Review: ETERNAL SEAS by Lexi Rees

Eternal Seas by Lexi Rees
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Such a small parcel shouldn't cause experienced smugglers much trouble, but this parcel is far from normal.

Lost and scared after a violent storm, Finn and his sister, Aria, take shelter on a remote island. They discover the parcel contains a relic belonging to a long forgotten people. Locked inside are powers which will change their lives, and the world, forever.

As Finn realises his connection to the relic, a vision strikes him - but what does it mean? Who should they trust? And if they decide to follow their hearts rather than their orders, will they manage to deliver the relic in one piece?

Chased across the seas as they try to solve the mysteries within the parcel, the fate of this ancient people depends on them. Finn and Aria must choose between what is right and what is easy - and time is running out ...

I was delighted to get the opportunity to read an early copy of this book--huge thanks to the author and publisher.

This is the first MG novel I've read in over a year (as I usually read and review YA and adult), but as soon as I'd read the first couple of pages, I knew I was going to love it. This is such an action-packed fantasy tale, perfect for fans of Harry Potter who are looking for a magical, nautical adventure.

What really struck me about the prose was the sea imagery. It really is beautiful, and the language is evocative and rhythmic--but it's not overdone or overwhelming in any way, and it's at a suitable level for its intended readership. (I really appreciated how Lexi Rees doesn't write 'down' to her readers or over-simplify things, just because they're children, as I've noted this can be a problem with many MG and children's books.)

The characterisation is strong, and there's a very good dynamic between protagonist and antagonist (and this is definitely a villain who readers will love to hate). I particularly liked how charged Finn and Aria's names are--not to give too many spoilers here, but once you've read it, it becomes obvious why they have these names and I thought that was a lovely touch.

A big theme of ETERNAL SEAS is loyalty, and I loved how the author integrated such a powerful message as she tests her main character's loyalty as secrets are revealed. But it's done in such a way that it's not preachy at all, and it is an entertaining read--for both adults and children. The pages simply brim with energy, and this is an atmospheric read that just grabs you.

In short, ETERNAL SEAS is a must-read for young fantasy fans.

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Review: HEAD CASE by Niki Cluff

Head Case by Niki Cluff
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I was given an e-ARC of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

So, for me, Head Case is a hard book to rate. I’m going for a 3.5 because while there were many things I liked about it, there were a few things that just seemed off, and a couple of things that just didn’t suit me as a reader.

The plot of this book is, based on my personal reading experience, original (though I haven’t read many other books of a comparable genre), and I found it refreshing. The opening chapter immediately had me hooked, and I was eagerly reading. The writing is, on the whole, well-written, and characterisation is good.

The imagery is also really great. I particularly loved the image of the old woman waiting in the corner of the hospital room, and how Ally reacted to her. That really infused personality and atmosphere into the scene.

Unfortunately, I had quite a few of issues with the pacing—particularly when Ally reaches the new game world, the pacing seemed slow and the writing got a little heavy with description and threw me off a bit. All the tension that the author had built up started to disappear at that point, and I was a little saddened as up until then I’d felt really invested. It made it a little harder to get back into the story, but I ploughed on. And I’m aware this could be my personal preference as I do prefer fast-paced books.

The other big thing that I didn’t like was how easy it was for Ally to get her parents to believe her when she astral projects to them (particularly the first time) and tells them what the doctors are really doing. It just seemed a bit too easy and I didn’t really believe it. And similarly, there was the same thing with Harrison’s parents too. I would’ve liked a bit more of an obstacle there, some sort of added layer of conflict, rather than keeping the conflict sources as the doctors and Ash.

Ally herself was a great character and really well developed. She felt real, and I liked finding out about her hobbies and interests—especially as they are so different to mine. I went into this book thinking it would be more dystopian sci-fi than it is, and I think that it was these expectations that meant I couldn’t quite get into the book as much as I wanted to as it’s centred around these hobbies—computer coding (which I don’t know much about) and gaming (and I’m not a gamer)—and it assumed some prior knowledge, especially for terminology linked to the coding. I haven’t read other LitRPG novels so this book felt a little “unknown” to me and I personally found it harder to understand the worldbuilding (despite being an avid sci-fi fan) but it was interesting.

