Allie Burke

Mature content - not for a young audience

The book was ... just ... wow! I received this book from the author for an honest review. At the time my pile of books to be reviewed was huge. So it sat in the pile forgotten for a while until last night when I opened it and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.

The main character, Emily, is a complex, fully developed woman. Struggling with mental illness her story is aching and intriguing. Even though her choices and decisions may not make sense to the reader, one can't help cheering her on.

Filled with twists and turns that keep the pacing of this book perfect, I was enthralled from beginning to end and will definitely be looking for more from Allie Burke. What an incredible read.

I will be recommending this book to all my adult friends this holiday season. Definitely a book worth reading!… (mer)

Violet Midnight follows Jane, an Enchanter who sleeps during the day, and Elias, an artist struggling with the loss of his brother. Before they even meet in person, they appear to each other in dreams and astral projection-like encounters. And once they do meet, Elias quickly gets pulled into Jane’s world of magic and slowly begins to realize he might have been a part of it all along.

Jane and Elias share an instantaneous connection, which was sweet and heart-warming to read. I’m really into soulmates and fated romance, though I could see how some people could be put off by how quickly their relationship develops. Sometimes, I did wonder why everything in this book happens so quickly to the point where I’m left wondering: did they ever get a chance to really talk? To get to know each other? The book was maybe a bit too short and could have given them more time for that, and I feel like some of the time spent on short scenes with other characters could have been better spent in getting Jane and Elias closer. But I mostly, I just enjoyed their destined love for each other.

I took me until I’d already won this book to realize it probably had sexual scenes in it. Again, I’d rather have more time with characters getting to know each other rather than learning the details of what they do in bed, but since I’ve never been big on sex scenes, I might not be the best judge of those parts. However, one of the sex scenes seemed extremely out of place. I’m not sure why I’d want to read about Elias’ parents’ sex life. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

The magic in this book is pretty awesome. I’m always fond of elemental magic, but I also like the way this book talks about characters having sparkling, coloured auras. Jane’s connection with Jasmyn Lake is really cool, as well. Jasmyn is described as having her own personality, liking and disliking certain things. But it feels like the book only scratches the surface of what Enchanters can do. Leaving me hooked enough to want more.

In a lot of ways, Violet Midnight can feel simple and expected. But I enjoyed the characters and their connection to each other. This book was just plain fun to read. I hate to make a bad pun, but I was mostly enchanted by the first book in this trilogy. I’ll miss these characters when I continue reading the following books without them, but I look forward to seeing more of characters that are just barely hinted at in this story.… (mer)

I was given a copy of this book for an honest review. Violet Midnight has the potential to be an awesome read with a little more fleshing out of the characters. Who & Where are all answered. What is missing it the Why? Why did Jane get so sick more explanation is needed. Why did the other Enchanters want to kill her? Why did Jane set Elias on fire? Why did Daniel need to go up a tree? Why was the mob going to kill Elias and where did they go. This is a great first book, but has unanswered questions.… (mer)

I have to be honest in that I really wanted to like this book. I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review - and have agreed to review it - otherwise I wouldn't, because I generally don't like to leave negative reviews.

1) I didn't read the first book in the series, so that may be part of the problem.
2) The pacing was way too fast in the beginning, with far too many characters introduced and too many important world-building elements, such that I was never entirely able to figure out what was going on or feel empathy for the characters. For example, there is a love interest in jeopardy (I'm assuming from the first book) and in the prologue I'm supposed to feel tension because someone has lost their loved one - but I don't know who the people are and so don't know how upset the person is that the person is apparently dead. Also, I think it was because of magic but I'm really fuzzy on how and why the person died.
3) I kept reading, thinking all right these things will be explained but the plot seemed to move on without ever saying why things were going on. Possibly, I am just dense.
4) Finally, I love descriptive prose, and at first I loved it, but there were so many flaws in the main body of the book that it kept pulling me out of the zone while I tried to figure out what a particular sentence was saying.

On a positive note, this looks like a very intriguing series. There is some gorgeous prose in there, and a great world system.

To use a metaphor, I compare it wandering through a intricate hedge maze which has unfortunately gotten overgrown so most of the paths are blocked. I can tell there is some interesting stuff in there, but could not get to it. This could be just me and my opinion, but there it is. I will try to come back and re-read it in the future and if I think differently will change my review.… (mer)