3 out of 5 stars.
I would like to thank Xpresso Book Tours for allowing me an ARC of this book via Netgalley for an open and honest review.
This book was a tough one to score and I’m really concerned people are going to see my review as more negative as it is intended. Yes, I can see the “dislike” ticks piling up on Amazon as I type!
So let me start with the positives this book greatly deserves. It is a wonderful, brilliant and fresh new look into Urban Fantasy. Really quite an original and well thought out idea and, quite honestly, some of the best Young Adult/ New Adult reading I’ve done of late.
Maybe being married to someone who goes on endlessly about his Chaos Dwarves, who parries my Monty Python quotes (and similar sarcastically funny comments) with some of his own and being a proud ‘she-nerd’ myself helped me enjoy this story so much. Who knows? All the same, it is a great yarn and one I highly recommend to lovers of YA/NA Urban Fantasy.
But now to the nitty gritty. Please take this as the constructive criticism it is intended to me. As in, I’m not meaning to be negative, but do hope what I say helps.
As much as I found the interaction between Darren and his friends enjoyable, the puns did start to get to me at times. Though I do wonder if that is more from my inner old fogey getting in the road of my inner YA/NA reader? As in, maybe I was just a little too old for it at times, but the story itself was still good.
I also found myself wondering if YA/NA readers who are actually YA/NA aged would get some of the jokes and puns. As in, they seemed more from my generation and why I found them funny… but would the younger people reading it get it as much? I have to say here and now that I think my cultural dialect got in the road a bit too. Yes, I did have to google that word spelt out in the dishwasher… and then regretted it. Good insult though!
The biggest problem I had with this book, and why I scored it as low as I did, was actually down to the editing. Or, as I saw it, lack of it. Near the end of the book there was almost a spelling or grammatical error on every page and it got to me. Yes I know this was an ARC and they are often sent out before final edit and therefore not perfect. I get that and tried to excuse the book for this… but as they got so frequent it just got me frustrated as it was ruining a good tale. I know, this comment is a bit of the kettle calling the pot black as I am known for my typos and grammatical slip ups. I guess I just expect other authors to be better. 😉
Also – and this isn’t meant to be a spoiler – when they first left for the other planet, they were in the lock-up and Sanjay talked to Matt, looked at the damage to his landscape done in a burglary (that had never been mentioned before) and then Darren and co left for the planet via the bedroom door… When they had been in the lock-up!
With the events that followed and the flaws in the timeline that came from it… I really got disappointed in the story as this was a glaring proof reader/ editor mistake that really should have been fixed up. And I really, REALLY hope it has been before the book was published as it did spoil it for me and cause me to drop a star off the score.
Okay, enough of the constructive criticism – not negatives, critiques! This really was a great, original and addictive story that had me reading it every chance I got. From the cover to the blurb the story itself it stayed true to what it offered and was, mostly, well worth a read.
Would I recommend this book to others? I would, though I would voice my misgivings about the editing and ask them to tell me it was all sorted when they read it. Any fan of YA/NA Urban Fantasy would enjoy this book.
Would I buy this book for myself? Possibly. But I’m more likely to borrow it, and others by this author, from the library to read in the future. It was good, but didn’t grab me enough to become a permanent member of my physical or virtual libraries.
In summary, it was an enjoyable read, entertaining and something fans of this genre will enjoy. I just really hope all the issues I’ve mentioned are fixed up in the final version. And, despite them, still a book I would recommend.
Until next time,
Janis. XXOO
Janis's Journal 