Ever Shade (A Dark Faerie Tale, #1)

by Alexia Purdy

[inlibrisveritas]

*sigh*

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Ever Shade is the very meaning of rushed, and as a result I struggled through it…and even went so far as to read it as full speed, a skill reserved solely for things I need finished quickly (review books) and things I dislike as is the case with this one…unfortunately.

The story itself was interesting enough that I one-clicked the freebie and several of the subsequent books that were also free, however I don’t think this really lived up to my expectations. I had trouble with the writing, which was very simplistic and did a lot of telling as opposed to showing. There were even instances where conversation was used to tell me what people were doing instead of just showing me. Ever Shade reads like a completed story, without the need for a series, which is a bit odd…considering another hundred pages or so would be just enough to add the needed character depth and natural progression. Our main character finds out her ‘destiny’ within the first twenty percent of the book, and agrees to go along with it despite not knowing anything about the people around her. There is so much travelling and conflict involved, but it sped by so quickly that it really just felt like they spent maybe three or four days travelling before a lot of coincidences made everything go much quicker.

I can’t really even say I know the characters very well as there were so many, and we are given so little time to get to know them. Shade is from what I can tell super curious and really stubborn…even really touchy at times. She did a lot of things that didn’t really make her seem capable or really all that smart, like following a guy you just met into the woods…or asking the same questions multiple times and treating it all as new information. And then we have the love interests…which were basically placed in front of me in a super obvious way and then sort of neglected to show me how any of them were actually people.

Overall I’m sort of disappointed in this one. I did enjoy Reign of Blood, which a book by thi author, and while it didn’t overly impress me it was enjoyable enough to make me pick up her other freebies. But this one sort of fell short, and I don’t see me continue this one anytime soon.