Eeny Meeny (22/05/2014)

I received Eeny Meeny from Goodreads as an ARC. I have to say firstly, that I loved this book so much. I loved the short, to the point chapters, which made me go, “I’ll just read one more.” Then an hour later I would still be going. This book is crime based fiction, and I had forgotten how much I like reading this type of story. Unlike other crime fictions that I have read in the past, I didn’t guess how the story would end, which is pretty amazing as I normally guess plot lines pretty early in books. This book had my thinking and second guessing right up to the end.

I was completely hooked on the premise of the story, seemingly random pairs of people, kidnapped and trapped in a situation where it is literally kill or be killed. The chapters based on these characters give you such a dark look at how dehydration and starvation can warp the minds of the average person. This book seemed to be based more on the characters and their feelings than going into, as is often the case in crime fiction, excruciating detail about the inner workings of detective work. This book, in my opinion had the right balance, there was enough detail so I knew it seemed realistic but not so much that I was getting lost and losing the pace of the story.

I would strongly recommend this book, it is written so well, and I never got lost with what was happening or thinking this is unrealistic. It is just an honest, good read that will give you some moments of “What the …!”

Shadow (15/05/2014)

Shadow is a beautifully written tale of people looking for happiness. The books opens with a small boy waiting for his mother to come and get him from a shed where he is waiting. He has been waiting so long the batteries have worn out on the cassette player he has which reads him his story book. Eventually the boy is found and it appears his mother has abandoned him at an amusement park. The story then shifts to the family of a renowned author as they find out about the death of their old maid.

Don’t be fooled by this opening as I was, there are many twists and turns within this book which take the tale in directions I was not expecting. I always worry when reading a book that has been translated from its original langue, that some of the more subtle meanings may be lost. However with this book I do not feel that I lost and depth or beauty. And whilst there was nothing that stood out in the way of errors or typos the only part I feel that let it down was the ending. Personally it just felt like everything had got really going and then it was done. On the plus side it also meant nothing felt dragged out or overly fluffed.

I would definitely recommend this book and it may be liked by those who enjoyed books such as Spilt Milk or Purge. I want to give it more than 3 stars but I personally need to feel more, and I always use the guidance phase and whilst I ‘liked’ it I didn’t ‘really like it’. This is in basic terms, a simple story of life and its issues with unexpected twists which test the characters in ways many people hope never to be tested by.

Enchantress (05/05/2014)

Enchantress is an epic fantasy by anyone’s standards, focusing primarily on the lives of brother and sister, Miro and Ella. The books starts with Miro in training to become a warrior and Ella, running a simple flower stall in the hopes of earning enough money to study enchanting at the academy. Without going into too much detail the sibling strive through many difficult situations and Miro goes into training to become a magical fighter known as a Bladesinger and Ella enters into training to become an enchantress.

Now, I liked the book, didn’t love it. It was free from the kindle store but I still would have expected better proof reading to have taking place. I can see the scope of the story and this the author tried really hard to bring everything together but sometimes the writing just didn’t feel as well structured as it could. As I was reading I almost felt I was re-reading to correct sentences in my head which made the going difficult and quite laborious. For instance one sentence which I cannot forget said, “Sweat dripped from his forehead to drip down his forehead, running into his eyes.” Just little thing like this made my not enjoy this book as much as I should have. Also I found same of the made up names for people or places hard to read, and just didn’t flow that nicely. As an avid fantasy reader I am not new to made up names/terms/places/phrases etc. but I have never been slowed down quite this much.

However the book picked up in the last 10% and finally become the story it should have been. I probably will read the rest in the series as this first book may have been a learning curve. Also I would like to see more development of Ella and Killian (possible red-haired love interest) as this started in this first book and then they ended up in different places. You do get a lot of story in this book, it almost feels like a trilogy in one volume. I have read much worse books but I have also read many better books unfortunately.