CATEGORY: YOUNG ADULT FANTASY
Ageless (The Eerie Chronicles #1)
A beautiful lie is better than living with an awful truth…
Evelyn Whitmore, nearly seventeen-year-old, always knew that her extraordinary abilities of creating life from her skin and much more, will also be her undoing.
But still, she lived the illusion of an ordinary life in Cleaven Hill, England, where she could love her family, enjoy her powers in the confined space of her attic, stop her best friend April from getting into trouble and be secretly in love with the beautiful Connor Bright for the rest of her life.
Until a deadly curse had decided otherwise. Unknowingly, Evelyn is the last of a long lineage of female Whitmores who mysteriously die on their seventeenth birthdays.
When death comes knocking for her, she miraculously survives her fate and breaks the curse, but she also discovers that cheating Death comes with a terrible price…
Content Advisory: This dark fantasy novel contains some elements of horror genre, violence and cutting.
First off, I was intrigued by the cover art, it is attractive, and the title AGELESS does lead me to wonder, what exactly the fantasy element is? Does this person never age? Does this person live on agelessly in memories? What does it mean to be ageless for this fantasy novel? So, when the author asked for a review, I accepted the challenge. I'm also a big fan of dark romantic fantasy novels.
The writing is good, very few errors that pulled me out of the story. There were albeit A LOT of missing punctuation (periods and commas), and quite a few random extra letters in sentences. But where I marked the book down was on the story itself, I can read past the occasional spelling, punctuation, or grammar. This story lacked something to keep me interested in it while I read, too many concepts didn't appeal to me. I am not a super fan of stories that revolve around swanky events in the beginning of a novel, mostly because it has lost it's realistic appeal to me that there are so many teens out there that have a rich friend that has a big giant shindig for their birthday.
Now tell me about the rich friend that was forced to go to a gala event with their parents for their birthday, okay, I'll bite because it hasn't been done as much. It's just that the whole birthday celebration at the rich kid's house is over done for me. So, that reduced my interest level.
Want to put the character in a swanky event, give me something different for why they are there... and don't make it a birthday party for the school's rich kid. Give me the school's rich kid is spiteful and wants to rub their birthday in someone's face by renting out the poorest kid's house, and their parents can't refuse because they need the money, so their house is completely taken over and redecorated for the event and the poor kid has to serve at their own house instead of attend it like a normal person, and then intrigue... why does this person hate them that much?
I was disappointed on the why's behind things in this story. The writer has so much great writerly skills and I was just let down by plot and background of the why questions. Why do I care about this character, why do people like or dislike each other, why does she do what she does? But the main why was what kept me reading, it was a fun dark concept of WHY the character existed at all, and why she had powers. These were what kept me reading.
66% into the story, that's how long it took for me to actually get interested or connect with the character, during her rebirth so to speak. And that's a long way into the story for me to connect.
But, if you're super good at skimming the needed information when your reading, like my mom, she's super good at wiping through things that don't interest her to only slow down on the parts that do. The concept of this story is AWESOME! I just think that if this concept was brought into the story sooner then it wouldn't have taken me so long to read the book. I don't think the "beginning" should ever take up 66% of the story.
Introductions, the "before" life, the "setup", should have been reduced, condensed, and refined to only take up 40% MAX. But, despite this setback, if I had been a normal reader and didn't know whether the story would actually come to fruition, then I would have put this book down normally, and moved onto the next book...
[Let me tell you a secret... I DNR'd a popular book, Independent Study (The Testing Book 2) by Joelle Charbonneau, great first book, but the second book, I was left wondering what the point was... and lost interest... it probably got better again, but I have too many other books to read that keep my interest sooner and longer.]
Eve has some interesting abilities and you'll find out why around 66% through the book. This is where the book gets interesting for me. Honestly, I would have given this book a four-wing review if the beginning was refined and plugged in. Also, there were lots of missing punctuation. I don't really count the punctuation against the author (missing periods, and commas) because it didn't really pull me from the story that much, I could look past it. Also, character development wise, this character just "existed" for me until 66% through the book as well, I think that's why it took me so long to get through the setup phase of the book. I didn't like the character, because I couldn't really connect with her, she didn't seem flushed out, she was exactly what her parents made her out to be, invisible, and uninteresting. Only reason why I read further on was because her friend was more interesting, but then I was failed miserably by the WHYs behind that friend, why did the friend hate that rich kid so much, and I think the relationship with the little brother should have been developed a bit more in the beginning.
