Review: A Bit Disappointing
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2011
******SPOILER ALERT*******This is my second HKW book after "Hell Bent".  I understand "The Chosen Soul" was HKW's first book written some 10 years ago, and that it was revised by the author after reading some of the reviews.  Well, I think it might have needed a second revision.First off, let me say the author writes very well in general.  She also is highly imaginative and her action/battle scenes are exciting. As I'm still fairly new to the Fantasy Genre, it did take me a few chapters to immerse myself in the world setting.  As in "Hell Bent" I felt the situations were reasonably complex and the characters numerous.  It took me a while to sort everything and everyone out.  In fact, by the 40% mark (no page numbers on Kindle) I found myself growing confused about the three male love interests, mixing them up to such an extent that I had to go back to re-establish their identities.  They were all wonderfully handsome, had numerous magical powers, hypnotic eyes and all of them fell heavily for Raven/Winter.  That became a problem for me as the story progressed.  I got a little tired of all the handsome men wanting her so badly.The next problem for me was our heroine, Raven/Winter, herself.  She was kinda wimpy right up to the very end of the book.  I'm sure that finding out your father is a devil would be a shock, as would realizing you have demonic powers of your own.  But when your life, or those of your loved ones are threatened repeatedly (and I do mean, repeatedly, as in everyone is out to kidnap or rape you over and over again), then own those powers and use them to save yourself, woman!  Can't just stand on those exceptional good looks.Full points for the many great plot twists.  However, at one crucial point about 60-70% along, I must have been distracted and missed an important point.....that Cruor was Gray Beard!  Boy, I felt dumb over that one when I had to go back a few chapters to sort it out.  It threw me off that the character was called by both names later on in the narrative.On the whole, the plot was a little disjointed, but the individual plot ideas & inventions were interesting and imaginative.  I liked some of the characters a lot, like Loki and Abonides.  I found the names a little bit difficult at first but got used to it by the end.Perhaps, ultimately a bit dark in tone, and I do agree with other reviewers that the novel ended abruptly, like "time to wrap this up now and finish up in a sequel some day".  Raven/Winter didn't win points by resigning herself to life with the Elven Prince, but I guess she was just being practical since Drake was gone.  She was probably tired after fighting off all her abductors and needed a good rest.I will be reading the author's other books as I bought them all, they were such a good price.  But I do hope they will be a more satisfying read than "The Chosen Soul" was.June 9, 2011 - Edited typos.