it. I found it hard to believe that a competent police department would involve, or be allowed to involve, an 18 year old girl in a high profile investigation (at one point they mention bringing in the FBI).

I found Skye highly irritating as a main character. She repeatedly lies and lies to the police, digging herself into a deeper hole, yet I felt the author was trying to illicit some sympathy for her when the kidnapping goes wrong. At no point is she really sorry about what happens (she even states that she's not sad about what happens), but rather she's only concerned about herself and what could happen to her. For this reason, I just couldn't find any emotional attachment to Skye. In fact, I wanted her to get her comeuppance.

Skye's mother is probably the worst character however. At first she's merely deeply annoying - calling the media when Skye has her 'visions' which could potentially interfere with the investigation, and milking the media attention for money. However., by the end I thought she may redeem herself by coming across as a loving mother. She didn't.

Skye's relationship with her best friend Drew felt forced. At one point they have an argument about moving to New York, but I felt there wasn't much emotional involvement between the two. At most I felt sorry for Drew having such an awful best friend. She repeatedly tries to open Skye up and make her discuss her problems, but Skye just shoots her down.

Overall, I could see the potential here. The author tries to move away from the typical 'mystery' novel, with a missing girl. The last third of the book was definitely an improvement on the beginning, however I felt it was a bit little too late for it to truly redeem itself.

 - 3 Stars

Book Review - The Lost Village by Neil Spring

The perfect accompaniment to a chilly October evening, The Lost Village blends together fact and fiction to form a creepy tale filled with ghosts and long-forgotten memories.

Most of the action is centered on the 'lost village' of Imber. Found on the Salisbury Plains, many years ago soldiers forced the inhabitants out to use it as a military base in the first World War. Once a year the inhabitants are allowed back to visit former loved ones buried in the churchyard. However, mysterious ghostly sightings that have driven the soldiers mad, and rumors of the church bells ringing on their own have started to occur in Imber, with many inhabitants claiming it's the former inhabitants rearing up to reclaim their forgotten village. Only Harry Price and his former assistant Sarah Grey can unravel the truth. Is this an elaborate hoax? Or the work of the undead?

After a brief prologue involving an elderly Sarah and a ghostly visitation, we jump straight into the action with a younger Sarah investigating the Brixton picture house, which has a notorious reputation for ghost sightings. I found myself feeling as though I was there with Sarah as she explores the dark rows of seats, and there's an almost palpable tension created as she realises that the 'ghost light', usually left on by the last employee to leave on an evening, is switched off. This opening scene was a great  introduction to the overall feel for the rest of the novel, which was deeply atmospheric, creepy and filled with paranormal activity.

The plot itself, where we find Harry and Sarah in Imber, is fast paced, with plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing until the end. Just when I thought I'd figured something out or solved a mystery, the author threw something unexpected in, which kept me on my toes and allowed me to really enjoy this. It's not often I'm taken by surprise by a story-line, and I was pleasantly surprised. I also liked how the plot all linked together - from the picture house to Imber and the elderly Sarah we see at the beginning. It was cleverly done, and showed that all aspects of the story had a purpose and were thoughtfully considered.

I loved the relationship between Harry and Sarah, which was complex and almost love/hate. It's acutely apparent that Sarah is in love with Harry, but regrets from her past prevent her from acting on this. She also knows just how deeply under Harry's spell she is, and hates herself for it. I loved that aspect of her character. I also liked the fact that the author does not try to present Sarah as anything other than what she is - she feels like a 'proper' person from her time period. There's no 'modern' ideologies, which is great, and nothing about her feels forced.  

Harry is more complicated a character. As we only see things from Sarah's perspective, it's hard to get a grasp on who he really is and how he feels about Sarah. He often comes across as quite abrasive, and short with people who do not share is opinion. At one point in the story he's also appears to complete drop his own perspectives about the paranormal after one particular incident, which felt a bit out of place for him - especially as Sarah is convinced that it's a hoax. 

My main issue with Sarah and Harry was that I felt there wasn't any proper closure between the two characters at the end. I wanted the two of them to talk about their past together, which never happened - and so much was left unspoken that I was a little bit disappointed at the potential that was missed there.

However, I found this an exceptionally well written tale with a great amount of atmospheric detail that kept me enthralled to the end.

The Lost Village will be available to purchase from 19th October.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

Once there was a girl who was drawn to wicked things...

I ended up really, really enjoying this. The Last Namsara follows Asha - the daughter of the dragon king of Firgaard, as she tries to atone for her sins of the past and embrace the role of dragon slayer, warrior and weapon. The Iskari. Betrothed to the high commander, trapped in a cycle of death and hate from all around her, when she's offered the chance of freedom by destroying the First Dragon Kozu, Asha seizes the opportunity. Forming an unlikely bond with her commander's slave, Asha comes face to face with the beast that haunts her dreams, and uncovers some truths along the way.

