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raevyn_reaper 's review for:
Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven
by Bella Forrest
What a great read! I love the storyline and this is very much a Harry Potter-esque story. Young woman who doesn’t know she’s magical, goes through trials and tribulations while discovering herself. I do highly recommend this to fans of Harry Potter.
My reasoning for three stars is the vocabulary used, as well as the banter. While Bella does an amazing job in describing the characters and scenery, she seems very focused on their actions. I felt as if every other word was “smirk”, “crossed my arms”, or some version of it. Lots of “shrugged”, “shrugging”, “pointed”, “jabbed”, etc. I think a thesaurus would have done well when writing this story, however the lack of decent verbiage doesn’t really take away from the plot or the enjoyment.
With the banter, or even just the general conversations, they seem more like responses you might come up with while ruminating on how you should have responded to someone. The lines come off as cheesy or almost comedic, definitely not what you would say in daily conversation.
The writing is a little less mature than that in Harry Potter or even Artemis Fowl (it seems that “mature YA” is only because of the protagonist being 19) but don’t let that scare you away from this wonderful tale. I’m reading the second book already and it seems to be along the same vein vocabulary wise, but with just as good of a plot. I am excited to see what Bella Forrest will come up with for Harley in the future!
My reasoning for three stars is the vocabulary used, as well as the banter. While Bella does an amazing job in describing the characters and scenery, she seems very focused on their actions. I felt as if every other word was “smirk”, “crossed my arms”, or some version of it. Lots of “shrugged”, “shrugging”, “pointed”, “jabbed”, etc. I think a thesaurus would have done well when writing this story, however the lack of decent verbiage doesn’t really take away from the plot or the enjoyment.
With the banter, or even just the general conversations, they seem more like responses you might come up with while ruminating on how you should have responded to someone. The lines come off as cheesy or almost comedic, definitely not what you would say in daily conversation.
The writing is a little less mature than that in Harry Potter or even Artemis Fowl (it seems that “mature YA” is only because of the protagonist being 19) but don’t let that scare you away from this wonderful tale. I’m reading the second book already and it seems to be along the same vein vocabulary wise, but with just as good of a plot. I am excited to see what Bella Forrest will come up with for Harley in the future!