I found out those why's and I was let down by them, and I would have been alright with the basic answers if they were introduced sooner in the book, this book boils down to condensing and refining the beginning for me.
The last part of the book is actually interesting and I enjoyed it.
Again words I apparently am going to make my mantra are "What is important for the author to write the book, is not always important for the audience to read."
The book is good, I just saw so much more potential for it to be better, reaching for that 4-5 wing instead of falling flat at a regular read. Pushing beyond a one read book into a book that someone will want to read again when they've forgotten most of the meat of the story.
Sometimes I reread books that I remember enjoying the feeling it gave me and even though I remember most of the book, I re-read it because I enjoyed the journey. This book has that potential, I honestly hope the author will push for a re-release to knuckle down on the beginning to make this a stand out piece.
But despite that, it IS a series, and because the author already did all of her flushing out in the first book, I expect great things from the rest of the books in this series.
(Author suggestion: Have a proofreader go through the book to find the missing punctuation and random lingering letters, also some words that were missing from sentences, or the wrong word used.)
3-wing Review. - Heaven's Fiction Reviews
Please do follow the author around and check it out for yourself, I want to know your thoughts on this.
Bit about the author:
Originally born in the South of France, S. Ghali moved to London few years ago where she enjoys reading, writing stories and watch movies. And when her head isn’t dive into a good book, she loves travelling and spending time with her family and friends.
Her passion for fantasy and science fiction gave her the inspiration to write her first fantasy novel.
GoodReads
Website
Facebook
Amazon:
Want to be reviewed yourself, please visit my review page to request.
Also, Please join me in Twitterverse @authormarie
Book was provided by the author for an honest review, this was read on Kindle.
Ageless (The Eerie Chronicles #1)
Evelyn Whitmore, nearly seventeen-year-old, always knew that her extraordinary abilities of creating life from her skin and much more, will also be her undoing.
But still, she lived the illusion of an ordinary life in Cleaven Hill, England, where she could love her family, enjoy her powers in the confined space of her attic, stop her best friend April from getting into trouble and be secretly in love with the beautiful Connor Bright for the rest of her life.
Until a deadly curse had decided otherwise. Unknowingly, Evelyn is the last of a long lineage of female Whitmores who mysteriously die on their seventeenth birthdays.
When death comes knocking for her, she miraculously survives her fate and breaks the curse, but she also discovers that cheating Death comes with a terrible price…
Content Advisory: This dark fantasy novel contains some elements of horror genre, violence and cutting.
Review:
Short version: SUPER slow start, 66% of the book is setup, but great concept and story theme. Skim/fast read the first 66%, ignore the cliche rich kid at school party, and find the gold of the book beyond.
Fun, dark fantasy with a sweet romance sub-plot.
Short version: SUPER slow start, 66% of the book is setup, but great concept and story theme. Skim/fast read the first 66%, ignore the cliche rich kid at school party, and find the gold of the book beyond.
Fun, dark fantasy with a sweet romance sub-plot.
First off, I was intrigued by the cover art, it is attractive, and the title AGELESS does lead me to wonder, what exactly the fantasy element is? Does this person never age? Does this person live on agelessly in memories? What does it mean to be ageless for this fantasy novel? So, when the author asked for a review, I accepted the challenge. I'm also a big fan of dark romantic fantasy novels.
The writing is good, very few errors that pulled me out of the story. There were albeit A LOT of missing punctuation (periods and commas), and quite a few random extra letters in sentences. But where I marked the book down was on the story itself, I can read past the occasional spelling, punctuation, or grammar. This story lacked something to keep me interested in it while I read, too many concepts didn't appeal to me. I am not a super fan of stories that revolve around swanky events in the beginning of a novel, mostly because it has lost it's realistic appeal to me that there are so many teens out there that have a rich friend that has a big giant shindig for their birthday.
Now tell me about the rich friend that was forced to go to a gala event with their parents for their birthday, okay, I'll bite because it hasn't been done as much. It's just that the whole birthday celebration at the rich kid's house is over done for me. So, that reduced my interest level.
