Reviewed by Cheryl
AUTHOR: Michelle Black
PUBLISHER: eXtasy Books
LENGTH: 284 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2020
BLURB:
When events occur that force London attorney Ray Telor to take a vacation, he heads to a faraway village he’d never heard of before. Aesil is peaceful, lovely, and a world lost in time. Ray is instantly charmed, but there’s a reason so few know of it.
He’s assigned to stay with the village outcast and healer, shy and beautiful Gale, who everyone in the village shuns. Ray cannot understand why until he discovers Gale could heal someone with his hands, but every time he does, death follows.
Enamored with the kind healer, Ray grows closer to Gale, but trouble brews when two children go missing and then two men. Ray finds himself on an unlikely adventure to uncover the secrets of the village of Aesil, the lands hidden beyond it, and becomes thrown into the conflict between its extraordinary inhabitants and a man-eating demon.
REVIEW:
The story is absolutely enchanting. It’s a perfect mix of contemporary and fantasy, and I loved the way the crossover was handled. The world building was smooth and made perfect sense. The movement from purely mundane, to something not quite right, to absolute fantasy was very smooth and handled well.
The characters are absolutely charming, although I wish either Gale or Grey had a different name because they are a little too similar and I got confused a few times. Kudos to the author for never once confusing them. Ray’s journey is the most extreme, going from a city lawyer to the saviour of a whole new world he hadn’t even known existed. However, all of the characters went on a journey and they all experienced growth and development. One of my favourite characters was Noze and he wasn’t even introduced until more than halfway through.
The plot was extremely rich and detailed with very few loose ends and I was particularly happy that the ending was not the neatly tied up happy ending it could have been. Although it was certainly a satisfactory ending that suited the characters. They were definitely happy, just not in the way we might have expected.
The real shame about this book was the fact that the writing was immature and clumsy. I struggled to make it past the first chapter until the story really gripped me and swept me along past the bad writing. It wouldn’t be fair to say the writing was wholly bad. The vocabulary was rich and the author definitely had the ability to pain pictures with nice details. However, it was certainly clumsy. The dialogue was sometimes fluid but often stilted and the particular language used was awkward. It was a great shame because a little work could make this book truly great.
I like delicate details and emotional depth. and both are present throughout. I felt for Gale throughout and suffered with him as he fought with his loneliness and self-doubt, and Ray struggling with his growing understanding of the strange world he found himself in, as it grew stranger and stranger. Their voices were very different and entirely consistent.
I would consider this book as a diamond in the rough. If you can get past awkward writing and clumsy style you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It is the kind of story that takes you on a journey and every time you think you’ve got a hold on it and know what’s coming next, things veer away and you find yourself in unfamiliar territory again. The surprised keep coming right to the end and none of it felt contrived.
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