Review: Too many issues!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 20, 2012
1 star...Too many issues!When Olympic messenger, Ophelia Lind, spurns the advances of demigod Aden she provokes his hunting instinct. Not only is Ophelia being pursued by Aphrodite's precious son, a creature is trying to kill her. The changes in her laid-back routine lead to Ophelia questioning her parentage, avoiding death, and doubting the Aden's affection.Harbinger seemed like it was heading in an interesting direction. The set-up seemed unique: modernized Olympic gods, Australian setting, and questionable intent of a hunky demigod. The heroine also had my interest with her backstory, personality and immunity to the Gods' wrath, but the story fell flat.Goal, Motivation, and Conflict - Ophelia's goal is to discover her father's identity. As a reader, I thought it should be more important to discover the identity and motive of the person attacking her. It wasn't. Ophelia is aware of the danger, but lacks a sense of urgency and self-preservation. The inner conflict mainly focused on Aden's dubious pursuit of her person. The conflicts stagnated through much of the story, except for a few scenes to let the reader know they existed. The antagonist is barely defined, ineffectively utilized, and failed to add credible tension to the story.Overall, Harbinger has loosely related threads inadequately tied together. The characters' moods - through beatings, whippings, torture, betrayals - change to suit the situation. They remained static, or unchanged by the story's end, including Ophelia! Basically, the characters dodged some scrapes as they walked a line to the end. Ophelia got a prize.I did read the entire book, which is a first for a one-star rated book. This digital galley is courtesy of Penguin Books Australia via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.