Ember

by Christi Whitson

[Eve1972]

This book was exhausting to get through. It was super long (310 pages), and moved at a snail's pace. That doesn't mean I didn't like it, but I think the author could have shaved a hundred (or more) pages and it would have worked SO much better. There was just way too much page space given over to Owen's abuse as a child (physical and sexual), and Ellie's background after her and Owen are separated. It was just so depressing and made my stomach ache. I honestly had to start skimming through those chapters. I think for "ME" it would have worked better had the author just wrote a summary chapter about what happened to them both between the time they met/separated until they meet again as adults.





Once they finally meet again (80 pages into the book), the story does pick up, and I started to enjoy it a bit more, but overall I still found it quite slow moving and majorly wordy. That said, the writing wasn't bad at all for a debut novel. There were some highly emotional scenes that will tug at your heart. My favorite being when Ellie and Owen are briefly in foster care together. I liked Owen's character a lot. Despite all he had been through, he was a sweet, kind and genuinely nice human being. Ellie, on the other hand, was a bit harder to like. In fact, I honestly didn't like her much at all. Her reactions (and overreactions) to situations were very often childish and self-centered. On top of that, she was ungrateful, cold, and whiney a lot of the time. Owen deserved so much better in my opinion.





This book wasn't big on secondary characters, but I hope Logan will get a book of his own. Additionally, around the halfway point the author injects a bit of mystery into the story. Although not much of a mystery as we know who the baddie is from the start. Still, it added a bit extra to the story, and since this ended on a "happy for now" cliffhanger with book two again featuring this couple and the baddie storyline, I expect (hope), that book two will kick it up a notch in both the action and pace.





So yea, a bit of a mixed bag for me with this one. It was an impressive debut book for sure. There were also a few shining gem moments in the writing where the author evoked a lot of emotions. I loved Owen to bits. I loved Logan. However, it also needed to be majorly tightened up plot-wise. There were SO many unnecessary scenes and dialogue that slowed the pace down to a crawl. I struggled to stay engaged for a lot of the book. Still, I am intrigued enough to see where the author is going in book two...