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A review by secre
Tempting Fate by April White
3.0
This suffered somewhat from a disease that seems to hit many second novels. If the entire book had been the pace and quality of the final third, this would be an easy four stars however. Unfortunately the pace of the first two thirds lags and the novel doesn’t seem to know where it’s going. When combined with a lot of filler and vomit worthy romance gunge, this was distinctly disappointing considering how much I enjoyed the first in the series.
I was also disappointed that so few awesome characters are used here; you are more or less down to Saira, Archer and Ringo for huge swathes of the novel. Out of the three, Ringo wins on interest levels as Saira has gone ditzy with love and romance and bleh and Archer is too busy being the handsome love interest to be interesting. Tom is brought in briefly, but disappointed me with how quickly his involvement was brought to a close. Other brilliant characters like Millicent, Mr Shaw, Ava and Adam are utterly sidelined and that’s a real shame.
Whilst it’s good to see a strong female protagonist and all that jazz, when you have her going soppy eyed you need a better supporting cast. The final third took the hint and played with old and new characters well, but before that it was as though no one else really existed, and the novel as a whole suffers for it. As an aside, I’d love to see a strong female protagonist who doesn’t spend swathes of time goggly eyed for a boy, but hey. The author managed to straddle a decent line in the first novel, but veered too heavily toward the love interest here for me.
That said, this is well written and when it finally gets moving it becomes a rollercoaster of events and emotions. It’s just a pity it takes so long to get there. I’m certainly reading the next instalment and will just hope it has a tighter plot and less sap and filler. The way the author plays with the idea of Descendants of Time and Fate is particularly interesting, as indeed is the way she has slotted science into the mix. There is certainly promise here and we even have an overriding big bad enemy here to focus on, allowing his motives to guide the events that follow through the timeline.
So. Not as good as the first, but not bad. April White has an engaging writing style that draws you in... its just a pity this relies so heavily on filler and romantic mehness. I’m fairly sure I also picked up on some holes in the fabric of the world building - the same person being in the same timeline more than once for instance and Archer’s tendency of feeding versus his unwillingness to kill, but that might just me being picky.
I was also disappointed that so few awesome characters are used here; you are more or less down to Saira, Archer and Ringo for huge swathes of the novel. Out of the three, Ringo wins on interest levels as Saira has gone ditzy with love and romance and bleh and Archer is too busy being the handsome love interest to be interesting. Tom is brought in briefly, but disappointed me with how quickly his involvement was brought to a close. Other brilliant characters like Millicent, Mr Shaw, Ava and Adam are utterly sidelined and that’s a real shame.
Whilst it’s good to see a strong female protagonist and all that jazz, when you have her going soppy eyed you need a better supporting cast. The final third took the hint and played with old and new characters well, but before that it was as though no one else really existed, and the novel as a whole suffers for it. As an aside, I’d love to see a strong female protagonist who doesn’t spend swathes of time goggly eyed for a boy, but hey. The author managed to straddle a decent line in the first novel, but veered too heavily toward the love interest here for me.
That said, this is well written and when it finally gets moving it becomes a rollercoaster of events and emotions. It’s just a pity it takes so long to get there. I’m certainly reading the next instalment and will just hope it has a tighter plot and less sap and filler. The way the author plays with the idea of Descendants of Time and Fate is particularly interesting, as indeed is the way she has slotted science into the mix. There is certainly promise here and we even have an overriding big bad enemy here to focus on, allowing his motives to guide the events that follow through the timeline.
So. Not as good as the first, but not bad. April White has an engaging writing style that draws you in... its just a pity this relies so heavily on filler and romantic mehness. I’m fairly sure I also picked up on some holes in the fabric of the world building - the same person being in the same timeline more than once for instance and Archer’s tendency of feeding versus his unwillingness to kill, but that might just me being picky.