After really disliking a previous work from this author but hearing spectacular things from other reviewers, I wanted to give her a second chance to figure out if it was just the book or if her writing does not work for me.
Unfortunately, her writing does not work for me.
I found myself intrigued by the first look that I received from Bookish First, intrigued enough that even though I could see some flaws in the first two chapters I read, I thought I could potentially overlook them or that they would not present themselves in later chapters.
Unfortunately, these flaws continued and magnified.
While Levenseller created a compelling and intriguing plot, she filled the story with unimaginative characters and a highly predictable plot line. These characters had no depth and even though Levenseller fully described the physical features of each character, I still had difficulty picturing them. I also had issues with the instalove between Ziva and Kellyn.
Additionally, this fantasy world made no sense. It had aspects to it, like schools (and a few other things that escape my mind at the moment) that clash with the medieval type setting that the rest of the book embodied.
By the time I got to the high energy, high stakes conclusion, I really wanted to like this book. Levenseller wrote an amazing final battle/climax scene for this book that almost (so close really) made me want to pick up the conclusion to this duology when it releases in a few weeks. However, the amazingness of the climax did not do enough for me to make up for all the flaws in this book.
While I enjoyed my experience with this book far more than the previous work I read from her, Levenseller is not the author for me.
Unfortunately, her writing does not work for me.
I found myself intrigued by the first look that I received from Bookish First, intrigued enough that even though I could see some flaws in the first two chapters I read, I thought I could potentially overlook them or that they would not present themselves in later chapters.
Unfortunately, these flaws continued and magnified.
While Levenseller created a compelling and intriguing plot, she filled the story with unimaginative characters and a highly predictable plot line. These characters had no depth and even though Levenseller fully described the physical features of each character, I still had difficulty picturing them. I also had issues with the instalove between Ziva and Kellyn.
Additionally, this fantasy world made no sense. It had aspects to it, like schools (and a few other things that escape my mind at the moment) that clash with the medieval type setting that the rest of the book embodied.
By the time I got to the high energy, high stakes conclusion, I really wanted to like this book. Levenseller wrote an amazing final battle/climax scene for this book that almost (so close really) made me want to pick up the conclusion to this duology when it releases in a few weeks. However, the amazingness of the climax did not do enough for me to make up for all the flaws in this book.
While I enjoyed my experience with this book far more than the previous work I read from her, Levenseller is not the author for me.