Head Case also has an Alice In Wonderland vibe with many of the characters relating in some way to Lewis Carroll’s. This is something that I wasn’t really expecting and I found I really liked it, especially with how the author has put a slant on it. It also helped greatly with the characterisation of the other characters, and made them easier to remember and distinguish once I realised it, as up until then I’d been getting a couple of them mixed up.

Overall, this is a book I think fantasy gamers will enjoy greatly.

Review: CELESTIAL by S.E. Anderson

Celestial by S.E. Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever since I read S.E. Anderson's debut, STARSTRUCK, I've been hooked on her books. These are fun sci-fi adventures like no others I've read, and I was lucky enough to get an advance reader copy of the fourth in the series, CELESTIAL.

And let me tell you this: With phenomenal character development, huge plot twists, and worldbuilding that gives us something new in the Starstruck world, CELESTIAL is an entertaining adventure and an emotional story that really makes you think about what's right and wrong.

The main thing about this book is it's so different to the others. We see a whole new side to Sally as her mental health is explored further, and as she jumps into the role of Goddess for a group of people she's only just meant. She becomes almost harder-faced and harsher, and some of her decisions surprised me, but I really liked how we saw her confidence grow. She felt like she'd grown into her role within the space-traveling-trio and she owned it--she's far from a tag-along now. She spoke her own mind, and although at times I didn't agree with her or her actions, I appreciated that she felt strong.

The other thing that's really different is the worldbuiling. There's less science-fiction in this book compared to the others in the series, and it's more fantasy-based, more spiritual. I really liked that and the new setting allowed us to see new sides to all the characters (not just Sally). I especially liked how we see much more of Blayde and understand her more.

The plot itself reminded me a lot of The Road to El Dorado, but it had a serious tone underlying it too.
The tension's high in this book, and there are many twists. Sort of a spoiler: there was also one death that made me cry.

And the ending...! Wow. I did not see that coming and evoked some VERY strong emotions. I can't wait for book five now.

Review: ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So it’s been about five or six years since I first read the Divergent trilogy, and I’ve recently been doing research into the structure of the final book of a YA dystopian trilogy or series, and so I’ve just finished reading Allegiant again.

I didn’t re-read books one and two again, but rather dived straight into book three in my analysis, and I definitely think that this time round, I have different thoughts on Allegiant. I don’t know whether this is because I’m coming to it in a more analytical way this time, rather than as just a reader.

So, the majority of this book is fast-paced and the writing pulls you in. I was particularly enthralled by the imagery and how less says more in a lot of places—particularly as we’re shown Tris’s emotions.

Bringing Tobias’s POV into this trilogy with the final book is still something that bothers me a little. On the one hand, it’s great for his character development—he felt like he had real depth and I loved getting to know him more. But, on the other hand, it changed the tone of the trilogy, and its direction. One thing I remember loving about Divergent and Insurgent is how connected I felt to Tris as a narrator. Her voice really shone through the prose, and it feels like that connection was lost with book three as it’s told through two points of view.

But this new narrative structure also works—and it paves the way for the ending. I’m trying to be spoiler-free in this review, but let’s just say it’s clear the ending wouldn’t have worked if we didn’t have Tobias’s POV too.

The other thing I briefly want to mention here is that, while I liked learning more about Tobias, I found it harder to relate to him in many ways in this book because of his name change. For so long, he was known by his nickname (Four) to Tris and us, yet for the majority of this book he’s called Tobias by Tris, and in his own chapters too. This did feel a little jarring to me. I understand this is probably a personal preference though as other books where a character’s real name has been revealed at a late point has also bothered me.

This book definitely has a bigger-picture feel to it (which makes sense given the ending for book two and how Tris and co leave the city and head for the Bureau). The new worldbuilding is impressive, and it definitely puts a new spin on everything in the first two books, but at times, for me, it felt a bit too much. Like things had changed a little too quickly.

But this bigger-picture feeling led to many characters taking on bigger, more dominant roles in this book’s plot than the previous books. It wasn’t just a boy and a girl trying to save the world—it was organised and involved the work of several of the lesser characters too, and I really liked this. It showed a group of people coming together to fight where each plays an important role.

This book also throws up a lot of questions regarding the ethics of science, experiments, and genetics, and questions how much people are responsible for their own actions. I found this discourse very interesting in the way it was integrated into the story, but it did change the tone quite a bit—this book seems more political than the previous instalments of the trilogy which could arguably be thought of as more entertaining reads.

