Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: The Adventures of Tarn and Beck Omnibus: Books 1 – 5
SERIES: The Adventures of Tarn and Beck
AUTHOR: Courtney Bowen
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 335 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 8, 2018
BLURB:
A collection of Tarn & Beck: Parts One-Five, these adventurous, extraordinary stories will liven up your day as Tarn, Beck, and their friends journey and explore their world, looking for fun, love, and excitement, but getting into danger and extreme situations. With magic, monsters, and mayhem also plaguing them, can Tarn, Beck, and their friends survive their quests?
The Cursed Coin
Beck’s struggled with being the son of a rat-catcher all his life, especially when his father Cedric vanished years ago. Fired from his job and fed up, Beck wants to leave the city he grew up in. But he needs money to start a new life, so he goes to the graveyard to dig up the gold coins his father buried, claiming they were cursed.
The Fariy Reel
Nutmeg and Cecily seek help from Eric the Relic Collector, who has his own theme song, to find Tarn and Beck. Meanwhile, Beck’s swept up in the enchantment of the dancing fairies. Can Tarn save him, or will the vampires have their way with them?
The Wizard’s Spell-Book
With Martin the satyr’s guidance, Tarn & Beck go see a healer to discuss their woes and problems. But when things go awry, can they crack the wizard’s spell-book and save themselves from disaster?
The Importance of Being Tarn and Beck
Beck wakes up onstage, trapped in the role of Algernon Moncrieff in an enchanted production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. He’s compelled at times to say lines he barely understands, and he’s soon joined by friends, family, and enemies, also stuck playing the other parts.
The Werewolf and the Chimera
Tarn arrives in Baxton to wait for Beck. Yet a werewolf has been spotted in the hills, and Tarn joins the hunt to escape his own pursuit.
REVIEW:
The Cursed Coin
Although these are five separate stories, they are all interwoven and so should be read in sequence as a series.
The Author did a pretty good job of setting the scene and world building. I felt I had a grip of what was going on, who the characters were and how they were related to each other.
The Fariy Reel
The story moves on with a linear continuation of the plot. However, we have picked up with different characters. Instead of beginning with Tarn and Beck, Cecily and Nutmeg tell their story, with inserts of Miranda and Carrol, now both vampires. Although the main story moves forward, there are asides, like Beck’s sojourn with the fairies, that introduce new characters. There are some surprises and a major shock about Beck’s mother. On the whole the story flowed smoothly.
At the end a new quest is revealed.
The Wizard’s Spell-Book
Again, the main story progresses with the adventurers taking another step toward their goal. In the meantime, both Tarn and Beck and Cecily and Nutmeg have their own adventures along the way. New characters are introduced to both groups, apparently transient, although the fairies keep turning up.
Again, there is a smooth progression of the story and the side quests have logical reasons for being.
The Importance of Being Tarn and Beck
This was my favourite book. Although the story doesn’t follow the plot of “The Importance of Being Earnest” entirely, and why would it, there is enough to make anyone with a passing familiarity with the original play smile. The author has very much put their own spin on it and it fits neatly into the tale.
The Werewolf and the Chimera
Another step and another discrete story. We’ve had vampires and fairies, now werewolves have their turn. There’s some excitement in this one, but warning, it ends on a cliffhanger, as does the entire collection. Although we are told there’s more on the way I’m not sure when that will be, and after the roller coaster it’s more than a little disappointing to be left hanging.
Overall review:
I found the stories absolutely enchanting. There is an impressive cast of characters all with very individual voices, and the stories themselves are inventive and detailed.
My problem is with the writing, which I have to say is a bit of a mess. I didn’t think the chapters made sense and there were perspective and scene breaks dotted through it all with nothing to mark them. Some of the sudden changes were extremely jarring and there were places I had to read over a few times to make sense of them.
There were some beautiful sentiments and evidence of mature, elegant writing, but they were jewels in a mire of bad grammar, naïve writing and abrupt changes of direction, with a lot of head-hopping going on. I can’t deny that this caused me some considerable difficulty in reading through to the end. It’s a shame because this collection has an enormous amount of potential. With some intensive editing the jewels could have an equally impressive setting.
That being said, I think a less technical reader who doesn’t mind looking past the writing to the stories themselves would find this collection absolutely enchanting. I really can’t fault the imagination, the story and the characters. There is a particular skit on “The Importance of Being Earnest” that I found particularly amusing.
RATING: 
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