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A review by lightsnack
Cutting Your Teeth by Caylan MacRae
2.0
Though the book is now officially out, I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy. Therefore, some of my thoughts and feedback may be no longer relevant.
That said:
This book had a very good premise, but it was not well executed. The book is non-stop action, which is great because you don't want to have a lull in the story...but nothing was given a chance to breathe. As a result, none of should have been huge emotional payoffs felt earned. The main character laments that he doesn't know when he was last cared for or feels like he can't have love, etc....but he was broken up with less than a week prior to the start of the book and has a guy calling him "my love" two days after they officially meet. Towards the end of the book the love interest says he had "long abandoned" a plan...but that plan had been abandoned less that a week before he said that. The characters weren't given time to have character growth, and there was so much happening that things were being solved too quickly and too easily. Need a quick escape? No worries, theres inexplicably two horses tied right outside. It's sad because the world building is there, the concept was there, but this almost felt like it needed to be split into two books and then had the emotions and personal relationships grow more.
The Goodreads profile for this author says that this is their first book, and I sincerely hope they continue writing. I feel that they have some wonderful ideas, and I would love to read future books from them, I just hope they can delve a little more into the much needed emotional resonance of story telling.
That said:
This book had a very good premise, but it was not well executed. The book is non-stop action, which is great because you don't want to have a lull in the story...but nothing was given a chance to breathe. As a result, none of should have been huge emotional payoffs felt earned. The main character laments that he doesn't know when he was last cared for or feels like he can't have love, etc....but he was broken up with less than a week prior to the start of the book and has a guy calling him "my love" two days after they officially meet. Towards the end of the book the love interest says he had "long abandoned" a plan...but that plan had been abandoned less that a week before he said that. The characters weren't given time to have character growth, and there was so much happening that things were being solved too quickly and too easily. Need a quick escape? No worries, theres inexplicably two horses tied right outside. It's sad because the world building is there, the concept was there, but this almost felt like it needed to be split into two books and then had the emotions and personal relationships grow more.
The Goodreads profile for this author says that this is their first book, and I sincerely hope they continue writing. I feel that they have some wonderful ideas, and I would love to read future books from them, I just hope they can delve a little more into the much needed emotional resonance of story telling.