Review: The Connelly Witches: Shattered Images
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 23, 2014
I was given this book by the author through the PAC Romance group in exchange for an honest review.First off, I'll start with what I liked. The story was interesting & put together well. The family dynamics were believable in their strength & love for one another. I particularly liked Raven & Alex as they loved each other & everyone else unconditionally. In the beginning of the story I thought Michael was an ass for trying to turn his wife & child into something they were not, but as this dissolved over the course of the story, I came to like him by the end. Same went for Rachel. I thought she was weak for giving up her family's magical heritage for a man, but she became a stronger person as the story continued in order to survive, so by the end I felt she had somewhat redeemed herself. Her motherly bonds were strong & never in question, so I had respect for her there, even in the beginning. The demon of the story was definitely evil, a frightening character who I was happy to see defeated in the end.Now for why this wasn't a 5 star read for me. Number one, the book definitely could have been edited better. There were missing or extra words in sentences, misspelled words, and occassional missing punctuation. It's a pet peeve of mine to have to translate sentences with extra or missing words while I'm reading. It slows me down & takes away from the pleasure of the experience. Next, Aunt Loiza seemed like a non-essential character to me. The story would have flowed fine without her. Also, I think too much time was spent trying to connect the current witches with their ancestors at the start of the book. It was a bit confusing & truthfully I think it wasn't necessary because the ancestors didn't play a part in this story. Another problem that I had was that I didn't find Sophia's dialogue convincing. Her actions as a child made sense, but her words felt somewhat forced to me.Overall, this was a good story. There was action, love, magic, and character growth. I would recommend it to people who enjoy stories about witches & demons, or people who enjoy paranormal stories or urban fantasy. The problems I had with it definitely won't keep me from reading the sequel. It still gets a full 4 stars.