Dariel Raye's Blog, page 23
July 2, 2012
Review – Read Me Dead
by
Emerald Barnes
Seven years ago, Alex Wheaton witnessed the murder of her parents. She was 10, and the murderer threatened to kill her if she told. Haunted by terrifying nightmares and debilitating memories during her senior year in high school, Alex turns to two male friends, Christian and Landon, for comfort. Both of them have romantic interest in her. Her constant volleying between them causes problems in their friendship as they vie for her attention, and eventually has disastrous results.
Despite Alex’ constant whining, weakness, and neediness, all character traits I generally hate, I still found myself eager to continue reading because of the strong, loveable secondary characters. Even Alex’ twin brother, Matt, feeling betrayed because Alex kept information about their parents’ death a secret from him, becomes disgusted with her inability to make a decision, but Burgess’ ability to create suspense not only in the macro plot, but in the sub-plots as well, kept my attention.
Alex’ character is a bit more tolerable because “Read Me Dead” is primarily a YA novel, and in light of her traumatic experience, Alex is allowed and expected to have some issues. All in all, though, casting her insipid character as the star is the only real weakness in this otherwise entertaining read, and the unexpected twist at the end was a treat. Recommended 3.8 out of 5 stars.
June 28, 2012
Erotic Romance Author Zenobia Renquist!
Erotic/paranormal romance author Zenobia Renquist will be gracing my blogger spot bright and early tomorrow! Zenobia writes a variety of romance, including interracial/multicultural (IR/MC), and is a sister administrative author at Color of Love! Stop by tomorrow and catch a glimpse of some of Zenobia’s books. She’s also provided a link to read the first chapters of her work! http://www.pendarielraye.blogspot.com
June 24, 2012
Review of Keepers of Water: Guardians of Nature Series by R.G. Porter
Keepers of Water: Guardians of Nature Series
By
R.G. Porter
Reviewed by Dariel Raye
Arieana’s brother, Rydan, has been murdered in the human realm by Arieana’s own people. Breaking the laws of her realm (the two realms are separated by a veil of magic), she crosses the veil to avenge his death and lay his spirit to rest. Once in the human realm, Arieana uses her magic and fighting skills to locate his murderers and uncovers a much broader plot to destroy the entire human race. Some of her people are convinced that humans are not only destroying the realm in which they live, but human carelessness and disregard for nature is causing devastating storms and destruction in their realm beyond the veil as well.
The fantasy/adventure filled with magical spells and otherworldly abilities should have kept me riveted to the pages, and it started that way, but slid into distracting scene changes with too many POV’s for my taste, and an abundance of “A” names. I managed to keep up, but three of the main female characters had somewhat similar “A” names, and even a tertiary male character had an “A” name. A trivial concern, but distracting, nonetheless.
Following the first scene, the action slowed for the next 50 – 55% of the story, with some of the characters not quite connecting, and nearly lost me. Not usually the type to skip to the ending, I was tempted. The author had roped me in enough to care how it ended, so that’s certainly positive, but the journey was not as magical as its description promised.
Redeemed by the latter half, I was glad I stuck with it, but along the way kept wondering what was missing. I didn’t immediately identify with the main character, Arieana, because my heart remained with her brother! She should have told the story from the very beginning, and perhaps I wouldn’t have needed more than 50% of the book to feel close to her and give up on her brother’s return. Actually, I still haven’t completely given up on Rydan. It is a series, afterall.
Overall, the plot and writing were fine, but emotionally, I barely connected with most of the characters. Porter gave the characters interesting abilities, Arieana is smart, strong, and capable of making wise decisions, and the series is promising, with a bit of mystery and intrigue. Developing an immediate emotional connection with readers is suggested for future books in this series. I rate it 3.25 because of Porter’s redeeming creativity and Arieana’s promise to grow on me.
