E. K. Blair

I found out about Fading by E.K. Blair through BookBub. I thought it had a good plot and it was only 99¢. Couldn’t really pass it up. It also had four stars on Goodreads with over 5,000 reviews. I’m sorry to say the book did not live up to its ratings.

The premise of the story is part of the reason I decided to pick it up. The story is told from Candace’s point of view. She’s living a seemingly perfect life going to college in Washington as a dance major. She has great friends, but an awful family. She decides to step outside of her normal good girl shell, which leads to her attack (obviously not her fault, though she feels that it is). She turns to her friend Jase (who happens to be gay, so there’s nothing between them except friendship) after her attack and pretty much breaks ties with her friend/roommate Kimber. She eventually meets Ryan, and has to deal with how to be intimate and trust someone after being raped. And that’s the story we watch unfold.

Let me start with the good stuff. The idea of the story as a whole is what drew me in. It reminded me of Tammara Webber’s Easy (A 5 ♥ read). After reading Fading the stories seemed too similar. So, the book had a good plot. And that’s about where what I enjoyed ended.

The story was really slow moving. I know authors are always told show, don’t tell, but this book could have used more telling. We spent a lot of time watching Candace break down after her attack (understandable), but we only needed to see that happen a couple times and be told it was happening more often. Actually seeing so many made it feel less powerful than seeing it happen one or two times. We could have also used fewer descriptions in some of the scenes. For example, we just need to know the characters are making dinner; we don’t need to see their every move. Toward the end of the book we get things more summed up and a much faster passing of time. It would have been great to see more of that throughout.

Three more things I took issue with, and then I’ll be done. First, there weren’t enough contractions. It made the story really stilted and pulled me out of the story. And all the guys in the book had really normal names, all four letter names (Ryan, Jase, Jack, and Mark). Lastly, the characters didn’t seem like college students. They were too level headed for people with the constant pressure that is senior year and being on the precipice of adulthood. One character who is mature for their age would be okay, but none of the character felt like college students.

Now I’m done. My hope for the future is that I don’t have too many more bad reviews, because I want to spend my time reading good books. But I think it’s important to be honest about what I’ve read so that you will know what books are good and which aren’t. There won’t be any more of the Fading series for me. And now I’m off to read better books.
… (mer)