At first glance this seems like a straight forward fantasy YA novel with dragons, but on reading it's so much more than that. At the heart it's about a girl overcoming the beliefs and prejudices instilled in her by her father, and a fight for the rights of the slaves and people of her county. It's really about freedom.

Interlaced with this plot is a magical world and a mythology that is well crafted and detailed. The idea that speaking old stories can draw dragons and power to the wielder is a rather unique and a wonderful idea. I loved the interjections of the old stories throughout the text which interweave and support the main story. They felt almost lyrical in their presentation, and I was actually craving for more of them. The dragons themselves also have wonderful personalities, and I really felt a bond with them - especially Shadow. Asha's relationship with them is also great to see unfold - from her initial mistrust (mutual) and her growing love and respect for them. I did cry at one point.

Asha, The Iskari, was a wonderful main character. She's feisty, and powerful yet vulnerable to the men who ultimately hold her in their power. It's her journey that really makes her character so strong however. She starts the novel as a hated warrior, feared by all with no love for anything besides her brother and cousin. She has no respect for the dragons or slaves, yet as we progress we see her begin to warm to others and realize that she might have more in common with these people and creatures than she first thinks.

Jarek is a wonderfully mean character. He's loathsome, mean spirited and resentful with a lust for power and domination over Asha. This is displayed perfectly in the passages about Asha's wedding gown, which Jarek has designed so that she can't get out of it herself and must resort to having someone else do it for her - an ultimate act of submission and humiliation for Asha.

I felt the only weak link in the story was Asha's love interest. It starts out strong, with a 'forbidden love' element that builds slowly, but as the story progresses it becomes a little bit cumbersome to the plot and slows down the pace as we spend time with Asha mooning over him and repeatedly stating that she needs to keep away from him 'for his own good' and 'to keep him safe'. Many times I just wanted her to realise that he could look after himself and get on with the adventure. 

I really believe this is a wonderful fantasy novel, with generally good pacing and plenty of action. I look forward to the next installment.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

'You took that hope away. You decided I didn't deserve to have it'.

Confession: I haven't watched the Netflix show based on this book, so I went into the story with an open mind and completely unaware of where the plot was heading. The result, for me, was a little mixed.

Clay Jensen receives a mysterious package in the mail that contains 13 tapes. On listening to the first cassette, he realises that the voice he's hearing is that of Hannah Baker, a student at his high school who's recently taken her own life. By listening to the tapes, and visiting the places Hannah has been in the recent past, Clay begins to put together the 13 reasons Hannah committed suicide, and why he's made 'the list'.

I liked the premise for this - the idea that it isn't one incident that leads to someone taking their own life, but rather a series of seemingly small and insignificant things that can build up to push someone too far. I felt Hannah's loneliness and desperation in the story, and although some may call her selfish and hyper sensitive, I could relate. I liked her. I understood her reasons behind wanting to finally stop her life, and by the end I was (like Clay) willing someone to intervene - even though we know it's hopeless.

Although we know the inevitable outcome of the story, I enjoyed the journey it took to get there. I was genuinely surprised by some of the revelations that were revealed, and I liked discovering things at the same time as Clay. It felt that we were learning about Hannah together. Having said that, I thought the ending was a little flat. I wanted to see how things turned out with Skye, and what he would have said and acted differently, knowing what he now knows about Hannah.

At times I also found the jump between narrators confusing and a little off putting. I sometimes has to reread previous sentences from one narrator to the other so that I could remember what was going on.

This was an easy read, and although I wouldn't call it enjoyable due to the subject matter, it was interesting, and I genuinely wanted to know more about Hannah's journey.

 - 3 stars

Book Review - The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures by Aaron Makhne

A perfect book for Halloween.

The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures is a guide to the weird and wonderful bits of folklore and legend that roam our earth surrounding mysterious creatures. Each chapter presents a specific type of 'creature' for examination, before providing a number of local legends that relate to that creature with beautifully illustrated prints throughout.

The author does a good job at 'setting the scene' with these creatures. Each chapter is well defined, and categorised well, which makes the writing easy to follow and very engaging. This is certainly one of those books you can pick up and put down with ease, and the author also does a really good job at creating a decent atmosphere. Reading this late at night, I was certainly creeped out by certain chapters (the dolls and ghost in particular).

As with most books of this nature, I found some chapters more interesting than others. I was less interested in the 'flying animal' stories than I was with the dolls, ghosts and vampires. I also would have at least liked a mention of Whitby when discussing Dracula and Bram Stoker. I felt at times the writing was definitely geared more towards an American audience in this sense.

