Review: A feast of culture, horror and mystery, with a paranormal twist!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 29, 2013
A feast of culture, horror and mystery, with a paranormal twist!First off, I don't like the cover. Red, white & blue remind my of our (British) flag and, well. It just looks cheap. This is a prime example of why we should never (though we all do it, me included) judge a book by its cover - because this book was a joy!Gabriel, for a clever guy, does what all guys do when faced with beauty - he turns to mush. His instincts sag, his intellect forgets to question, and the beauty (met casually over a public conversation with his devoted and heartbroken - though, by-golly, she won't show it - ex, Liz) sweeps him off his feet. After a passionate few days together, she then persuades him to pack up and take a detour to Turkey -- her homeland -- on his way to see his heavily pregnant twin sister, to whom he is creepily devoted. I say creepily because they share a psychic-type link.This is where it gets dark!And although I'd love to go into the details, I'd spoil this extremely well written story for future readers, and that just wouldn't do! Needless to say, it explores Jinn (or Cin) in a way I loved and slowly unfolds like a psychological thriller/horror story. Not your typical paranormal book - AT ALL!There are no werewolves, vampires or trolls. Just so you know.Some examples of why I loved the author's writing:"He would have loved to paint this. The waters murmured to him, secret things, forbidden things... things he didn't understand. He sensed the waters were like Kamilah, a dangerous lure;  tempting him way beyond his usual comfort zone. Like now.""Gabrielle knew that words could be like daggers, slicing chunks off your self worth.""Weeping, sobbing, crying. The forest was alive, thriving with Melinka like a corpse swarming with maggots."My one irritation with this exciting book? I felt ever so slightly preached to at the end. This is perhaps more to do with the folklore itself than the author, however. I want to explain this more, to protect a minority of readers, but to do so would completely ruin the whole book for a majority of readers. Um, what to do? Let's just say this book (or the folklore, at least) is Pro-Life, and leave it at that. :)Other than that, go get it! No really. I sincerely enjoyed this authors writing style and feel I learned a lot about the folklore, Turkey, and about writing (which is always a plus for a writer) while I followed the arcs of her story and characters. I'll definitely be reading more from her.I received this free from the tour company hosting this authors book tour, in return for an honest review, which first appeared shahwharton.comFinding Esta: #1 The Supes Series (Urban Fantasy Paranormal & Mystery) by Shah Wharton