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andypeloquinauthor's review against another edition
3.0
I was looking forward to reading this book after the author sent me a copy, but I was a bit disappointed when I opened it.
I have no complaints about the story. A girl who feels like an outsider among her own people, trying to find a way to fit in. It's a classic tale that we can all relate to.
Sadly, there is no real "hook" to make me interested in Greeta. The opening was slow, with nothing gripping to pull me into the world.
The world--that's another thing I found hard to enjoy. It feels like it's set in a Native American village before the first colonials, with the main character being half-Viking (Leif Ericson discovered the New World). But it was just too vague and ill-defined for me to get a real sense of the world.
I loved the way the author approached the "magic" of the world in the same way the Native Americans believed it. There is a lot of interaction with nature, and the characters' reverence for nature provided them with a rudimentary magic system.
The writing style was a bit amateur, with a lot of run-on sentences, iffy sentence structure, lacking punctuation, etc. Not a bad book, just one that failed to hit the mark--in my opinion, of course!
I have no complaints about the story. A girl who feels like an outsider among her own people, trying to find a way to fit in. It's a classic tale that we can all relate to.
Sadly, there is no real "hook" to make me interested in Greeta. The opening was slow, with nothing gripping to pull me into the world.
The world--that's another thing I found hard to enjoy. It feels like it's set in a Native American village before the first colonials, with the main character being half-Viking (Leif Ericson discovered the New World). But it was just too vague and ill-defined for me to get a real sense of the world.
I loved the way the author approached the "magic" of the world in the same way the Native Americans believed it. There is a lot of interaction with nature, and the characters' reverence for nature provided them with a rudimentary magic system.
The writing style was a bit amateur, with a lot of run-on sentences, iffy sentence structure, lacking punctuation, etc. Not a bad book, just one that failed to hit the mark--in my opinion, of course!
kittehloaf's review against another edition
3.0
Really REALLY great story idea. Had a very hard time keeping my interest going. Maybe I just need to reread this in the future.
ladilira's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began reading this book. I had never heard of Nelson, but the content of the story sounded like it might be up my alley so I took a chance. Plus, her past work appeared promising, which never hurts.
This story was wonderful! My only sadness is that it ended on a cliffhanger and the second has yet to come out. However, I decided to remedy my waiting affliction and bought the other related series titled The Dragonslayer’s Sword (Book 1) of The Dragonslayer’s Series. I’ve already started reading it and already loving it.
What can I say about this story? It was well-written, well-edited, the characters were nicely developed. Greeta, or aka Dragonfly is a likeable enough character. She suffers from low self-esteem and feeling like she doesn’t belong. Her journey is one in which she must learn to accept herself for who she is and to understand who her real friends and family are. Her journey is a relatable one, so many of us are going through this right now. I loved the native tribal versus viking-ish teams and how different they were from each other. Greeta has one foot in each group and I felt it made her all the more appealing and interesting to follow.
I whipped through this story and am hungry for more. I recommend this story to any fantasy or dragon fans out there. It is a fun read that also has deep roots. Nelson has earned my praise and I will be sure to read more from her.
https://cellardoorbooks.wordpress.com/
This story was wonderful! My only sadness is that it ended on a cliffhanger and the second has yet to come out. However, I decided to remedy my waiting affliction and bought the other related series titled The Dragonslayer’s Sword (Book 1) of The Dragonslayer’s Series. I’ve already started reading it and already loving it.
What can I say about this story? It was well-written, well-edited, the characters were nicely developed. Greeta, or aka Dragonfly is a likeable enough character. She suffers from low self-esteem and feeling like she doesn’t belong. Her journey is one in which she must learn to accept herself for who she is and to understand who her real friends and family are. Her journey is a relatable one, so many of us are going through this right now. I loved the native tribal versus viking-ish teams and how different they were from each other. Greeta has one foot in each group and I felt it made her all the more appealing and interesting to follow.
I whipped through this story and am hungry for more. I recommend this story to any fantasy or dragon fans out there. It is a fun read that also has deep roots. Nelson has earned my praise and I will be sure to read more from her.
https://cellardoorbooks.wordpress.com/
carriekellenberger's review against another edition
1.0
Dragonfly starts out as a Clan of the Cave Bear novel on a lesser scale and goes from bad to increasingly worse. I was hoping it would turn out to be a good book on First Nations people and culture and then it disintegrated into a train wreck.
Like many of the books I read this month, the author failed to make me find any redeemable qualities about Greeta. Within the first few chapters, I wondered just how far the protagonist's character was going to sink. The constant referrals to being a husband-less woman with no chance of happiness without a man at her side was truly awful.
The dialogue was bad. The character development (and relationship) between Greeta and Finehurst happens in one chapter.
Suddenly the story switches to fantasy and that's where the book derails. This read was a hot mess. I'm glad it was free on Amazon because if I'd bought it, I'd be ticked off.
Like many of the books I read this month, the author failed to make me find any redeemable qualities about Greeta. Within the first few chapters, I wondered just how far the protagonist's character was going to sink. The constant referrals to being a husband-less woman with no chance of happiness without a man at her side was truly awful.
The dialogue was bad. The character development (and relationship) between Greeta and Finehurst happens in one chapter.