That said, I thought this was a very thorough introduction into the world of folklore, and it's certainly piqued an interest in this area for future reading material at this time of year.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - The Canary Club by Sherry D. Ficklin

A very YA look into the world of prohibition era New York, with a dash of gangsters and a frothy romance thrown in.

Canary Club follows 'Bad Luck' Benny - fresh out of jail, and Maisie, daughter of the local 'mob' boss who Benny ends up working for. Maisie is head strong, like her father, yet vows not to follow in his footsteps. Benny is determined to keep on the right side of the law, yet is drawn into a murky underworld in order to provide for his ailing family. With Maisie facing trouble as the pawn in her families fight for control of the city, she turns to the one person she thinks will be able to help her. But can love win over business?

I enjoyed the author's descriptions of prohibition New York. It's an area of history I know little about, and I adsorbed every little morsel of description that was written about it.The slang used is also rather delightful, and for the most part the story itself is well written.

However, this is where it sort of all starts to fall apart for me as I really didn't like either of the main characters. Maisie is rather one dimensional, naive and doesn't really have much going for her. At times I found her boring and shallow. She also comes across as too modern for her era. One of my gripes in historical fiction is making a female character appear to be so brazen in her 'repressed woman' status for her time period, which Maisie frequently laments. It seems really out of character for a woman of her era to express herself in such a way, and it irritates me. 

Benny, as Maisie's love interest, doesn't seem very realistic - he's a mash up of every 'down on his luck' 'jack of the lad' character that's been done before, and far better. Again, he's very one dimensional with no emotional depth and little development throughout the novel.

The plot itself is very centred around the romance elements, and unfortunately it's a case of instalove at its finest. There's no build up to Benny and Maisie falling in love etc. or even any courtship - it's just instantaneous infatuation and it all feels a little bit too 'sweet'. You'd expect a bit of grit for a gangster book. Speaking of 'grit; the 'big bad' is also extremely one dimensional, with little input from the author with regards to making him appear more human and less a simple plot device to provide a problem to the main characters. 

I think that's one of the biggest issues with the book - there's just no depth to any of the characters.

The rest of the plot is also rather flat and predictable. I guessed what was going to happen constantly, and I was never surprised by anything in the plot. Because of this, I did unfortunately find myself getting bored. The whole story line just felt a little underwhelming and rushed - especially the ending. I would have preferred it if more time was spent developing and delving deeper into the characters emotions. Because it was so lacking, I just couldn't get emotionally invested in anything that was happening.

Unfortunately underwhelming for me, but I think this will definitely appeal to those looking for a heavy dose of romance mixed with a sprinkling of history.

2 stars

Book Review - The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

Don’t bleed.

I really enjoyed this, and despite it only being a novella I found the story incredibly well written and unique in its concepts.
Ever since she can remember Molly has watched herself die, hundreds of times. Whenever she bleeds, a ‘molly’ is born. Her twin in every way. Except all the mollys want to do is kill Molly. And as she grows, the mollys do too - and they get better at fighting back.

I’m amazed at how much detail the author managed to pack into this novella. Molly is a deeply complex, intelligent character with a rich background. I warmed to her plight immediately, and enjoyed the relationship she shares with her parents, as they fight to preserve her secret, and later with the people she meets at college. I thought she was well developed, and in essence also deeply flawed. I’ve never really read a character quite like her, and I loved her for it. Her emotion, or lack thereof, at certain points throughout the story really appealed to me. Her parents come across as deeply loving and obviously protective of Molly, yet also allow her a certain degree of independence in a world which would never accept her if they knew what Molly was capable of.

The plot itself is also extremely interesting. Molly’s exploration into why she can produce the ‘mollys’ was great, and the fast pace kept me entertained right until the end. Although wrapped up well, there were also several points hinted at near the end of the story that were left unanswered, and if the author so desired, I would love to see Molly again and learn about the wider world in which she inhabits.

 - 5 stars

Book Review - The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

The perfect book for a cold Autumn night, The Silent Companions kept me up half the night with fright for all the right reasons.

We start by meeting psychiatric patient Elsie Bainbridge, hiding from a traumatic past with the threat of the hangman looming above her. She seems to harbour an irrational fear of wood, and has lost the ability to speak. With the help of a newly enthusiastic doctor, she starts her recovery by writing down her version of recent events. We are then thrown into Elsie's life a year previously, as she arrives newly widowed and newly pregnant at the ancestral home of her late husband with a spinster cousin, Sarah. The housekeeper and servants are inept, and the local villagers openly hostile - holding a grudge following a number of tragic accidents some years ago. On top of this, the house has a menacing atmosphere - with strange noises at night and the sudden appearances of sinister silent companions that seem to move from room to room.With the discovery of a diary from 200 years ago, Sarah and Elsie hope to answer the reasons behind the unnatural feel to the house - but what they discover may have been better left hidden.

