Series: Caster Chronicles #1, Paranormal Romance
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publishing year: 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown, and
Company
Rating: N/A
Synopsis:
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone
the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to
conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But
even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of
the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting
the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful
girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous
plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the
connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one
secret could change everything.
Review:
The reason I didn’t rate this book
is that I didn’t finish it, hence the title. If I had to rate it, it would be a
one out of five but that would be wrong. I didn’t finish the book, so what
right to I have to judge it? So, I’ll just explain why I stopped reading it.
With quotes of course, because we all love quotes.
“And if there’s one thing a
Southerner knows, it’s their family tree.” Page 93. The South plays a large
role in this book, a large tacky role. I
work in the genealogy section of my local library and if there is one thing I have
learned in the past two years, it’s that everyone gets it wrong at some point.
Patrons may think they’re descendants of the Cherokee or that their great-great
grandfather served in the Civil War, or something much similar like the
spelling of a family name that now looks like Smith but two hundred years ago
was Smyth. It takes a lot of work to compile a family tree with any degree of
accuracy, and the above quote is not only stereotypical, it’s dismissive.
Hackles effectively raised. But it doesn’t compare to the next quote.
“The Sisters of the Confederacy,
the lesser cousin of the DAR, but equally horrifying, was some kind of sewing
circle holdover from the War.” Page 93. I think this was meant to be the United
Daughters of the Confederacy but regardless that ended this book for me. Final
nail in the coffin. I’m sorry but the DAR is a wonderful organization and if
you are able to prove your lineage to a patriot of the American Revolution, you
had better be damn proud. That little sewing circle comment wasn’t needed
either. This is why I truly can’t respect Ethan Wate as a character. He is rude
about everything, as if he is better than his heritage.
I realize both of these quotes
are from the same page, and that I need to give more reasons for why this book
failed to gain my interest. Ethan sounds like a girl. I’m all
for male protagonists, but I get irate when their voice sounds like a teenage
girl. Example:
“It was like I was in love with
her, even though I didn’t know her. Kind of like love before first sight.” Page 5.
That’s right. Page five. This
book is all about insta-love, which is a concept I hate. I have seen books that
have pulled it off, there are always exceptions, but this one couldn’t manage
that. So he’s already in love with Lena before he even meets her, and from here
his masculinity never recovers.
“When I touched her, electricity
ran through my body.” Page 44.
I hate this sentence. It sounds
like something a twelve year old girl would say to one of her friends after her
first date. “And then Billy took my hand and when he did, electricity ran
through my body.” Why didn’t they just say it gave him the shivers or goose
bumps? On that note:
“Butterflies in your stomach.
That was such a crappy metaphor. More like killer bees.” Page 6.
That was a rather poor attempt at
humor. I put this with the electricity quote for a reason. The sensory details
in this book are lacking, it goes into great detail about clothing and Southern
history but it skips over these, or makes it overly cheesy. His stomach could
be described as twisting in knots or churning. But no, we get butterflies or
killer bees.
“She had the longest eyelashes I
had ever seen, and her skin was pale, made even paler by the contrast of her
wild black hair.” Page 46.
He just noticed her eyelashes.
Her eyelashes. Most female protagonists don’t notice those. While I’m pointing
this out, let me also mention that Ethan goes into great detail about every
other character’s clothing. Not only does it distract from the action of the
story but it takes away from whatever appeal Ethan originally held.
So to recap:
1. Insults
DAR and possibly UDC
2. Ethan
is a girl.
3. Awful
descriptions-eyelashes, electricity, butterflies, etc.
I feel that this book had some
great potential, if it had been revised before publishing. This just proves
that if you write a book, someone will read it. This one certainly doesn’t live
up to the hype. I wanted to like it but every time the Civil War, the DAR, and
Southern hospitality were brought up it became too difficult. I’m proud to come
from a Southern state; Georgia is a great place to live in my opinion. It’s not
for everyone but I like it. I like seeing Civil War Reenactments, and I enjoy
conversing with others who have that soft accent. It just seems to me that this
novel pushes everything Southern onto the reader in a tacky, annoying, and over
the top way.
Reading the authors’ bios, I
noticed they both live in LA, although Garcia is mentioned as having Southern
roots. I just wonder if I was the only reader who found this portrayal of the
South as false and mildly insulting.
But maybe I’m just ranting.
Whether you loved the book or hated it, let me know in the comments below.
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