I don't write 700 page books padded with useless words that take three chapters to describe a doorknob! – Kimball Lee
Temptation Road and Speaking of the Charmed Life, the two current editions of Lee’s series, speaks to the quoted comment regarding her writing style. This qualifies more as a short story, a novella, rather than a book,only 49 pages. And she attempts to stuff a world into these short pages, a world of mystery and magic which would have been much better served by a writer with a more expressive hand. Given that, there are still things to like about the book, even if I deeply wish that someone else had handled the writing.There is a world of beauty in the thought of the book – one that could create a world of wonder. A beautiful, magical house, wild creatures who wander into the yard and strop themselves against your knees. Hate and love and strangeness.
I will admit, however, that a writer friend of mine will probably love the idea of the novella over a long novel. She has three very small children, a house to run, and books to write, so novellas fit her needs exceptionally well. What I didn’t care for was the choppy delivery, the compression of what could have been beautiful paragraphs into single hard, choppy sentences. The flow simply wasn’t there.
The cover nearly kept me from reading the first book. It has no correlation to the story, instead appearing to be just a stock photo that fits with other books that Lee writes. If I hadn’t read the description, I wouldn’t have read it because the “sex me up” style doesn’t work for me. And those who expect “sex me up” book certainly will be disappointed.
The mysticism in the book is confusing, to say the least, though the good and evil characters are more interesting than most. In the second book, the relationship moves forward rather roughly, with a heavy overtone of punishment that pretty much creaped me out. The inability of Rae, the main female character, to accept the incredible gifts that she is given, instead winding into a whining, baby obsessed wreck, was truly disappointing. Though she is supposed to be more special than one can imagine, instead, she strikes me more as the type of woman who blows things totally out of proportion – spoiled. Meh.
Overall, I really wanted to like it more than I did. However, in many ways the book was oddly appealing. I know, sounds weird, huh? Gripe gripe gripe and yet I found it interesting enough to immediately download the next one and read it. I don’t know. I will get the next one simply because I am interested to see what happens next. I hope I am not disappointed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I would – but will be happy if I am not.
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