"I am going to start by admitting that I didn't actually finish it, I gave up 56% in.

For me, if the prospect of sleeping instead of staying up all night to read a novel is more tempting...then the story has failed.

That's what happened with Sterling.

I found the premise and concept interesting, all the mage, mageri and Breed, but it wasn't enough. What deterred me from continuing was the protagonist. I honestly could not stand Zoe, or Learner.

Seriously, isn't it absurd that when you're attacked and left for dead by a stranger whilst walking back from the station, only to wake up and find yourself in another stranger's house, and soon you begin to live with him? Isn't it a teeny bit weird that after going through your traumatic ordeal, you still wonder through a city you don't know and are completely okay with another stranger walking you to the local station...through a dark alley? And then you end up living with him too?

Does anyone else find this...I don't know...absurdly absurd?

I get that Adam and Justus (Stranger numero dos and tres) are main characters but Justus was a walking male stereotype and Adam was...well, a stranger.

I've decided not to read on, unless it really does get better?!
"

"SPOILER ALERT:

Oh, this silly book! The concept was great, the execution awful! Be forewarned. Stupidity abounds! To wit, I was dumbfounded that anyone could be so stupid as our heroine, Zoe. I ask you, who would come back to life after being MURDERED by a stranger in a deserted place, then go walking dark streets, yet again, with another total stranger? Certainly no one I'm interested in reading about.

I could forgive Zoe staying at the house of the man who rescued her, Adam, (though I can't say it was very bright), but NOT the constant taking off on her own (to go sightseeing, no less), knowing full well she's being stalked. Can we say "Death Wish," boys and girls? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I do understand why she stayed with Adam, since she had become a completely different person, physically. She had no life to return to. (Her friends, family, and even her landlord, would never have recognized her or believed her story.) But the relationship between Zoe & Adam skipped about 30 levels of development overnight.

And then there's the man sent to "teach" her the ways of her new life. Justus was objectionable in every way. I wouldn't have shared a coke with that jerk, let alone gone wandering down a dark, deserted street with him, shortly after having been attacked and killed on one! Absurd. Nothing about her relationship to either Adam OR Justus rings true in any degree.

There were inconsistencies during the rest of the story that drove me crazy, too, as though entire sentences were missing or something. Adam knocks on her bedroom door and steps over her legs as he comes in, for instance. Huh? Where were her legs? Is the bed in front of the door? Was she lying on the floor? What did I miss? This type of error, whether caused by incoherent writing or poor editing, occurs all too frequently throughout the book. I found myself constantly flipping back to re-read paragraphs, trying to understand what just happened.

All in all, it boils down to this. Heroines have a habit of doing foolish things in these sort of books, but there's a limit to what you can swallow. Anyone this dumb is WAY past that limit. Combine that with choppy editing and confusing narration, and I think for ME, the best thing to do with this book is to erase it totally out of my mind and off of my Kindle. I'm moving on. SO many good books out there, after all, and so little time to enjoy them all!









"