Review: This book has great potential
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2012
This was a complimentary copy given to me by the author for an honest review. It seems I had the 1st edition so perhaps some of my comments have been addressed in the newest version.This book would be classified as High Fantasy which happens to be my favorite genre. I like the world building that high fantasy offers.Here are my thoughts:This book is about Chalice and her journey to learn who she really is and whom she meets on the way and what she must accomplish to save her people. She finds out about mystical powers that she never knew she had. She journeys with several people, one of them being Jeremiah and a little furry creature named Bunebab. There are several mystical and spiritual messages in the book that I really enjoyed.I agree that high fantasy should have world building but this book goes a little overboard. The author describes everything in minute detail every other paragraph it seems. It downplayed the story and I found myself putting the book down quite frequently. I like the concepts that she brings about in the book but the end result is hard to figure out.Honestly it took me a good while to read this book and I found myself wanting to skip past a lot of the descriptions.I did enjoy the parallel world references and I think they need to be explained further in future books. I am reading Book 2 and so far I like what I'm seeing.As well as the extensive descriptions, the use of elaborate wording made me struggle to figure out what was trying to be said and I had to use the dictionary a lot which discouraged me and at times made me want to stop reading the book due to the interruptions this caused. I don't think it was really necessary and think it could have been explained simply without the long words.Due to the above reasons, I am giving this book 3 stars for the story concepts and would recommend this to high fantasy readers who don't mind extensive descriptions and elaborate wording. It definitely wasn't a bad read, just a difficult read for me.I also found that there were a lot of unfamiliar words and had difficulty following along because of that. Perhaps a glossary of terms in the back of the book next time would work much better and give the readers the information they need without feeling like they are lost in a sea of confusion.