Review: Good, but needs more world building
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 4, 2014
First of all, I received this for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.I'm having a difficult time coming up with a review for this book. I enjoyed it, but I felt like it was lacking in some ways. The story concept was great and I loved it, but I found myself backtracking a lot and trying to figure things out. I think this book, being the introduction to this new series, could have used a bit more world building and explanations for how certain things worked. I think I "got it," but I'm really not sure.Because of my uncertainty, I'm finding it a bit hard to actually review this book, beyond just saying whether I liked it or not.Pros:Good conceptGood charactersOk paceDialogue was pretty good and believableCons:Lack of details and explanationsThat was basically my only "con" for this story. I felt like I need more information to enjoy it more, and if there had been a few more details/explanations, I probably would have given it 4 stars. Even so, I'll probably read the next installment, and I recommend this one.****Additional details, possible spoilers****To expand on why I didn't love this story, this is what I found myself wondering while reading.What exactly is a bard?What is a "true secret?"What kind of information are they picking up and writing down?How are they acquiring that information?What's the deal with the blood and writing with it?How do the gateways work?What is the world like, after the war?Is the fairy world changed, too?Do people generally get along with the fairies in our world, or avoid them?This is a really short book (novella, whatever you want to call it), but it took me several days to read it because I kept sitting and thinking, wondering about all of this and trying to figure it out That was a little frustrating. I don't think a story needs to necessarily explain every single detail, but when you're introducing a world that is different from the one we currently live in, there are some things the reader probably needs to know to make the story more enjoyable. That's just my $0.02, though.