Airel
The Airel Saga, Book #1
By Aaron Patterson & Chris White
ISBN# 9780982607862
Authors’ Websites: http://theworstbookever.blogspot.com/ http://www.jammyadventures.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Annabell
Synopsis:
All Airel ever wanted was to be normal, to disappear into the crowd. But bloodlines can produce surprises, like an incredible ability to heal. Then there’s Michael Alexander, the new guy in school, who is impossibly gorgeous…and captivated by her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she can hear the sound of pages turning, and another, older story being written. It is the story of an ancient family, of great warriors, of the Sword of Light, and the struggle against an evil so terrible, so far-reaching, that it threatens everything. Airel knew change would be an inevitable part of life. But can she hold on when murder and darkness begin to close in and take away everything she loves? Will she have what it takes when the truth is finally revealed?
Review:
As an avid lover of things angel related, I very my much looked forward to reading Airel. I had been drawn by both the description of the book and the lovely cover. But sadly, the statement, “don’t judge a book by its cover” could not be any truer.
It’s very difficult to point out anything I liked about the novel. One of the only aspects I partially enjoyed reading was the story behind Kreios. His story was better developed than Airel and was better plotted but even Kreios’s tale was weak.
Airel’s story is told from the perspective of Airel. She is in high school and has a pretty humdrum life-that is until one day a new boy comes to town and Airel falls for him from the moment he deems her worthy enough to breathe on her. Michael is the typical stud jock, who can do no wrong and is constantly stalked by a swarm of lust filled girls but the only one he has eyes for is Airel.
The biggest problem with Airel–and there were quite a few—was the lack of originality in the both the plot and the characters. I completely understand the fact that there is only so much an author can do with plots but there’s a difference between using a basic plot line as a platform for your own plot and using a basic plot as the sole bases of your story. Airel offered nothing noteworthy or refreshing to a tale that has been told countless times before: girl is bored with her life and dreams of excitement—new boy comes to town and offers her exactly what she wants—girl falls for boy the moment they meet and doesn’t bother asking any important questions—girl suddenly learns she has gifts she never knew about—boy turns out to have big dark secret but has a change of heart because of how he feels for the girl. Underneath that should have been thrown in the voice of the author, or in this case, authors, but there seemed to be no real stand out element to the story.
The characterization was far too generic and plagued with clichés I could hardly muster up the strength to continue reading. The only character I felt a connection with was Kreios. His story was told with heartfelt moments and a sense of intrigue but his story suffered as well because it was constantly dragged out and could only evoke lack luster suspense. Airel, the main character and the so called heroine, was the second worse character of the book. Michael takes first place. Where Airel’s character was written as a vapid and angst ridden teenage girl who complained far too more than doing anything worthy enough to cast her in the light of heroism, Michael had no actual personality. At least Airel was snippy and moody but Michael was just plain boring! I would have accepted him acting as a typical jerk of a jock, at least then he would have had a semblance of a personality, but the whole mysterious bad boy went way too far because I literally can’t remember anything about his character.
The plot was barely developed. The scenes just dragged on and on. I skipped whole chapters and there was still the same scene happening. The narration and dialogue made getting through the book extremely difficult.
I can appreciate and respect the hard work the authors invested into their novel. It’s darn hard to put so much work into something and release it out to the world to be judged. But with that said, they could have used a better editor (if in fact they even hired one). The intermingled story with Kreios should have been its own book because that’s really the only part of the book that worked.
If you decide to give Airel a try, please do so with much caution and no expectations. The book has potential but in my very humble opinion, Airel’s story can use a touch from a skillful editor to give her world the punch that it needs to be great.
I wish these authors the best of luck in the future with the next upcoming books in Airel’s tale.
