Books and Chat

Right off the top I'm going to tell you that I am NOT a professional reviewer. I'm just an average person that adores books of all kinds.  Some of my favorites are in the speculative fiction category and this is why I chose this novel to review.


This is a book that has one foot in the fantasy genre and one foot in romance, and doesn’t know which way to jump.  This is quite an original story with a very unusual setting.  St. Hauda’s, a series of islets and islands that seem very remote and isolated from the rest of the modern, but really isn’t. Fantastical things can and do happen in this place. I’m not sure what the author wants us to think of St. Hauda’s, is it a world of pure fantasy so that we can drop our pre-conceived expectations?  Is it a land that is as modern as most outlying areas that are slightly isolated from the rest of the world, sort of backwards but with feet firmly entrenched in the 21 century?  The world is very confusing and frustrating.

As a matter of fact this whole novel was extremely frustrating.  The characters are self-centered, selfish and some are down-right mean. The story is disjointed and hard to follow.  The ’love story’ between Midas and Ida the protagonists, is unrealistic and unbelievable.  There seems to be nothing to make you really believe that they care for each other.  Nor was there anything in this book that actually made me care about it at all.

This book left me feeling depressed and angry, confused and cheated.

If you really feel the urge to read this since it is getting so many good reviews, I urge you to wait until the paperback comes out to save a bit of cash or get it from the library.

I believe that this is a book that you will either love or hate.  Good luck.