Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Sol’s Solstice
SERIES: New Beginnings #1
AUTHOR: Leona Windwalker
PUBLISHER: Rune Tree Press
LENGTH: 147 Pages
BLURB:
Sol is used to flying under his family’s radar, unless focusing unwanted attention away from his more outgoing, older twin. The day comes when he pays a steep price for attempting to shield his brother. Running for his life, he is nearly run down by a car driven by Seth. Can Seth help Sol find his way back from the darkness?
REVIEW:
This book absolutely held my attention from start to finish. I sat down thinking I’d just read a few chapters and instead read it from start to finish in one go. But I reached the end feeling a little conflicted, and frankly I’m still not entirely sure what I think of this story. I think I liked it. Usually for review books I’ll highlight as I read – blue means important plot points that may require a mention, orange means those actions don’t make sense to me, pink means I really like that part and yellow means WTF just happened!? This story ended up with so many different coloured stripes it looked like a zebra at a pride parade. While there are definitely many parts to this book that I enjoyed, some of it annoyed the heck out of me and unfortunately when that happens I can start to get overly critical of every action the characters make. So I checked out a couple of other reviews on this story and I think it’s only fair to point out that while this is my opinion and I don’t intend to adjust my rating so far the book has nothing but glowing ratings from other readers.
Firstly, and this hasn’t affected my rating but I feel the need to mention it, the blurb is pretty vague. If I came across this book on Amazon I’d probably pass it over because I like to have a better idea of what I’m about to start reading. Also, there’re themes that some readers don’t like to have randomly sprung on them and for me violent religious fanatics is one of them.
Leading on from that, the vague blurb and the cutish cover in no way prepared me for such a dark book. However, to be honest it, was the messed up, “bad” events in this story that I loved. Kudos to the author for going there actually. It would have been simple and kind of the norm to wrap everything thing up in a picture perfect HEA, all characters miraculously healed both physically and mentally. But instead, while the characters relationship gets the required HEA, they are left with realistic scars and problems that don’t just magically disappear. Much of my rating hinges solely on how much I enjoyed the surprisingly angsty direction this story took.
So, you could probably tell I was leading to a BUT…
The romance between Seth and Sol, the two main characters came across as so easy and perfect that I didn’t really feel any connection. They didn’t have to work for it. And while usually in angsty stories I look to the romance to lighten up the darkness, this romance felt so light that I felt it undermined the dark, if that makes sense. It was almost like those two aspects of the story didn’t fit together in the same book.
I also had some issues with the plot. The character of Ben, Sol’s twin brother, was just beyond my ability to comprehend. According to Sol, during their childhood they only had each other but a few months before turning eighteen they’re separated and Ben suddenly has zero interest in his brother’s life? And that was only the beginning of my problems with Ben who came across to me as so self absorbed I just…I couldn’t understand his actions and the ridiculous things that came out of his mouth.
My biggest frustration though is in regards to references of police procedure. To start with there is Sol’s belief that if he injures his mother or father while trying to escape from their twisted “intervention” that he may be arrested for assault. After the violent way their intervention came about? Maybe the book isn’t saying it’s actually possible for that to happen, maybe that’s just Sol being an idiot. But further on through the story when another incident occurs and multiple people are kidnapped at gunpoint, the police seem pretty unfazed and call it a domestic dispute. Now I have absolutely no idea how that would really be handled in the US. Perhaps that’s exactly how the police would react but it just seemed completely unbelievable to me.
Like I said, I’m conflicted over what I thought of Sol’s Solstice. Obviously I have some major concerns over some aspects of the story but at the same time I became thoroughly engrossed and enjoyed the book as I read it.
RATING: 
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