Ampheus was a disappointment. I think it needs some work.

Synopsis: Jonathan Forth brings us an epic battle of good versus evil in his first fantasy novels for readers aged 12 years and over.

In Jonathan Forth’s Four Realms books, the Dark Lord, Gorath, sets out to bring the Four Realms under his dominion. He and his terrifying horde army, callous horsemen, the Janshai, and beasts from the caverns of Dern from the depths of Gamura, seek the three totems from each of the other realms to give him the power to achieve control.

The proud and noble King of Terramis, and his castle, Ampheus stand in his way. Laying siege to Ampheus, Gorath plans to capture the castle with the help of his spy behind the castle walls.

The book was okay, not my all time favorite. It was difficult to follow at times, there were too many story lines going on & it wasn’t clear-cut on where something began & something else ended. I was so confused at the end because we were in the prince’s dream walk & next thing I know, the author has gone to a different character at the very end.
I think if it was edited & the story line was a bit clearer, it would be a better read.

I'm gonna break this review up into three categories . . .

MY PERSONAL ENJOYMENT ~

So this was a let down. I didn't go into the book expecting great things, but I did hope for something better then what I was given. The storyline was boring and similar to many other books I have read. The action was boring and I found myself skimming often. To me I did not enjoy it, in fact I was looking forward to the ending just so it would be over.

I do believe Jonathan Forth had a neat idea, but somehow his creativity died within the first couple chapters. The threat and antagonist was not scary, nor was the danger real. It felt so fake and unrealistic. The description in certain areas was interesting, but then when he tried to jump back in the action I found myself yawning from pure boredom.

The Plot wasn't very well organized and scenes seemed to keep repeating or going backwards to fill the reader in on what already happened. It was extremely annoying. I found certain scenes to induce much eyerolling, and a lot of annoyed snorts. Jonathan Forth could have done a better job.

THE CONTENT ~

Oh. My. Word. This area was so bad. The gruesomeness and black magic, plus the mix of dark spirituality caused me to be very angry. For example in the gory scenes : He cut open the soldier's chest and ripped out his heart. Then drawing the life organ over his head the warrior allowed the blood to dribble over his face before taking a huge bite out of the heart. At this point I was so done and slammed my kindle closed, disgusted with the author's quality and content. The Black Magic was very disconcerting and I skimmed scenes often so I could miss the devilish religion. But the spirituality was the worst. It blended gods with magic, and shamans with religious teachings. Sometimes they would mention specific gods or talk of worshipping them other times it would seem to hint at The One True God as just another god among them. I am thoroughly disgusted.

MY CONVICTIONS ~

Romance ~ Awful, awful, awful. *grimaces* The way this author played out certain scenes made me want to scream in agony at the ridiculousness of what just occurred. And their was a whole bunch of "love at first sight" going on. Ugh . . . So not cool.

Spirituality ~ As I stated above this section was particularly terrible and it was a low blow to my beliefs. I will never read this author's work again.

Overall ~ I hated it. Yes, I'm probably being cruel and slightly mean. But as a reader I know what I expect from authors and this was a junky piece of literature. The work was organized, as if it had been published ( even though I found multiple typos ) but it wasn't good.

To sum up my whole review : This is a bad piece of literature with more than a few insults aimed at certain religions. Trash. . . to be destroyed from the earth. Sorry Jonathan Forth, but you need to work on your standards.