Review: Book Review: From Author Unpublished
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 17, 2014
I received a copy of this book directly from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review.I feel stupid. I feel stupid because I didn’t realize until I’d started writing this review that I’ve read books by this author before. I was genuinely amped up to write this review, thinking “Wow! I found another great author!” then my second thought was “Wait… that name sounds familiar…” and then “OMGOSH of course!”. Of course this book was great—because Christine Pope wrote it. It was a total face-palm moment.Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. This book was technically very well written. There weren’t any missing words, grammatical mistakes, or punctuation errors that I caught (Outside of the obvious abuse of correlative conjunctions that seems to be standard these days. I swear, there is nothing more annoying than starting a sentence with And or But—but I digress. The narrative was clean, fast-paced, flowed well, and engaging. I fell right into the story, and from the outset, I really liked the main character, Angela.This story was very much Angela’s story—one of loss, fear, strength, and longing. The main character was born into a very precarious and confining situation that only seemed to get worse as time rode on, and in an attempt to get things under control, she had to make some terrifying, and even heartbreaking decisions. The plot was intriguing: a young witch who has only a few months to find the man of her dreams… or put her coven, hundreds of innocent people, at risk. Saying that doesn’t even come close to how tense the situation was. There are evil warlocks/witches after her, a mysterious shadow creature intent on claiming her, and a well-intentioned cousin prodding her into “the next best thing” to the relationship she’s meant to have. The pressure is on for Angela, and I was there for every moment of it.The storytelling and world building behind this book seemed effortless and complex. I never felt myself being pulled out of the story, rolling my eyes, or arguing with the characters (okay maybe once, but one of the characters totally agreed with me). It was sincerely, a beautifully written story, and I loved every minute of it.I don’t want to spoil things, but I will say that I was both surprised, and not surprised by the ending. I had a pretty good inkling of where Angela was going to find her beau, but I did not expect it to be the person it turned out to be. It’s not often I can be thrown for a loop—so my hat off to the author. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I’d love to read it again, and all subsequent books in the series are immediately going onto my Amazon Wish list. I did not expect to find this hidden gem, but man am I grateful I did.I would highly recommend this book to anyone who’s looking for a good New Adult Paranormal Fantasy book. Yes there is a romance aspect to this book – but this is not what I would classify a Romance Book. The storyline is so much more tense and intricate than what you’d usually find in the romance genre, and the main focus is geared more towards the personal struggle of Angela and what it means for her to be the Prima of her coven. If you’re into the Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance genre’s… Young Adult/New Adult/Or otherwise, check out this book.