Helpful Score: 2
I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. I didn't like this book as much as the first one, parts of this book are fairly drawn out and boring.
Hunter gets kind of lost in her own magical theories at points. All the talk of lights and colors and geometric patterns within the earth got a bit confusing and hard to follow; it also didn't have a lot of bearing on the overall story. I found myself skimming these parts as I got to the second half of the book.
Additionally Nell ends up doing a lot of running around and reading the land which got really really repetitive. For some reason this book took me a very long time to read because it just wasn't all that interesting for long stretches of the story. This felt like a transition book where Nell is being given time to adjust to life outside the Church.
I do continue to enjoy the interesting characters in here. I also found the subplot dealing with Rick's inability to transform into a panther to be very intriguing. The world itself is very intricate and interesting and I enjoyed learning about the other types of paranormals. Really this would have been a spectacular read if it just hadn't been so long and bogged down with strange technical magical descriptions that go on and on for pages. Many of the more recent Jane Yellowrock books have suffered from this same issue.
Overall this was a good, but not great, continuation of the Soulwood series. I continue to enjoy the characters and love watching the changes in Nell. I also enjoyed the subplot involving Rick. I did not enjoy the slow pace and how repetitive the story got. At times this was really a struggle to read and it took me a very very long time to get through the book. I would tentatively recommend to urban fantasy fans; I really loved the first book in the series and will plan on reading the third...however if the third is as bogged down and long as this one I probably won't read anymore.
Hunter gets kind of lost in her own magical theories at points. All the talk of lights and colors and geometric patterns within the earth got a bit confusing and hard to follow; it also didn't have a lot of bearing on the overall story. I found myself skimming these parts as I got to the second half of the book.
Additionally Nell ends up doing a lot of running around and reading the land which got really really repetitive. For some reason this book took me a very long time to read because it just wasn't all that interesting for long stretches of the story. This felt like a transition book where Nell is being given time to adjust to life outside the Church.
I do continue to enjoy the interesting characters in here. I also found the subplot dealing with Rick's inability to transform into a panther to be very intriguing. The world itself is very intricate and interesting and I enjoyed learning about the other types of paranormals. Really this would have been a spectacular read if it just hadn't been so long and bogged down with strange technical magical descriptions that go on and on for pages. Many of the more recent Jane Yellowrock books have suffered from this same issue.
Overall this was a good, but not great, continuation of the Soulwood series. I continue to enjoy the characters and love watching the changes in Nell. I also enjoyed the subplot involving Rick. I did not enjoy the slow pace and how repetitive the story got. At times this was really a struggle to read and it took me a very very long time to get through the book. I would tentatively recommend to urban fantasy fans; I really loved the first book in the series and will plan on reading the third...however if the third is as bogged down and long as this one I probably won't read anymore.