The relationship between Tris and Tobias is well-written in this book and is one of the most realistic romantic relationships I’ve come across in YA literature. They fall out, nearly break up, and it shows the true ups and downs. I especially liked how insecurity was a theme. It felt authentic and a natural build up of the events in the last two books.

And the ending? I remember the first time when I read it I was super shocked. I both hated it and loved it. This time, going in with the knowledge of the ending led to a different experience as I discovered just how much foreshadowing there is in place and the inevitability of that event. Yet it also made the pacing at the end seem slower in the final chapters—something that, on my second read, seemed to upset the balance of the book a little.

Overall, Allegiant is an emotionally charged and powerful story, but it differs in tone and theme greatly from books one and two in its series, almost becoming something very different and unexpected.


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Review: Jane: A Retelling by Lark Watson

Jane: A Retelling by Lark Watson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Unfortunately this is a DNF for me at 10%. I am just not sure what to make of this book... On the one hand, this is described as a gothic romance retelling of Jane Eyre, and I love Jane Eyre retellings and anything gothic. But this book just didn’t do it for me. It felt flat, there was little characterisation for anyone other than the MC, and it lacked the atmospheric imagery typically found in gothic novels.

The pacing at the start seemed off to me—there’s a lot of exposition for Jane’s background in the very first chapter, which does build her character well, but it just seems too much in one go, particularly as every moment of her interview is given to us, yet in the chapters that follow we’ve got whole months passing in a page. This really disrupted the rhythm, and I’d have appreciated it a bit more if we were given more time with Jane as she settles into her new job, so we can see what it’s like, rather than just being told what happens over the course of a month. (I did love the how Jane clashed with the interviewer though, but in a quiet way.)

Linked into this, I also found there was lots of telling and not much showing. Jane’s being employed as a nanny, yet when she meets Adelia and begins nannying, we aren’t given anything to tell us about the girl from Jane’s POV, her impressions of her, or any descriptions really. Whole days pass in a single paragraph, and a page later and a whole month has passed and we know little about five-year-old Adelia or Jane’s relationship with her. What we do know about the girl is told rather than shown, such as: “But, I realized nothing would save me if I didn’t have a gift in hand as Adelia was a very materialistic girl” and it was the first time I began to get a sense of who the little girl was/what her personality is—but it didn’t grab me as the writing just seemed flat and I would’ve liked to have seen examples that proved Adelia was materialistic rather than being told it. Things like this should’ve been integrated into the story more, and I’m afraid I just didn’t connect as there’s very little about Adelia’s personality.

Instead, the language used to describe Adelia at times “others” her. Before we even meet Adelia (and in fact, we don’t get to witness an introduction with the girl) another character calls her “odd” as she doesn’t speak English. This isn’t called out by the protagonist—not even internally, which first person narrative allows for—and is just left to pass as a normal comment which in itself is problematic. It places her nationality as inferior to the other characters’ nationalities, and almost suggests the only thing worth noting as she is introduced is her otherness. There’s nothing about her personality at this point—which could’ve easily been slipped in if we’d been given a scene where the two meet.

Yet even this portrayal of Adelia as Other is not consistent, as we are given her dialogue in English and there’s very little, if anything, about her Spanish culture, except for that she’s “odd”. The protagonist is supposed to also be conversing with Adelia in Spanish, but I just didn’t believe it. Coming from a household where one of my parents would regularly speak Spanish and I knew it growing up, we’d have little Spanish phrases we’d all use (even slipping them into conversations that were otherwise spoken in English) and it would’ve been nice to see something similar as it would’ve just made it more believable—and it would’ve *shown* a bit more, which there was very little of.

By the time we get to where the gothic tropes come into play—Jane seeing a person in a window of a house that she’s told is empty—I’d unfortunately lost interest. It also didn’t help that even these scenes were basically told to readers with the exception of one or two nice images. The author could’ve really made these into atmospheric moments with lots of evocative imagery and gothic language, and I was disappointed to find this wasn’t the case.

I’m also under the impression this is a romance, but 10% into the story, and we don’t seem to have met the love interest. To me, this is another pacing issue.

So at the moment this is a DNF for me. Unfortunately, it’s just not my cup of tea.


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