Review: A Great Story, Just needed a little bit more Information...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.This is going to be a slightly mixed review, so before I get to the nitty gritty I’m going to just make clear that this author has obvious talent, and is a natural storyteller and any criticisms I make during this review are only made in the hope to give constructive advice to the author, which may help improve the novel if it were to be revised.The author created an engaging, intriguing and clever storyline. The way that she used the idea of astral travel and created her own world with it is just one example of her strengths as a writer. However I feel that, like myself, other readers may have trouble falling into the story as there was little if any detailed explanations of what exactly astral travel is. I feel that in the author’s reminder to ‘show and not tell’ a lot of the detail that explains the storyline was left out before we were thrown into the action. In my own opinion a short prologue that gave a brief insight into the history of Michael and Mira’s travels, and what exactly astral travel means, would have really helped me get to grips with the concept of this book a lot quicker. As it is, having finished the novel I still don’t think I fully understand exactly what astral travel means, or why they needed to make certain astral trips to find their missing son.Having these missing elements had me struggling to make it through the first half of the novel as we were introduced to more characters who have astrally travelled in the past with the Ross’ before I really understood the concept of the story. I understood Michael and Mira’s desire to find their son, but I still don’t understand how them travelling to the astral plane and meeting at a certain meeting point would help them recover their son. With a little more explanation as to the ins-and-outs of astral travel at the begining of the story I feel this would have made me better understand the story.This being said, I am so glad that I made it past the 50% mark of the story as I really engaged with the later storyline and began to connect to the characters in ways that I found difficult earlier when struggling with concepts and terminology. I adored Stu’s character and am so excited to see if a relationship develops between him and Madison in future books in the series. In the day since finishing this book, I have been smiling when I think about the few, but meaningful, interactions that they shared in this book.I am also excited to see more of Mira’s character in the real world. Despite her being a main character throughout the book, I look forward to seeing the mother Mira rather than the child Mira. Her character was brilliantly portrayed throughout this story and the author’s portrayal of a young Mira wandering the astral plane with a mysterious young friend was so intriguing and suspenseful to read as I saw the emotional progression of Mira through her childhood and waited in anticipation for her reunion with her husband and the ‘High Five Gang’.Overall this was a unique, exciting and intriguing story which had me on tenterhooks as I reached the later stages of the novel. It was clever, imaginative and showed the true skill of the author. The author has a wonderful prose-like writing style that is a real pleasure to read. My only suggestions for improvement would be to give more explanation or detail regarding the astral travel aspects of the novel as I spent most of the novel feeling as though I only knew half of the story and was just trying to keep up with the characters.3.5 stars, and an enjoyable read.ARC provided through Xpresso Book Tours