Monday, June 13, 2011

The Arrival, by Nicole MacDonald

The Arrival (BirthRight Trilogy)Four women, Cat, Laura, Kassi, and Sian, are all trained in various forms of combat.  They think their training us just for hobby and fitness, but when they cast a spell that transports them to another place, they realize that training just may be a part of their destiny.  They also realize that some things they thought were just fantasy now may become reality.  But is this reality their new home, or just a temporary?

Recently, I have started getting more interested in paranormal and/or fantasy fiction.  But this book reminds me of why I was not a fan for so long.  The plot just seemed a little bizarre, beyond the typically needed suspension of disbelief for this genre.  The book is basically a romance novel, set in fantasy land.  It just did not click with me.

The character development was ok, but for some reason, the author decided to sometimes use the proper names for characters, and sometimes use nicknames that, to an American reader, did not always correlate.  For example Loi and Laura are the same person, but this is not explained for the first third of the book.  I am not sure if this is a common diminutive used for the name Laura in New Zealand, where the author lives, but to American readers, it will be confusing.  Also, the author uses the common practice of switching narrative points of view.  Most books do the switch at the chapter change, or at least have a break in the story.  This author chooses to do it within the same scene, with no break, and the result is very jerky.  Switching from first person point of view to third person point of view made me feel like there was a 5th character I was unaware of.

In terms of the storyline, it is a good quest based story.  Those fond of paranormal romance will most likely enjoy the story, but for me it just did not click.



I received a review copy courtesy of the author.

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