Review: The White (The Dragon Pearl Book 1)

The White (The Dragon Pearl Book 1)

T. L. Shreffler

Ever since The White appeared in our valley of Windridge, my people have lived in fear. But today that fear ends. Finally, the King has sent his most elite dragon hunters to kill The White, the last of the imperial dragons. 

Since the death of her father, Sienna Foxburn hasn’t felt safe. The White, a fire-breathing imperial dragon, terrorizes the Valley of Windridge with no end in sight. But Sienna isn’t satisfied hiding behind the walls of her keep. She is tired of fearing the dragon, but she can’t fight it alone. 

Then a mysterious sorceress and two elite dragon hunters arrive, claiming to be sent by the King. Thus begins the great hunt for The White. Sienna embarks on a dragon-hunting adventure through the exotic Valley of Windridge, all while uncovering secrets and conspiracies that could endanger the entire Kingdom….

****

4 Stars

I went into this book on the cautious side, I'm already a pretty big fan of this author and I know that just because I liked her other works didn't mean I would like them all. Thank goodness it stuck to the fantasy genre that I loved the most so I had a extremely easy time enjoying myself and regretting that fact that it ended knowing its the first in the series and I'll have to wait quite a bit before I can continue the story.

I was't really sure about Siennas character in the beginning, I really thought she was going to be one of those whinny characters for a bit. Thank goodness she wasn't and as the story progressed I found that she was really growing on me. She know her own faults and tried her hardest to work past them. There is also a couple of surprising things that happened that involved her that made everything more interesting and pulled me deeper into the story (sorry if that sounds vague, I try my hardest to give spoiler free reviews and don't want to give things away here.)

I'm still not sure how I feel about Darius. I'm not sure if I like him or if I am still wary of him. I feel like he will end up surprise me big time. He is really intriguing to me though. I want to know more about him and his past. Mainly how he came to be what he is now.

The plot itself seemed pretty simple at the get go but got more interesting as the story moved on. It stuck to its guns and you pretty much knew how things where going to go at one point but there was still things that would pop up to put you through a loop and keep you on your toes for a bit.

There is a touch ,a small one, of romance as well. If you are like me and you like to have a little bit of romance dashed in I'm sure you will like how it was handled. There is none of the hated intsa-love here. Shreffler has a knack for being able to add this touch to her stories without it being overbearing and having it more at a nice pace.

The world itself seemed very interesting. I would have liked to learn more about the different holds and how they were run. I also wanted to know more about the religion and how they were viewed and the deeper meanings. I can't forget the dragons either, there is some stuff told about them and the different kinds but I would have like to know more (I have a little soft spot for dragons). I can say I feel like this stuff will be explored more in the books to come and I could just be feeling greedy.

There aren't any lose ends laying around, and it ends in a way that is satisfying but makes you want to come back to read the next one. All in all it was a good start to what I know is coming to become another great series.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, if your a fan of fantasy I'm sure you will like this one.

Review: On The Verge

On The Verge

R.J. Jojola

WHEN THE WORLD OF LERIM BECOMES EVIL'S PLAYGROUND, NOTHING & NO ONE, ARE WHAT THEY SEEM... 
Within the confines of their homeland, Raelle Jowellia and her siblings were never allowed to travel outside their secluded valley. Having never come into contact with anyone outside of their immediate family, they had only one another to depend on. But after the mysterious and gruesome murder of her younger brother, Raelle suddenly finds herself stricken with grief and hopelessness. Lost within the inescapable nightmare of her trauma, Raelle is tormented with a relentless need for answers. 

But answers reveal much more than Raelle bargains for, when she discovers that the magical practices, daunting creatures, and menacing demons of her father’s bedtime tales are anything but fiction. As a dark force closes in, the shock of her family’s secret leaves her in shambles. Completely alone in the valley, she is left with only bits and pieces of the puzzle. Lost in a world that is on the verge of collapse, she is faced with a formidable choice. Will Raelle be able to outrun her family’s sordid past, or will she allow it to devour her very soul? 

A meddlesome stranger may be her only hope or her demise ... 

**

2 Stars

I found myself extremely disappointed in this book. When I came across it late last night I remember actually saying out loud that it sounded really interesting. I couldn't wait to start getting into it and in the beginning was really enjoying myself.

Probably somewhere around a quarter of the way into the book I started to really lose interest in everything. More when Chrishtan came into the picture. In my opinion taking a look into Chrishtans past the way we did really took a lot away from the story. I can understand how it let us get to know him better but it started to make me feel that it was taking away from Raelles story that I was already invested in. I lost who was suppose to be the main character and who wasn't. Sometimes this can really work in a book but in this case it dragged on way to long and made me start to lose a lot of interest in everything. 

What really started to kill everything for me was when the first real "battle" happened. Not wanting to give anything away here but what I thought would be a real clash with something very powerful lasted little more then a few remarks made and a quick sword swing that left me very unsatisfied. 

There is also heavy religious tones in this book. It didn't really bother me to much but my eyes did tend to glaze over at times. 

The finally and deadliest stroke of this story was the way it ended. I can't even call it a cliffhanger cause it was so much worse. More like that feeling of when you are going down the stairs and you think there is one more and there really isn't. I can't even really get across how mad it made me for it to end the way it did, it felt like just when things were getting more interesting again and I when I  went to turn the next page Amazon was asking to review it instead. I'm pretty sure my mouth dropped open and I back tracked a few pages to just make sure it was actually the end.

All in all I really ended up not liking a lot about this book, I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, the plot didn't interest me after a certain point and the "villain" was just the name of some guy that seemed to have caused problems.

To be on the fair side the writing itself was good, no grammar errors that I could notice (but its not something that really would stand out to me) and everything did flow smoothly. I was only thrown out of the story when I got disappointed in something that happened. That in and of itself is enough for me to not give it a flat one star. There is a lot of potential here, it just really fell flat for me, I can see with time and a little more polish this author coming out with something that I can really love.

On a side note I really loved the cover art,

Would I recommend this book? No, there are plenty of other books out there that are much more interesting than this one.