My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow! Another one that kept me up til the wee hours of the morning.
Before I begin, I need to disclose that I picked this up quite a while ago from BookRooster.com which doesn’t seem to exist anymore. I feel it is my fault, in a way, as I can only review so many books a month. But I download many, many per day and had at least 25 of the BookRoosters lined up. I am sorry to all authors who awaited my review. Even so, I will get to all of them, eventually. I only ordered the ones that sounded like my kind of books.
Look, I gave this five stars in spite of the bad editing. I am hoping that the new Kindle version (which, by the way, is free on Kindle Unlimited and only $2.99 for regular Kindle) is well edited. As I understand it, this is a first novel for the author, E.M. Vail. In that case, WOW!
Prologues are usually nonsense. I ordinarily don’t like them. They are a distraction that doesn’t pull the story along. In this case, I can say that when the story bogged down it was the curiosity about that prologue that kept me reading. I wondered all it would all come together.
The best thing about this book is how well developed all the characters are. Okay, I must admit that some of the dialogues felt stilted. And some of the actions or thoughts felt unfitting. But if one can keep moving regardless the story is fantastic. And as you fall in love with the characters and worry for their lives, keep a box of Kleenex handy. Around 90% in you will need them. And the pay-off of the prologue comes in the epilogue. Now you’ve come full circle and know why.
This is more than a coming of age book about three friends. This is a story of neighbors and the web of life for all. It is a full sized novel that I am happy I was given the chance to read. It could honestly be a good movie.
Darswords 