The magic system was intriguing but I couldn't seem to connect to the story enough. I'm not sure what it was, it just was missing something that held my attention.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

I absolutely loved this book.. This was such a unique concept and story line. It had me riveted so much so that I finished it in less than two days.

Thanks for a wonderful read

What an intriguing read. I loved everything about this book. I am saddened to see that it is no longer available anywhere. I have already recommended this book to quite a few people. I really liked the magic system in play here. Every step of this novel brought new twists and turns and I found myself drawn to the characters in the story. Dylan, in particular, has such a wonderfully romantic side and his portrayal as a man with feelings was a breath of fresh air.

I really enjoyed reading this book! I read this book in one sitting because I could not put the book down, I highly recommend reading this book!

The premise for this book is unique and interesting: A girl that suddenly becomes devoid of all color, invisible to all, powerful magicians and the introduction of an iconoclast. I loved the way this was written. It flowed very nicely and kept me wrapped in it the entire time. The main character changes from a stereotypical heiress to a strong heroine. There were a lot of unique ideas in this book that kept me reading it and I liked the characters that were introduced.

I think this book had good potential but sadly it just fell flat for me. I liked the idea of her having to solve her parent's murder and fight to get herself back from being colorless. I thought that was interesting, but other than that I just didn't think the book executed what it wanted to do. I was just confused by a lot of stuff and couldn't seem to figure out what the author wanted to bring across. I didn't get it. Her characters weren't memorable and just there was no substance. Overall this fell flat and I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have hoped.

When she finds out both of her parents have died suddenly and unexpectedly, Annabelle Klein begins to lose her color completely, the colors of her clothes, skin and hair all essentially melting off of her in droplets. Not only does her touch leach the color out of whatever object/person she is touching, but it seems like losing her color has effectively erased her from everyone else’s memories as well. It is as if she doesn’t even exist.

This book had a really good idea behind it, I’m just not sure that it was executed as well as it could have been. The characters were all solid and well fleshed out, but I think it would have benefited from more world-building. The concept of a world in which gods exist as well as evil magicians and monks is an intriguing one, especially with the problem of figuring out why Annabelle has lost all of her color and is now essentially invisible, but I never truly felt like I was sure of what was ultimately going on within the story. I was over halfway through with the book before they even begin to explain what iconoclasts were and how this was related to the monks and gods. And even when it is explained it felt like there was something lacking, maybe I just didn’t get it, but I was still felt like I had unanswered questions by the end of the book.

Overall it was a good story with a unique concept for a fantasy world and I did enjoy reading the story, I just think it would have benefited from spending more time explaining the world and its mythology. Maybe that’s something that the author will tackle more of in the next book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book!

I actually DNF this book for a variety of reasons. First, it was very hard to start reading. The beginning was confusing and hard to understand or follow what the characters were talking about or experiencing. As the story progressed, I just wasn't "getting it" Perhaps it was the style, the pacing, or just the story itself.
I am also not a fan of mystery? I think I should have realized this was a mystery but I didn't realize to what extent it was.

An interesting and fresh ya novel with an intriguing plot that kept the pages turning

I have tried to read this book twice, but I just can't get into it. The premise of it sounded really interesting, but I struggled with the writing. For me, the style tries too hard to be, I'm not sure how to describe it, Victorian. I always hate when I can't finish a book, but I just couldn't get into the characters or the style. I'm sure that there will be those that love it but unfortunately, this book wasn't for me.

This book has a quite original storyline and the world building and characters are well done. However, it is painfully slow going. Not one of my favourites but still a reasonably good read.

Rita Stradling has already proven to be a very versatile writer. So when I received the arc of Colorless I was curious which type of story she would have woven this time. Since the blurb was a bit confusing, I started with a lot of questions. I mean, what in the name of love is an Iconoclast and why are they unseen??

After a few chapters, the book ended on my ToRead pile. And slowly it graduaded to the bottom of the pile. The starting of the book was a bit heavy and I kept putting it of. But when the book was moved on my Netgalley shelf to the 'more than 3 months old' I knew I had to start over again. Since Ensnared also had a bit of a slow start, I promised myself it would get better in time.

And it did. However, the changing Point Of View in the chapters made it first a bit confusing. But suddenly you feel yourself drawn to Annabelle, who becomes invisible after the sudden death of her parents. The colour just drips off her body and clothes. Feeling scared and alone, she is happy to find out that some people still can see her. However, they are not pleased to see her.

In the following chapters, Rita unfolds the story, where pieces of the puzzle start to fall together: why is Annabelle's cousin her best friend? Why would he betray her? But then the story gets fuzzier and when the dire wolves are released, chaos is complete.

