Beyond a Darkened Shore

by Jessica Leake

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

For a book that promised a warrior maiden protagonist and a world filled with the dark delights of Norse and Celtic mythology, this book did NOT pay off.

First of all, Ciara just wasn't a relatable character for me. Her emotional responses to things were indifferent at best, and her feelings were told in thoughts and dialogue that made it difficult for me to care about her. Her relationships with the other characters were quite changeable, and frankly? I just don't believe her.

The magic system here had very limited, easily retracted consequences that meant a lot wasn't put on the line for the success of these characters. Thanks again to Ciara's flat personality, the few things that WERE at stake, I couldn't care less about. In a setting that should be dark and magical, we spend too much time traveling pointlessly in circles and trying to force a love story that didn't seem to click.

My biggest pet peeve, though, was in the details. There were multiple inconsistencies in the text with even my very LIMITED knowledge of Celtic and Norse mythology. Beyond the mythos - if you want to write that part off as creative license - there were parts written into the setting and world building that didn't make sense. At one point, a character mentions there was a formidable army of 50 that they defeated, and I had to slam the book down, because 50 is somewhere between a scouting party and war council - definitely not an ARMY. The fact checking to add realism here just... did not seem to happen. And that totally broke the illusion for me.

I think that this book still has the potential to be enjoyed by a lot of people. Not everyone reads books in the same way that I do, and not everyone is looking for the depth and world building that I have come to expect from my fantasy. I think that there are a lot of people out of there who would really enjoy this one, but it just fell WAY below my expectations.