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catsflipped's review
3.0
Let me start by thanking the author for forwarding me a free copy of this book and in return I will provide an honest review. In the same breath I need to apologise to the same author for not being able to give this book the 5 stars others have thought it deserved.
First of all James Harper is a new author to be and this is the first of his books I have read. I have not yet got used to the style of his writing and I found it very hard to really engage with story being told. Possibly the fact this is the 14th book in a series and I have none of the history to lean on to understand some of the background that was included. The author did reintroduce previously known information to help with this but it's relevance wasn't always apparent to me at the time - later in the book I did have the odd 'ah ha' moment.
The first 12 chapters I spent a lot of the time wondering what just happened, unable to fully get to grips with the plot - the story is told among many conversations between people that ranged from being an integral part of the plot to general chit chatter among friends. It was during the latter type of these conversations I found my own mind wondering to the general chit chatter that goes on in my head at any given time and before I realised it a few pages had gone by and I had no clue what had been written. Now a sensible reader would have gone back and re-read those sections but there were so many I chose to forge on in the belief eventually things would click into place.
Well that happened around chapter 13 when I became more engrossed in what was happening (and less in what I'd be cooking for dinner) but unfortunately it was short lived and it was not until chapter 19 I once again managed to rid the other voices from my head. It really was not through lack of trying, I would force myself often to go back and re-read a page and try to concentrate but there was just too much irrelevant (at least to me it seemed irrelevant) information that off my wondering mind went again.
Parts 2 and 3 were probably the best for me and I am ashamed to say even though the missing finger was referred to throughout the book I still don't quite understand why it happened, I won't say any more so as not to spoil things for other, it was probably one of those sections I really should have gone back over!
I got the gist of the story but thank goodness for the last chapter and that final conversation that was definitely needed to explained everything, I felt a little better knowing that the author thought that explaination was needed and included it, maybe I'm not the only one who has struggled to follow the intricate details.
I wouldn't usually start a series in the middle (in fact this is the last book of these series as I write this) and I do believe I would have enjoyed this book more had I read the previous 13. As a stand alone book it just does quite cut it for me and while I do read a lot more series than anything else I do believe each individual book should read well on it's own to hook new readers in who come across it.
First of all James Harper is a new author to be and this is the first of his books I have read. I have not yet got used to the style of his writing and I found it very hard to really engage with story being told. Possibly the fact this is the 14th book in a series and I have none of the history to lean on to understand some of the background that was included. The author did reintroduce previously known information to help with this but it's relevance wasn't always apparent to me at the time - later in the book I did have the odd 'ah ha' moment.
The first 12 chapters I spent a lot of the time wondering what just happened, unable to fully get to grips with the plot - the story is told among many conversations between people that ranged from being an integral part of the plot to general chit chatter among friends. It was during the latter type of these conversations I found my own mind wondering to the general chit chatter that goes on in my head at any given time and before I realised it a few pages had gone by and I had no clue what had been written. Now a sensible reader would have gone back and re-read those sections but there were so many I chose to forge on in the belief eventually things would click into place.
Well that happened around chapter 13 when I became more engrossed in what was happening (and less in what I'd be cooking for dinner) but unfortunately it was short lived and it was not until chapter 19 I once again managed to rid the other voices from my head. It really was not through lack of trying, I would force myself often to go back and re-read a page and try to concentrate but there was just too much irrelevant (at least to me it seemed irrelevant) information that off my wondering mind went again.
Parts 2 and 3 were probably the best for me and I am ashamed to say even though the missing finger was referred to throughout the book I still don't quite understand why it happened, I won't say any more so as not to spoil things for other, it was probably one of those sections I really should have gone back over!
I got the gist of the story but thank goodness for the last chapter and that final conversation that was definitely needed to explained everything, I felt a little better knowing that the author thought that explaination was needed and included it, maybe I'm not the only one who has struggled to follow the intricate details.
I wouldn't usually start a series in the middle (in fact this is the last book of these series as I write this) and I do believe I would have enjoyed this book more had I read the previous 13. As a stand alone book it just does quite cut it for me and while I do read a lot more series than anything else I do believe each individual book should read well on it's own to hook new readers in who come across it.
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