Loved, loved, loved this book!
And thankfully not too long to wait for the secondl in the series!
Two strong female leads, light and dark fey, trolls others and zealots, and a bit of romance.
This book gripped me from the get go, and the ending had left me dying to know what comes next!

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads:

“We have never been alone. Humanity has always had small glimpses into other worlds since the beginning of time, but in the 1600’s a catastrophe tore the veil off, and Earth has never been the same since. Humankind has had centuries now to adapt to a life where the creatures from our many cultural myths and legends are very real. Alive. Living in the same apartment complexes with us. It’s taken a while but everyone has managed to come to terms with it. Well, almost everyone…

Rumor has spread of an ancient, magical weapon resurfacing in the black market. A weapon blessed by an organization of zealots who call themselves The Pillars and owned by their prophet and hero Sir Asmir, a Knight of their order. Lost to time it was all but forgotten until one day a mysterious treasure pops up in a museum. Suddenly they are not the only ones interested.

A mysterious woman appears wherever the relic goes, and when it reaches the Dark Fey city of Arrana, tragedy strikes. Every day another woman goes missing. Baffled, police are struggling to catch a killer, reaching out to anyone who could help. When their best mages fail to make progress it seems once again, it’s time to call on the city’s resident expert on all things dark and evil.”

I can’t say I enjoyed this, I really didn’t. I wanted too, it looked to have so much promise, even the cover looked amazing, I though I was going to be in for a wild ride of a story. I thought wrong. I love all things supernatural, paranormal, fantasy, all that, I feel I had my expectations set far too high with this one.

I had my issues with it from the start. I hated the what seemed to be over bearing, over controlling lead character, Zelena. She seemed more like a psychotic stalker than a woman with a crush. The relationship between Cyrene and Zelena was what really put me off I think. It was very, how can I put this, unpleasant to read. Zelena constantly turning up where she knew Cyrene was going to be, the way she she was always so cocky about Cyrene ‘wanting her’, it just was too creepy and controlling for me. This really put me off from the get-go and I fear that may have distorted my view of the book. I really couldn’t get into it properly, this relationship was far too much of an unpleasant distraction.

I gave up before the end, I just couldn’t read anymore as it was making me very irritated. I gave it a fair go, I took a long break from it, cam back to it with fresh eyes, but still, no. This book was not for me.

It felt that the Fey, the magical weapon, the mystery involving the missing women and all the other supernatural stuff was just the filler. The author seemed far more interested in this very unhealthy relationship than anything else. It should be marketed as a dodgy romance rather than a supernatural fantasy novel.

Anyways, yes, I hated it, but everything is subjective and I know there are those out there that love it. My hatred of this book is my own and does not reflect the thoughts or opinions of anyone else.



Thanks for reading,

If you are interested, you find it via Amazon (UK) here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lividum-Apothecary-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B07FNMYMXX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541953256&sr=8-1&keywords=merciella+heartstorm

Also free on Kindle Unlimited.

Lesley-Ann (Housewife of Horror)

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I tried to like this novel so badly but in the end, it just didn’t work for me. It had such promise and an interesting premise but it was very poorly executed.
The author really goes overboard on the details and some might appreciate it but I found it very boring. I ended up skimming the last quarter of the book and really only ended up paying attention to the fight portions which were actually pretty good. I think this could have been condensed and not every little thing and process needed to be described.
Now what put me over the edge was the extremely annoying relationship between Cyrene and Zelena. If I read cheeky, or cheeky minx one more time, I might scream. I really dislike when authors only make use of a few adjectives when they’re trying to describe a budding romance, lust or just good old sex. It could have been done so much better.
It didn’t help that I disliked Cyrene’s character. She was a bit of a flighty, naive airhead.
Anyways, I must digress. This was not the book for me at all. Even though the book ended on a cliffhanger, I’m not interested in the others in the series. It was too much of a chore to read.

La Lividum is a futuristic sci-fi novel with a hint of romance. It's a very slow read and at times the story is disconnected and disjointed. I struggled to finish and never felt fully invested. That said, I will look for other offerings by this writer.

I sometimes wonder if I am being too harsh when I review these kinds of books, as I sometimes feel that everyone else saying they loved it must be reading a different book!
But if I was the author, I would want the criticism, knowing it would only make my further efforts better.
So. Here goes.
This is another example of the mind numbingly cliché efforts that have been flooding the YA market recently, making it impossible to find decent fantasy fiction as every would be writer thats ever had an idea think, hey, I can do it too!
I feel like these authors have not considered basic rules and guidelines for creating a piece of art - and that is what a book should be. It certainly shouldn't make you roll your eyes.
First, your first idea is probably rubbish. Your second idea is the idea that everyone has had (notice the plethora of genre books in the kindle store, for example), and your third idea, that's the idea that you should take and craft and hone to make something new and interesting. This author feels like she took her first idea and just threw it at a keyboard. It's schlocky, and overdone, and if you must write urban fantasy, and continue flooding the genre, at least try and have a twist on it.
Second - know your market. YA and NA books might be filled with cliché, but it doesn't mean yours has to be! See the reams of poorly written supernatural fantasy books. Notice the flaws, the consistencies. Then make a concerted effort not to do that.
Third. Know your greats. Find examples of the art that makes you breathless - authors that are critically incredible and that inspire you. Read the greats of your genre. In this case, it would be fantasy greats, think, Robin Hobb etc. Emulate and work out what it is they have to create such masterpieces. Try to capture that in your own.
Fourth. For heaven's sake, please at least try to attend a writers workshop, where they tell you what the obvious do nots are. Don't describe your protag in a mirror. Your first sentence should be a hook, and if the first paragraph doesn't insist you read on, that's it. They teach you tropes and common pitfalls, and it seems to me that this author and ya authors in general have never heard of any of them, nor ever written work purely for critical review. It's so helpful for new writers. Do it, please, for your readers sakes.
Fifth! DRAFTS. any good work had several. Make each sentence critical to the novel. Edit. Cut out the filler. Make sure the reader knows exactly what is happening, and why. Promote the emotions without lapsing into purple prose. Draft, draft, draft.
Then, and only then, might you have written something worthwhile.
This books reads like a teenager writing for her English lit class and thinks they're super cool for picking the 'darker' side of a fantasy trope. It's tone is too whimsical, and I found it laughable that the author gushes in an acknowledgement about her editor, yet I found three grammatical and punctuation errors within the first few pages.
Everything about this book should have ended up on the reject pile. I suggest the author takes her book, and maps it - pull out the plot threads, the story. Lay them out, and find the bare bones of the story. Then start again and build something that you could argue belongs on the fantasy shelf, instead of relegated to the swamp of Kindle unlimited.

Loved, loved, loved this book!
And thankfully not too long to wait for the second in the series!
Two strong female leads, light and dark fey, trolls others and zealots, and a bit of romance.
This book gripped me from the get go, and the ending had left me dying to know what comes next!