Saturday, September 03, 2011

Book Review - The Key of Kilenya (on Kindle)

The Key of Kilenya 
by Andrea Pearson

3 out 5 stars.

My husband got a kindle for his birthday which allowed me to do my first e-book read. Even though I didn't think I would, I really love the Kindle. The other day, I heard a man say that he likes the feel of a book in his hands, and I used to say the same thing. But I changed my mind. Don't knock it 'til you try it. A book is about the words on the page and the Kindle is awesome.You never lose your page. You can look definitions of words up with a tap. Convenient and enlightening.

But on with the real point of the post. Here is what I thought about The Key of Kilenya.
This book reminded me a lot of the kids' series by Suzanne Collins called Gregor the Overlander. The main plot of the book being this kid named Jacob travels to another alternate world by accident. He discovers that a race of people have been waiting on him to help them find a magical and powerful key that was stolen by the bad guys. I imagine this race of magical people to be a mix between Native Americans and Ewoks.

The book takes you through the adventures of Jacob. He meets all kinds of different creatures (some good, some bad). Jacob discovers that he has powers and he builds some close friendships (two of which remind me of the Ron and Hermione - which was fun).

The book had a lot of imagination in it. I enjoyed the stretch for me. I am not a reader of fantasy, so the fact that I enjoyed the book at all may mean that you fantasy lovers will be really pleased.

For some reason which I have yet to figure out, I didn't connect with this book like I wanted; it could be just a writing style thing. At the beginning of every chapter there was a short excerpt from a journal which wasn't explained until halfway through the book. This felt really disjointed. I think the author's writing actually improved throughout the book and by the middle I was more drawn to the story-line and reading for the sake of curiosity. I was immersed into the story, but I was impatient in how long it took for me to get there.

There were a lot of phenomenons that went unexplained (frozen bodies that made up a wall, a mad man that throws nuts, hundreds of present individuals of all species that only Jacob can see) which displeased me. I like everything to fit together in a neat little package, as smoothly as JK does it. And I don't want to have to wait until the 7th book for the subplots to work out. I did love the characters though, but felt like they lacked emotion which kept me from totally immersing myself with my ability to relate.

I will most definitely read the next book in the series. The author left a cliffhanger (which I am NOT happy about). I felt much like I did after the 2nd movie in The Lord of the Rings. And since I just finished reading the book a few hours ago my emotions are still pretty raw.

Definitely worth the read. And you can purchase your own e-copy for just 99 cents. When you do, come back and help me understand my confusion in this review. I am sorry to the talented author Andrea Pearson. This is probably the worst review I have ever done. I should have entitled it "I liked it, but...well, I just don't know".

Buy the book here.

Visit the author Andrea Pearson.

I did receive a copy of this book for free and gave this totally useless review in return. My apologies. My complicated opinions were really just a result of my mood today and I was not swayed at all by the free-ness of the book.


2 comments:

Andrea said...

Thank you so much for your honest review! Honestly, as an author, when every review is positive, it makes me wonder if they're afraid of offending me. It's refreshing to read reviews that are honest.

First books are first books - not very good. And I agree - I did hit my stride half-way through.

I know of the problems in the story, but as with first books, it's not worth it to go through and completely re-order and re-write the story. It's better to move on with the series and make the next book much better. I've been given the "award for most improved author" for book two, which, honestly, is much better than book one. You'll see why, if you do end up reading it.

Again, thanks so very much for the review. :-) Would you be willing to post it on amazon? If not, that's totally fine. :-)

Unknown said...

You are very welcome Andrea, for all that it was worth. I quit reading Eragon halfway through so that I could do my review. I am now in Book 2 of the series and I am still finding myself confusing your stuff with his.:)

I am sorry the review wasn't more positive. I was in a hurry when reading and writing and I think you took a brunt of that fact combined with a bad mood in general.

Am looking forward to the 2nd book. I will post this on Amazon if I can figure it out.