When the story ended I had to do a double take: was the story really over? I'm still not sure. Maybe Rita tried too much this time. The story is a bit forced and sometimes to much intrigues for the story to flow well. So, in all, not her best book ever. I doubted a bit to give it only two stars, because I think this is too harsh for this story. But it didn't convince enough to validate three stars. So, two-and-a-half stars out of five this time. And still looking out for new stories of Rita Stradling. With a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

I absolutely loved the premise of this book; when Annabelle if notified of her parents death all the colour is drained from her, she turns invisible and people forget that she has ever existed.
I really enjoyed the magical elements of Gods and magicians and would of enjoyed learning a bit more about them - being a sucker for a magic system.
I liked the introduction of Dylan the stable boy as Annabelle could be quite irritating at times,
Aside from the fact that I felt Annabelle had her priorities all wrong, the plot could get quite overly complication at times and there were a couple of loose ends. I did really enjoy the story, the premise and the setting,

Colorless' premise is awesome and unique, but the execution of that premise, while very enjoyable in some ways, was quite faulty in others.

What Colorless is About
Colorless is more or less a historical fantasy set in the fictional town of Domengrad, an analog of an early 20th century Russian town. The people of this town have three rules that they live by: fear the gods, worship the magicians, and forsake the iconoclasts. These rules were laid down by some "off-screen" magicians, and are enforced by a group of mute, hive-minded monks. Annabelle Klein, the main character, is heiress to a manor in that town, but the manor's mortgaged down to its candlesticks, she's betrothed to her loathsome cousin, and her parents suddenly and simultaneously die at the beginning of the book, and when that happens, all of the pigment drips out of her skin and hair, leaving her colorless. Within moments, Annabelle is invisible and forgotten by all who knew her.  Things are pretty bad for her.

What Wasn't Great About Colorless
Given that, you would think that her first thoughts would either be to grieve, use her invisibility to solve the mystery of what she suspects is her parents' murder, and/or try to find out why she turned colorless and invisible. But she doesn't really do any of those things.  Instead, she just strives to escape the notice of the monks who come to the manor to investigate the possible existence of an iconoclast (someone who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions or a destroyer of images used in religious worship), though they can't see or remember Annabelle either. As she does so, she meets Dylan, a stableboy on the estate to whose point of view the story then transfers, and thinks about Tony, her "loathsome" cousin, to whom the point of view then also transfers. All this eventually leads in a roundabout way to her meeting some young men who help to shed light on why her parents died and provide speculation about the monks' or magicians' connection between that and her invisibility. But they don't help her solve the mystery or regain her color and visibility. And they even turn out to be connected to the monks in a Jacob-esque way that really makes no sense.

So, plotwise, it wasn't the best. It would have been a much more powerful story better told if it had only been told from Annabelle's perspective, and had focused on any one of her possible motives of  solving her parents murder or becoming visible and colored once again. It was confusing. I was frustrated with the lack of substantive information supplied during each chapter to help answer questions brought up in earlier chapters. It seemed like clues were constantly being given about the true nature of the enemy, and none were answered. The reader is constantly held in the dark about the motives behind characters' actions, and there are a couple of plot twists that made no sense to me whatsoever. And there was a fair amount of swearing, which I thought was totally superfluous, and in fact, took away from the feel of the book. And, by way of "nutrition facts," there is mention of a hoped-for gay relationship.

What Was Great About Colorless
That being said, I still found myself totally intrigued and drawn in. I would venture to say that, while I wouldn't give this book any points for plot, and in fact, might even take away points for that (it's my ten-star system, so I can do what I want with it, right?), I would give it all the points possible for setting and style, and maybe even extra ones. Stradling very deftly tells Annabelle's tale such that the reader can easily "see" and "feel" where she's at, even if they can't understand why or how.

So, I'd probably award Colorless six out of ten stars.

Disclaimer: I did receive a free copy of the book through NetGalley, but my

**3.5 Stars**
Lady Annabelle's parents were murdered one night and when Annabelle was told the news, all her color fell off of her- literally, fell off until the grass until all that remained was gray. And then everyone forgot that Annabelle even existed and she was completely invisible. But strangely, when she touched something, the color would fall from the item making it just as colorless and forgettable. But Dylan the stable boy can still see her and he resolves to help her any way he can, regardless of the danger it puts him in.

​I think the concept for this story and ultimately this world was really cool and unique, with many Gods and Magicians and the different classes of people and curses. I would have loved to learn more about the pilgrimages and the dynamic of the Magicians in the society overall, as well as what the magicians were actually capable of and how they got to be so powerful. The hierarchy was unique and had a lot of potential for conflict and magic, which peaked my interest. I would be super interested to read a backstory ​of the iconaclasts and the magician history (every time the past of iconoclasts was hinted at my interest was 100% peaked).

