REVIEW: Shadow of the Rose (Adversarius, book #1)

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

I had great difficulty getting into this story. As an avid fantasy reader, my attention is not that difficult to grasp. However, I found my interest in this book waning soon after the first page. The presence of fantasy tropes became quickly overwhelming. The writing was bland and choppy, the action was not thrilling, and the plot was vague. About 1/3rd of the way through the story I found little things were beginning to grate on my nerves, such as the typical fantasy name construction (multi-syllable with too many vowels), and the distracting use of dialect. The characters themselves were not much to write home about.

I think what really pushed me over the edge were the characters such as “Black Rose” and “Nightshadow”. They serve as a perfect indication of how unimaginative this world is.

I feel as though the writer has potential. If more time were spent on character development it could do a world of good for this story. If I could make one recommendation to the author, it would be to work on world and character building. Fleshing out your character’s voices is imperative to constructing a riveting tale.

I do not usually like to dole out such heavy criticism, but I honestly could not bring myself to enjoy this book. I really did try. But I never managed to become fully immersed in its world, which felt more like I was dabbling in a college D&D session. Actually, if I could compare this book to anything, it would be the Zarryiostrom series by Steven Plagman. Cliché and unimpressive.

This review is actually in conjunction with http://roomwithbooks.com/ - head over there to check out other reviews, excerpts, and much more!