Volcan Arte Arte itibaren 15893 Piñeiro, A Coruña, Spain itibaren 15893 Piñeiro, A Coruña, Spain

This one was a surprise on many levels. It's darker than a lot of the YA novels I've read - but it's still clean. There is no "hooking up" in this book. The romance is more about her dreams for romance and waiting for her prince to return for her. Usually the books I read are character focused and a lot of work goes into developing and focusing on them. In this case the story is king. I would say at least ... two thirds of the story have strong elements of allegory. Although a Christian can read these elements into the story, there is no overt mention of anything Biblical so this might be something that could bridge the gap for fans of fantasy. I thought this was a really unique story with lots of interesting types of characters. The author has populated her world with fairies, goblins, dragons, and everything in between. This is her debut book and I look forward to seeing what she has for the rest of the series.

Execution can kill a good story. Unfortunately, the way Pursuit, A Tale of Bishop’s Island by Jason Garrett was executed really took away from a good story. Won in a Good Reads First Reads giveaway, I was excited to start reading Garrett’s second installment on Bishop’s Island. I have not read the first novel set on the island and it was not necessary that I do so. This novel has drama, mystery, love, and action. This is where that execution takes its toll. Some areas are detailed to death; others do not have the detail needed to convey the situation/setting/emotion. I was also disappointed that the characters, although likable, were really caricatures of the roles they were playing. Religious struggles are given some prominence in the story, but I did not feel the depth was given to make it a viable focal point. There are many great aspects of this story, if proper attention can be given to flesh out the shallow points and skim off the unnecessary places, this could be a great mystery adventure. In short a good editor and some rewriting could make this mediocre novel an extraordinary one.