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A Lady of the Realm (House of DeDe, #1)

Sharon E. Mamolo

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Jun 02, 2012 Dana Delamar rated it liked it

This a hard book for me to review because my experience with it was so up and down. The book starts off well, with a tight, interesting first chapter. We're introduced to Bethany Boudreaux, the main character, and find out that she's a full-blooded witch who's lost her heritage (including a title and a lot of money), and she'll do anything to get it back -- including making a deal with a dangerous and ruthless elf, who she hopes to manipulate to her own ends. So far, so good.

And then we get to This a hard book for me to review because my experience with it was so up and down. The book starts off well, with a tight, interesting first chapter. We're introduced to Bethany Boudreaux, the main character, and find out that she's a full-blooded witch who's lost her heritage (including a title and a lot of money), and she'll do anything to get it back -- including making a deal with a dangerous and ruthless elf, who she hopes to manipulate to her own ends. So far, so good.

And then we get to chapter 2, where Bethany seems to lose her starch. She allows Alek (aka Sasha) to call her "pet" nonstop (in fact, her name is not mentioned again for at least three more chapters, to the point where I forgot it), which I found strange in a character who puts up quite a fight in the first chapter. Aside from an occasional spat, she and Alek settle into a rather harmonious relationship for several chapters, during which they seem more like old lovers than two people using each other for their own ends.

Bethany's character is all over the place for much of the book -- she's cold and calculating one minute, then seemingly in love the next, then oddly unconcerned when a man she supposedly cares for deeply is mortally wounded (in fact, she decides now's the time to sow her wild oats! What???). I was shaking my head at her any number of times and went through several chapters liking her less and less, almost to the point where I wanted to stop reading.

On the plus side, the author has a good imagination and has constructed an interesting (if at times, confusing) world populated with witches, elves, fairies, vampires, shapeshifters, demons, and the like. Parts of the story are quite inventive, and some of the action scenes are very well done. However, the world-building is a bit confusing (for example, the relationship between humans and witches isn't explained until very late in the story, and even then, I'm not sure I completely get it).

The story is also littered with typos, grammatical errors, and misused words. I had to stop frequently to re-read, and was so confused in some sections that I could not sort out what was happening.

The author shows promise but she needs to hire an editor to help her polish this story and make it shine. It is very rough as is. ...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Nicole marked it as to-read-top-want-to-read

Apr 30, 2012 Mlpmom (Book Reviewer) marked it as to-read

Shelves: kindle-books, to-read-own

May 09, 2012 Huma marked it as to-read

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