Review: The potential for a great series!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2011
Review:Having exposed the Hidden beings - witches, vampires, weres, etc., to the human race, the witches were systematically killed until only one was left.  Hidden in the folds of time, Aradia had no knowledge of where she came from or why she could do the things she could do.  Strange behavior and the struggle to control her powers during her childhood made her a lonely, shy girl.  A move to Salem, MA helps change that.  Strange behavior seems to be the norm in Salem and Aradia finds that she has more in common with many of its residents than she originally thought.In this first book of the series by LA Jones, Tales of Aradia was a story that held my attention throughout.  Aradia goes from that shy, quiet girl to a self-assured young woman as the book progresses, and by the end, she is a force to be reckoned with.  The supporting characters were unusual and interesting, if at times rather unlikable.  As most of them were supposed to be Aradia's enemies, that wasn't surprising.I believe Tales of Aradia has the potential to be a great book.  The idea for the story line was well thought out and clever, but the presentation of it in this book left some room for improvement.  Shifts in writing from different characters' perspectives were at times confusing and hard to follow.  Some unrealistic events even within a paranormal book occurred, such as a young girl being able to bring someone to the police station and put him in a cell overnight without an explanation of how.  There were also jumps in time passed that were unexpected and affected the flow of the book.  A few inconsistencies in facts were also present - for instance, a character is supposed to be in jail and on the next page he is out with no explanations of how he managed to escape.  If the author has the inclination, some short, concise sentences could fix many of these issues.  As a side note - there may be grammatical errors but because self-published authors usually do not have the benefit of professional editing, and conversion of files can affect text when sending electronic review copies, I do not include comments about editing in my reviews.Overall, I give Tales of Aradia three stars because of its potential to become a great series.