Today was a beautiful day. I woke up to a spike in my sales and this review. It still amazes me how praise for my work can affect me so deeply on so many levels. A lot of work and emotion went into writing Seals and in creating the concept for this series. But when you get a review like the one below, it inspires you to do more, to work harder. It rekindles in you that fire that made you write the thing in the first place.

It also means that your investment paid off. You don’t write to please everyone in the world. It’s impossible. So you write to please one reader. You aim to connect with that one reader and hope that you’ve crafted your tale in such a way that all the right buttons get pushed and that your reader walks away emotionally satisfied, having experienced the imagery as you have imagined them. There is the payoff. I may write with the hope of providing a livelihood for my family, but if I achieve satisfaction in a reader, that is the thing that ignites the fuel. It makes the engine growl to life with renewed purpose and keeps me on the road. And staying on the road is the dream. It doesn’t matter whether I’m driving a Ford Pinto or a Dodge Charger, as long as I’m on the road, and I’m moving forward.

The Story Definitely Matches The Cover

Okay, first of all, I must mention the cover. Anyone who knows me on Facebook knows I found the cover through there, and waffled on about it forever. It’s gorgeous. But, does the story match that stunning cover? YES.

I was sucked in from the first page. I literally decided to read a few pages, to see how it was, and half an hour passes before I realised how far in I’d read! The imagery is lovely in this book, very poetic. It’s a richly described book that puts me in mind of books from another era. Which isn’t a bad thing, if you’re like me, and love that style. There were a few places where it could have been even better with more showing rather than telling, but it certainly doesn’t distract from the story itself.

The plotline itself was well-thought out and researched. I felt as though the author was leading me slowly through this winding tapestry of a story, instead of info-dumping all in one go. The story unfolded naturally, rather than rushing to get to the action-filled parts. The mixture of dark fantasy and folklore was a fabulous mixture, and I love it when authors go a little rogue from a genre and just write the story. And the twist was AMAZING…but you’ll have to pick it up to find out what it was. I’m not telling here!

I cannot wait to read more from this author, and I seriously suggest you grab this book if you like richly-described, dark, fantastical plots, and well-imagined characters that will drag you into the basement with them. For a first book, this really is awesome. The only teeny weeny point is that it would be nice to have more ‘showing’ and less ‘telling’ in parts, but maybe that’s just me being over-critical. I would not hesitate to let everyone know about this book, and tell them to read it!

A resounding 4.5 Stars–and as I can only leave whole stars on here, I’m going to make it a full 5 Stars, as I just can’t mark this down to 4 Stars. 🙂 ~ M Stork