There are three main timelines within the story - Elsie within the psychiatric facility, Elsie at the ancestral home a year previously, and the diary story line of 200 years prior. At times, I found the diary story line quite dull and wanted to skip it. A lot of the information provided within this timeline is rather obvious, and is repeated later on by Sarah anyway. I also didn't really warm to any of the characters. I think perhaps if more time had be spent dedicated to this story line, instead of in small chapters that interrupted the flow of the main narrative, I would have appreciated the information it offered more. The other two timelines worked well together, and the characters here were much more well developed.

Elsie is a wonderful main character - to see the change from newly widowed yet still hopeful woman, to deranged mad woman was a large task to take on - yet I feel Laura Purcell handled it well. You feel as desperate as Elsie does when no-one believes her story, and I found myself really rooting for her - even though I knew it was ultimately hopeless.. The subtle hints scattered throughout Elsie's backstory relating to her late mother, father and Jolyon were also craftily done. I like it when books sometimes don't spell everything out for the reader, and allow their own deductions to work out the mysteries.

Sarah I was less enamoured with. On multiple occasions I found Sarah's obsession with her family history grating, and her insipidness really annoyed me. I understood the reasoning behind this though, as I felt that this was how Elsie felt about Sarah at the beginning too - and indeed their relationship development was definitely a positive to the narrative, although I still thought Sarah relied too heavily on Elsie to 'solve' everything.

That said, the book itself has such a good atmospheric, creepy feel to it  that I was immediately drawn into the world. There's an underlying sense of foreboding throughout - and although there's a slow build up of tension, the release at the end of the novel really packed a punch. The ending was pretty obvious,but I was still genuinely left feeling unsettled and frightened, and it will be a long time before I forget about the silent companions. Perfect for spooky nights.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existance by Michael Marshall Smith

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I went into it not quite knowing what to expect, but the result was a brilliant little quest into Hell with Hannah, her family, and a very funny little mushroom.

Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence opens, eventually, on Hannah - an eleven year old girl who has been sent to live with her nomadic grandfather while her parents begin the process of separating. Hannah thinks that although a little 'different' with his lifestyle choices, there's nothing especially exciting about her grandfather, until the sudden appearance of a mysterious man in black who appears to call himself The Devil comes calling asking for help from an old friend.

This reminded me a lot of Good Omens, and in a good way. It was funny, well written and the story flowed well, with some great characters. I liked the relationship between Hannah and her grandfather, and the relationship she starts to build with The Devil. However, the star character in this has got to be Vaneclaw the accident demon. From the moment he is literally peeled off an innocent bystander, Vaneclaw lights up the story. He's funny, and stupid, and offsets the deadpan quality of the Devil. The scene with Vaneclaw and the squirrel in particular stands out, and had me actually laughing aloud.

The story itself was also good. It was fast paced and well developed but not complicated. Everything made sense, and fitted well within the context of the story. There was also scope for any possible sequels within this world, although the ending was satisfactory as a stand alone.

It wasn't perfect however. I would have liked to have seen a little more character development from the rest of Hannah's family - her parents and Aunt Zoe. I felt they were a little lacking in personality compared to the other players in the story, especially Aunt Zoe, who only really comes into her own near the end of the story, and by this point I'd lost interest in her.

All round, an excellent story.

 - 4 stars

Book Review - The Goblins Of Bellwater by Molly Ringle

Can we just take a minute to appreciate that cover...gorgeous.

Anyway. I thought this was an interesting concept, mixing contemporary fiction with fantasy. I know the author has done this previously with Greek mythology, so I was looking forward to a good blend of fae and magic in a modern setting. From the start I liked the goblins, they're just on the right side on sinister. However, I wished Kit was more engaging. He wasn't particularly charismatic enough to carry the story. I found the first part of the story quite whimsical and entertaining, and just on the right side of creepy. This soon descended into a more traditional romance however. I'm not a romance novel fan.

It felt a bit like instalove with Skye and Grady. I know it's suppose to be explained by this goblin mating pull, but I thought it was an easy way out of giving them a history or some sort of reason as to why they should just suddenly be kissing in the forest. I never did quite find the love story believable.

I guess I was expecting a bit more of the fantasy and less of the romance, which unfortunately didn't really materialise. I think if this was marketed more as a contemporary romance novel instead of fantasy it may gain the right readers.

- 3 Stars