Saturday Sundries – Shadow of the Witte Wieven (Book Review)
I’ll be honest, I was looking forward to reading Shadow of the Witte Wieven. It had an interesting blurb, and I was curious to see how the author would pull it off.
I was also a little leery, though, because Inkspell Publishing is a fairly new small press. There is no reputation – good or bad – for the type of stories (or the quality) that they put out.
Even with my realistic hope for this story, I have to admit that I came away from the book disappointed.
The characters didn’t draw me in. The plot had the potential to, but the plot was so buried beneath pages and pages of details that I was easily bored. Supposedly, there was a romance happening between the main character, Aliyana, and “Wolf”, Captain of the Witte Wieven (it’s a ship), but there was no chemistry between them.
I was, honestly, shocked at the way the romance between the two was resolved at the end of the book. They didn’t seem to have enough of anything between them for what happens.
I wish the story had been more about Aliyana’s mission to bring down the man responsible for her brother’s murder, but even that she was dispassionate about.
Writing-wise, there were so many details that it slowed down the pace of the story. Nothing could just happen, everything had to be explained – down to the intricate, minute details.
Every time I picked up the book, I was also finding grammar and punctuation errors. It was only one or two each time, but the fact that I found blatant errors every time I picked up the book? Come on.
I did like the plot, as poorly executed as it was. I was fascinated with the paranormal abilities of the Captain and crew of the Witte Wieven. I just wish we had seen chemistry between Aliyana and the Captain.
So overall, the book wasn’t a terrible read, but it wasn’t a great one, either.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
