Review: Intriguing voodoo and black magic
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2014
This book was just okay for me. I was sort of torn by it.  I really wanted to love it, but….In the beginning, I was pulled in to the storyline rather quickly. It throws you in the middle of the action from the first sentence. I haven’t read many books that focus on voodoo and black magic as the paranormal element, and I found myself intrigued by that aspect of the book.The storyline revolves around a 400 year old black magic curse. The heroine has moved to New Orleans in hopes of learning more about the mysterious “death” of her sister. It is there that she begins to uncover clues to her true destiny.The premise of the book is very intriguing, but there were a few details that really fell flat. My first issue is with the characters. I can’t say I really liked or connected to any of them, and there were lots of them. Adrienne could have been a decent character, but she really just wasn’t very interesting. She wanted answers, but never asked the questions. Then some answers started coming to her, but she chose to ignore them. I found her frustrating.Then there’s Jayden. He was so very bland. He was supposed to be a super attractive, smart, wealthy athlete type, but was really a complete pushover. He didn’t stand up to anybody about anything. He seemed to be happily oblivious, and that is not attractive.I think I most liked Rene, but I couldn’t stand how the author handled the interactions around him. Every time someone spoke of him or to him, it was mentioned that he was a gang member. I didn’t feel the constant reminder that he was a member of a voodoo gang was needed. I got it like the first 50 times, and oddly enough, he didn’t even seem like a gang member. I felt like the author was trying to tell us he was this hardened, street tough gang member, but then that’s not how he was portrayed. He was kind and empathetic. He was much more protective and attentive to Adrienne than Jayden, but it’s obvious he doesn’t have a chance with her which I found kind of sad.The most annoying thing about the characters of Adrienne and Rene specifically was the way they spoke. I’m not sure what the author was shooting for on that. I’m from the south and it’s definitely not a common “southern” dialect. Was it some weird street dialect? I’m not sure. I think maybe she was going for uneducated, but they didn’t always speak like that. It seemed like it was worse when Adrienne and Rene spoke to one another, but then it was partially forgotten the other times. It just didn’t ring true to me, and it made the conversations difficult to get through.The other issue I had was that the storyline just wasn’t tight enough. It was kind of all over the place and unfocused. It became loose and distracting. I found myself losing interest, and at about 45% I almost put it down. It was becoming difficult to continue, but I’m glad that I did. The last half of the book picks up in action, and it’s the most interesting part of the book. The Curse and all its meaning start to come into focus. It ended on a cliff hanger, but was well set up for the next book in the series. I will pick up book 2 in hopes that its focus is more on that intriguing black magic.*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review