Review: A Lonely Magic

Reviewer: Kelsey
Author: Sarah Wynde
Format: eBook (Galley; honest review requested)
Pages: 270 (?)
Rating: 5 out of 10

Summary (With Goodreads, nobody is lonely): Nothing is what it seems in a glittering new fantasy by best-selling author Sarah Wynde

When a gorgeous guy demands Fen choose between getting shot or overdosing on drugs, she plunges into a sea of trouble. Although she’s rescued from her would-be killer by Luke, a teenage boy, and Kaio, his sexy older brother, escape won’t be so easy.

The protection the brothers provide simmers with unnerving undercurrents. They have secrets and Fen has questions. Who are they? How did they find her? What do they want with her? And why was she targeted for murder in the first place?

When Fen and Luke are forced to run for their lives, Luke spirits Fen down into an enchanting underwater city. But every enchantment has its dark edges. Caught in the tides of emotion, romance, and a plot to destroy humanity, Fen must look deep within herself to find the strength and courage she’ll need to stay afloat in this amazing new world.

Submerge yourself in the latest gripping novel from Sarah Wynde, author of the Tassamara series. You won’t want to come up for air before the final enthralling page of A Lonely Magic.

My Thoughts: How about this? I will talk about what I didn't like, then I will share what I did like. This is likely lack paragraph form as my notes are super confusing for this book. Sorry.

Okay, so the beginning was interesting enough but the speech seemed a little bit off. It struck me as too simple and speech is one of my things. It can cause me to hate or to fall in love with a book. I think that dialogue sets the tone. It creates the characters. In this novel, it bothered me a lot because I could see that there was so much more to this book than the bad speech patterns. Suddenly, I found that some of the character (no spoilers!) spoke in a very bizarre way. It is discussed, yes, however, the change in speech seemed too fast. Fen has been interacting with two of the characters for some time before they seem anything more than formal. By the end of the novel, they sound childlike. They devolved. That shouldn't have happened. Solution? The author just needs to listen more closely to the way people speak and not change speech patterns half way through.

I despised the ending. It wasn't an ending. It was another middle...with no ending after it. The novel was short. There was no reason why that one last little bit couldn't have been discussed. Another novel still would have been possible if that's what the publishers were worried about. I mean, there was still the central problem for the...people. It didn't just have to stop. It made me uncomfortable and unhappy and three days later, I'm still mad about it. Why couldn't we have just finished the stupid thing? 

That said, I enjoyed the general storyline. I liked the magic and the characters (at their core). I enjoyed the beauty of the world in which they lived. I thought that Fen was interesting. I thought Luke was brave. I have to be honest thought, I much prefer Kaio. I also liked the names. I'm a sucker for strange names (as long as you can pronounce them, of course.) 

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I liked the novel...but it needed more work. It needed another few rounds of edits. It needed to have the speech double checked. Continuity and all that fun stuff. It needed to be dumbed down in some areas, and worked up in other areas. It just needed more work. Another six months of hard editing and work on this novel and it could have been amazing but, as it was, it was just too lacking and I doubt I will ever reread it because of this. If it wasn't for the fact that Fen couldn't stop thinking about how hot the characters were, I would suggest that this was for a younger group but I can't even claim that. Sorry.