Review: Great read if you love asian culture and ghosts
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 20, 2012
Moonlight Dancer by Deb Atwood is a story about Kendra MacGregor who is immediately attracted to a Korean doll she happens upon in a store. She must have it and makes many sacrifices to buy it. Turns out the doll is haunted by the spirit of a 16th century woman named Nanju, who imposes her needs on Kendra. Hiro, the man who sells her the doll, helps Kendra deal with the demanding ghost while struggling with his own dark past. Will the couple resolve their problems and appease the restless spirit  from the past? You'll have to read the book to find out.This book, which is set in modern time California, but bounces back to 16th century Korea in certain sections is an interesting read for its Asian culture atmosphere, but other than that, there is nothing really groundbreaking or unique about this ghost story. A possessed doll and ghost demanding closure are familiar themes. I hoped some new twist or character development would be added to the plot to make it unique, but there wasn't. I guessed the direction of this book about 25% of the way in and it followed that guess to the end. No surprises. It doesn't mean that will be every readers experience. I'm a writer.  I read a lot. I understand plot devices and it's hard for me to come across a novel, movie, idea, etc that surprises me. But when I do, boy do I fall in love!The book was well formatted. I only found a few areas where sentences cut off and continued on another line, two places I believe. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not. I saw no reason for it. The writing style was interesting, minimalist is the word that comes to mind. After a chapter or so I grew used to it and it no longer drew attention. Location 121 on my kindle was a bit hard to follow, but other than that everything happening was clear. I found around 23 typos, which is not bad. This book isn't released yet so the author may want to consider one more pass before putting it out. This novel was also free of many of the issues I've read in other self-published works, long passages of telling, passive writing. I feel this book is of publishable quality.*Later* I know the author did another pass for typos before releasing the book so the above mentioned may be fixed now.Some small things that irked me that might not bother other readers, the main character, Kendra, came across to me as extremely melodramatic. Every mundane action comes across over dramatized and emotional. Perhaps she felt that way to me because the novel I read before this one was lacking any emotional content and all the emotion in this one came across stronger because of it. I don't know. It just felt overdone at times, not all the time. Also the 16th century parts moved a bit slow for me. The prologue gives away what Nanju does at the beginning so dragging it out for so many chapters seemed unnecessary.  Get rid of the prologue and it might work better to create the suspense I think the novel is aiming for. There was something redundant, especially in the middle of the novel, about the 16th century parts that made me want things to move along faster. I found myself thinking, yeah, yeah, I know this let's get on to the good part, but I am an impatient reader.Even if the above doesn't sound like it, I do recommend giving this book a try when it is released. It's well written and the plot is tight. The author did her research on Korea so if you find the Asian culture interesting like I do, you will enjoy these parts of the book. If you enjoy ghost stories then this is one you should at least get the free sample of and give a try and buy if the beginning intrigues you.