Unfortunately, I was super confused a majority of the story. It was really hard to follow the plot and all the small nuances of the world, at times I gave up on trying to figure everything out and just go with the flow and hope that things would work out at the end. Some did, some didn't, some were never explained at all (I guess just facts I was suppose to accept?). I liked Dylan as a character and empathized with him (but the whole spiel about him being a pseudo ladies man was ridiculous and 100% not needed for the story), but I did not really care for Annabelle and her snooty ways as well as Tony and his selfishness and crazy paranoia.

The ending was the best part of the story for me, I wanted to cheer Annabelle on for her audacity and how everything was playing out. There were some loose ends that did not completely wrap up, but things seemed to be well enough resolved that I didn't feel like I was missing anything important. I felt like this was a standalone book, but after reading the book I discovered that there is a prequel (not sure if this will be ongoing or not). But there is definitely potential for more. This is the second book I have read from this author and I have learned that she is able to create completely new, unique worlds which I appreciate.

Colorless by Rita Stradling had such a unique concept with Annabelle losing her color. The first few chapters were really what grabbed my attention and made me curious as to the reason. There were some parts of the story that I liked and other parts which had me wondering about what was going on.


Colorless, magicians, monks, and dire wolves....


It’s a lot to take in. There is a religious undertone to the whole storyline. You’ve got the villains which are the magicians and monks who are after power and control. Who, I’m guessing as a pretense, are labeling certain people as iconoclasts and killing them off. Annabelle, who becomes colorless after her parents’ death, is a enemy to Domengrad because of her affiliation.

To be colorless means that Annabelle is virtually invisible to everyone. She sets out to figure out why. I still really don’t understand why it happened to her. Maybe I just didn’t understand it fully.

Normally I would enjoy multiple POVs in a story. This one just seemed a little bit too much. Annabelle’s cousins’ POV although interesting, seemed a bit too much. Too much information at times lead to me becoming a little disinterested in the storytelling. I was eager for Annabelle’s storyline and wanted to see it resolved.

I had the opportunity to listen to this book in audio book as well. It took me awhile to get used to the narration. I really couldn’t stand the voices used for the Monks. The drawling tones really had me cringing and eager to get through. The male voices all sounded the same to me.

Overall, while a unique concept, it introduced a lot of content without a lot of cohesiveness. I enjoyed it for what it was and when there was action it was interesting.

She's lost her color. She's lost her place, her status, she's lost everything. Now what is Annabelle going to do? her parents are dead and everything she touches loses it's color. So the premise is good. Now, I have mixed emotions that toss me back and forth between 2 stars and 4 stars. On one hand, I enjoyed the unique aspects, and on the other hand, I'm so aggravated with the lack of clarity of different god, monks, whatever... they are never clearly show or stated. That is aggravating to me.
The various POV's were nice. I do like that.

My copy came from Net Galley. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a very unusual book. I didn't know what it really was going to be about and just let the story hit me. Wow, I love different and boy, it is! A girl's parents die, in their room, the reader fears foul play. When the girl is told by the maids that her parents are dead, suddenly, no one remembers her...all her color disappears from her clothes and everything she touches. She lives in the house with servants but no one see or acknowledges her. She is to be married and even he has forgotten or has he? It is a very unusual book. It has magic, evil-ish monks, dire wolves, and a foggy hint of other...delightful for the strange like me. I think it lagged a bit getting started but once on a roll it was good.
The narrator had the perfect voice for that eerie, quiet, otherness....all that was needed was a thick blanket of fog

Rita Stradling is an author with totally original ideas and the description of Colourless really caught my eye. Honestly, I thought that this book would be amazing. I guess I should have known better because as much as I adored the first two books in her Dakota Kekoa series, I really haven't had much luck with her other books. 

I read about 55% of this book and put it aside. I'm not even sure why I read so much of it. But then again, I really wouldn't label it as "reading" but more as "skimming". I was reading a few work in a sentence or a paragraph a page and just going through the motions. There was no spark, nothing that kept me interesting or wanting to read. The main issue? The lead character Annabelle was not likeable at all. She thought too highly of herself, like everyone owed her. How am I supposed to connect with that? She just irritated me to no end! Ugh!

The pacing and writing of the book also didn't do it any favours. Alright, the first few chapters did contain some potential. They were full of mystery and intrigue...but after that it all just became so dull. The mystery and intrigue turned into pure confusion. I stopped caring because everything bounced around. Why were there so many perspectives? Was that necessary? Why did all the characters sound the same? Who was talking? My mind just kept on wandering and reading this book unfortunately felt like a task, not something that I wanted to do. Maybe I should have put it down sooner but I really wanted to try to finish it. 

So, while Colourless had a fascinating plot idea nothing really took off after the first few pages. I'm sad that this book turned out this way. It was the first I picked up after not reading for weeks due to work. I guess in the future I'll steer clear of Stradling's books, although I would really love for the third book of the Dakota Keko series to be released. It feels like ages since the second book came out.