Want to put the character in a swanky event, give me something different for why they are there... and don't make it a birthday party for the school's rich kid. Give me the school's rich kid is spiteful and wants to rub their birthday in someone's face by renting out the poorest kid's house, and their parents can't refuse because they need the money, so their house is completely taken over and redecorated for the event and the poor kid has to serve at their own house instead of attend it like a normal person, and then intrigue... why does this person hate them that much?
I was disappointed on the why's behind things in this story. The writer has so much great writerly skills and I was just let down by plot and background of the why questions. Why do I care about this character, why do people like or dislike each other, why does she do what she does? But the main why was what kept me reading, it was a fun dark concept of WHY the character existed at all, and why she had powers. These were what kept me reading.
66% into the story, that's how long it took for me to actually get interested or connect with the character, during her rebirth so to speak. And that's a long way into the story for me to connect.
But, if you're super good at skimming the needed information when your reading, like my mom, she's super good at wiping through things that don't interest her to only slow down on the parts that do. The concept of this story is AWESOME! I just think that if this concept was brought into the story sooner then it wouldn't have taken me so long to read the book. I don't think the "beginning" should ever take up 66% of the story.
Introductions, the "before" life, the "setup", should have been reduced, condensed, and refined to only take up 40% MAX. But, despite this setback, if I had been a normal reader and didn't know whether the story would actually come to fruition, then I would have put this book down normally, and moved onto the next book...
[Let me tell you a secret... I DNR'd a popular book, Independent Study (The Testing Book 2) by Joelle Charbonneau, great first book, but the second book, I was left wondering what the point was... and lost interest... it probably got better again, but I have too many other books to read that keep my interest sooner and longer.]
Eve has some interesting abilities and you'll find out why around 66% through the book. This is where the book gets interesting for me. Honestly, I would have given this book a four-wing review if the beginning was refined and plugged in. Also, there were lots of missing punctuation. I don't really count the punctuation against the author (missing periods, and commas) because it didn't really pull me from the story that much, I could look past it. Also, character development wise, this character just "existed" for me until 66% through the book as well, I think that's why it took me so long to get through the setup phase of the book. I didn't like the character, because I couldn't really connect with her, she didn't seem flushed out, she was exactly what her parents made her out to be, invisible, and uninteresting. Only reason why I read further on was because her friend was more interesting, but then I was failed miserably by the WHYs behind that friend, why did the friend hate that rich kid so much, and I think the relationship with the little brother should have been developed a bit more in the beginning.
I found out those why's and I was let down by them, and I would have been alright with the basic answers if they were introduced sooner in the book, this book boils down to condensing and refining the beginning for me.
The last part of the book is actually interesting and I enjoyed it.
Again words I apparently am going to make my mantra are "What is important for the author to write the book, is not always important for the audience to read."
The book is good, I just saw so much more potential for it to be better, reaching for that 4-5 wing instead of falling flat at a regular read. Pushing beyond a one read book into a book that someone will want to read again when they've forgotten most of the meat of the story.
Sometimes I reread books that I remember enjoying the feeling it gave me and even though I remember most of the book, I re-read it because I enjoyed the journey. This book has that potential, I honestly hope the author will push for a re-release to knuckle down on the beginning to make this a stand out piece.
But despite that, it IS a series, and because the author already did all of her flushing out in the first book, I expect great things from the rest of the books in this series.
(Author suggestion: Have a proofreader go through the book to find the missing punctuation and random lingering letters, also some words that were missing from sentences, or the wrong word used.)
3-wing Review. - Heaven's Fiction Reviews
Please do follow the author around and check it out for yourself, I want to know your thoughts on this.
Bit about the author:
Originally born in the South of France, S. Ghali moved to London few years ago where she enjoys reading, writing stories and watch movies. And when her head isn’t dive into a good book, she loves travelling and spending time with her family and friends.
Her passion for fantasy and science fiction gave her the inspiration to write her first fantasy novel.
GoodReads
Website
Amazon:
Want to be reviewed yourself, please visit my review page to request.
Also, Please join me in Twitterverse @authormarie
Book was provided by the author for an honest review, this was read on Kindle.
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