Suddenly the story switches to fantasy and that's where the book derails. This read was a hot mess. I'm glad it was free on Amazon because if I'd bought it, I'd be ticked off.
nooralshanti's review against another edition
2.0
There's a really good story idea underneath this, but I had a hard time getting into it, because it was written in such a way as to make it completely uninteresting. And that's a shame, because I was looking forward to reading a fantasy that was focused on First Nations people and culture.
Here are some of the things that prevented me from enjoying it.
1) Characterization - the main character Greeta is introduced to us while she's talking to herself. Not a great start. She's also completely clueless about anything and very whiny. At first I had serious concerns about the author's portrayal of First Nations people, because if you take Greeta (who grew up among them) as an example you'd think they were very stupid. But I quickly realized that it was just Greeta, everyone else knows some things, but she's a complete idiot. I think the problem is that the author struggled with the "youth" voice that she was trying to portray. Because Greeta kept referring to herself as a woman and whining about how much she wanted a husband and kids, but then she sounded like a 4-year old. Hint: Don't talk down to youth, they are pretty smart.
2) SLOOOW telling style - I almost stopped at chapter 8 when Greeta decided to "go over" everything that had happened to her that day, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It was already boring enough for the first seven chapters and then that to top it all off. At about chapter 10 or 11 I decided I was either going to drop the book, which would be a shame since the idea and world were intriguing, or just skim through the pointless fluff. I ended up skimming.
3) Relationship arc in two seconds - underneath the fantasy and the First Nation setting and all the rest of it, the author seemed to really want to portray a modern relationship story (or stories if you count the Aunt's pointless story which came out of absolutely nowhere and served no purpose). Greeta's story with Finehurst, which maybe could have been realistic if developed over a time span of months, happens in about 10 minutes. If you want to tell a romance story just do it and ditch the magic and dragons, please.
4) Other unbelievable things - right after going through the entire (unrealistic and uninteresting) adventure Greeta finds out that EVERYONE can go to the Dreamtime if they want to. She's been living among them for her entire life, her aunt married one of them, and no one ever bothered to tell her that all the Shining Star people can do it. *shakes head*
At the end of the day this did have some interesting ideas, some promising characters, but the whole thing just didn't work and didn't hold my interest at all.
I think it could have been a great short story - maybe 1/4 the length it currently is - if the author wanted to just focus on the fantasy element. Or, if the author wanted to develop the characters more and have it be more of a love/searching for love kind of story then it would have needed to cover a much greater time span so that the relationships and characters could develop in believable ways. As it stands it's a really dragged out bunch of nothingness that doesn't know if it wants to be a fantasy or a modern relationship drama. I won't be picking up the rest, but I actually feel sad about the missed potential of this story. Although I'm an author I have never had to fight such an urge to take someone else's story and completely re-write it myself, but that's what I felt at several points through this tale. The idea was just that good and the execution that bad. Oh well.
Here are some of the things that prevented me from enjoying it.
1) Characterization - the main character Greeta is introduced to us while she's talking to herself. Not a great start. She's also completely clueless about anything and very whiny. At first I had serious concerns about the author's portrayal of First Nations people, because if you take Greeta (who grew up among them) as an example you'd think they were very stupid. But I quickly realized that it was just Greeta, everyone else knows some things, but she's a complete idiot. I think the problem is that the author struggled with the "youth" voice that she was trying to portray. Because Greeta kept referring to herself as a woman and whining about how much she wanted a husband and kids, but then she sounded like a 4-year old. Hint: Don't talk down to youth, they are pretty smart.
2) SLOOOW telling style - I almost stopped at chapter 8 when Greeta decided to "go over" everything that had happened to her that day, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It was already boring enough for the first seven chapters and then that to top it all off. At about chapter 10 or 11 I decided I was either going to drop the book, which would be a shame since the idea and world were intriguing, or just skim through the pointless fluff. I ended up skimming.
3) Relationship arc in two seconds - underneath the fantasy and the First Nation setting and all the rest of it, the author seemed to really want to portray a modern relationship story (or stories if you count the Aunt's pointless story which came out of absolutely nowhere and served no purpose). Greeta's story with Finehurst, which maybe could have been realistic if developed over a time span of months, happens in about 10 minutes. If you want to tell a romance story just do it and ditch the magic and dragons, please.
4) Other unbelievable things - right after going through the entire (unrealistic and uninteresting) adventure Greeta finds out that EVERYONE can go to the Dreamtime if they want to. She's been living among them for her entire life, her aunt married one of them, and no one ever bothered to tell her that all the Shining Star people can do it. *shakes head*
At the end of the day this did have some interesting ideas, some promising characters, but the whole thing just didn't work and didn't hold my interest at all.
I think it could have been a great short story - maybe 1/4 the length it currently is - if the author wanted to just focus on the fantasy element. Or, if the author wanted to develop the characters more and have it be more of a love/searching for love kind of story then it would have needed to cover a much greater time span so that the relationships and characters could develop in believable ways. As it stands it's a really dragged out bunch of nothingness that doesn't know if it wants to be a fantasy or a modern relationship drama. I won't be picking up the rest, but I actually feel sad about the missed potential of this story. Although I'm an author I have never had to fight such an urge to take someone else's story and completely re-write it myself, but that's what I felt at several points through this tale. The idea was just that good and the execution that bad. Oh well.
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