Review: A good concept, but needs a little work.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 30, 2013
There’s a good story in here, but it’s half lost in a mish-mash of styles and several tangents . The main story—about a girl who discovers her family’s secret past and her part in it—is more of a supernatural, earthy story. People gain power from the four Elements, but one group has overstepped their boundaries and has used their power for evil, not balance.This story is good unto itself—but then fantasy creatures are added, a very Harry Potterish school is thrown in, and all this somewhat detracts from the main story. The story is a bit too long and could be edited also.I liked the characters, although there’s a lot of them, and sometimes they’re hard to follow. I thought the concept for the book was original, but parts (the school scenes for one) seemed more of an afterthought and, although they were fun to read, didn’t totally fit with the story.The author also puts in a lot of footnotes at the end of each chapter. While these footnotes are interesting to read, they do detract from the story in that they stall the reader, making it easy to lose track of the storyline.Parts were great to read though, and with a little tightening up and editing, I think this could be a terrific book. I just don’t think it’s quite there yet, in this form.Nik's Picks Book Reviews[...](The author provided me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.)