Sojourner Book

This book has such potential, and I was most disappointed that the author never seized the opportunities she created. What results is a rather dull, cliched paranormal romance that struggled to hold my interest.

To the author's credit, she did develop a good voice for the main character and her style is easy to read, but that's not enough to excuse the gaping plot holes, weak characters and rushed storyline.

Characters

1. Lizzie is a bland, stereotypical passive heroine. Her mixed race background is supposed to make her stand out, and yet nothing actually comes of it day to day. She's weak, helpless, doesn't go through any change or development, and is generally annoying. She's even stupid enough to fall into a river twice and to go out alone when she knows someone is after her.

2. Lev had great potential, but again, ended up just a cardboard cut out to give exposition. There's no development of his relationship with Lizzie, it just happens, and his motives are paper-thin. And he sparkles. Yawn.

3. The bad guy- as we see so little of him there's no way the reader can form any opinion towards him so by the time he 'acts' we don't care. Again his motives are pathetic, unsympathetic, and weak.

4. Side cast- again pretty generic and nothing that made me interested in them.

Story

We start off with a really promising start with the sinister dreams...but by a few chapters in they're practically forgotten. There's no build up or intrigue, and the explanation comes far too quickly and without consequence.

More holes form- Lizzie and her guardian hate the town and yet no reason is given why they had to move there or why they can't move out. The residents are supposedly 'anti-native American' and yet no evidence of this is shown. It gets even worse at the end when an angel dies from a gunshot wound and yet can fly endlessly and can survive extreme temperatures. Nothing is consistent in the supernatural element and it broke my suspension of disbelief.

There was a lot to play with in terms of plot and suspense but the author rushed through it to get to the 'romance', and even that wasn't convincing as nothing developed between the characters. There were no decent inter-character conflicts, but then Lizzie is such a pathetic MC she probably couldn't deal with it.

Presentation

The writing is generally good, but there are many typographical errors, omitted words, and spelling and grammar mistakes. The cover is pretty eye-catching as is the title.

Overall- a promising premise weakened by poor characters, their lack of development, and no internal plot consistency. A very disappointing read.