A very intriguing sci-fi read. I enjoyed the writing and the atmosphere. The pace was a little dragging but i enjoyed all the characters!

Whilst I appreciate receiving an ARC of this book, unfortunately, it was not one for me. I found that I was unable to get into the story or care about the characters and ultimately this was a DNF. However, we do all have different tastes and I'm sure there are people who will enjoy this book.

Love this book. This is totally out of my normal reading preference but i still enjoyed it! Perfect for whale lovers. This is truly enjoyable, unique, and a moving story to read

I have definitely never read anything like it. And I mean it in a good way! What a twisty book, such imagination, loved it so much! Hard to write a review with no spoilers so I am just going to urge everyone to give it a go!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the plot and storyline in the book. It was a fast paced book which kept me involved in the story. I loved the characters in this story. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

I tried multiple times to get into this book and really just couldn't. The plot seemed choppy/stilted and didn't resonate with me. Also, the dialogue was a little off and confusing.
Both of these points, however, might have been furthered by the fact that the ebook formatting was super bizarre; with sentences cut up and everything aligned weirdly to the side. It made it hard to understand what was happening since you physically couldn't read anything fluidly.
Ultimately, wasn't for me but I really hope it'll work better for others!


Also, I don't like rating books I haven't finished but Netgalley makes you so I'm going to leave this at two stars,

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me me a copy of this book for review. I was really intrigued by the synopsis but the execution wasn’t what I had hoped for... I will read more by this author.

This was a strange one.

Hearing someone talking about a different book accurately explains this one for me: "it felt like I was reading a book"... To develop further, I wasn't thrown into the story, I wasn't fully engaged, and I didn't care about the characters.

It was interesting to learn about different rehabilitation centres for animals, animal conservation, particularly for whales and was really the only thing that interested me.

One thing that really bothered me was the over use of phrases like "by odin", "how in hades"... it felt almost pushed to appear different... she used a lot of the more Norse names and phrases that just felt forced because there was no other attachment to that culture other than, I think, a distant grandmother that was mentioned once or twice.

I also felt like all of a sudden the police just appeared again out of nowhere, after not being around for ages. In saying that, it may have felt that way because it took me ages to read this. There were more than a few times were I couldn't help rolling my eyes or audibly sighing in frustration whenever Shannon was in the presence of Luke or thinking about something embarrassing she had done. In that regard I felt like Shannon didn't feel like a "boss lady"/"career woman" but a rather immature teenager...(especially when she said things like "not... not", it made me think of a sulky kid). I couldn't quite grasp... her? I guess.

The chapters were so long that this added to the feeling of slowly dragging through, despite the words not taking up full pages. It felt like a stream of consciousness at times, but beacsue I didn't find it well built/structured it just made me think "what? This is silly".

Did not like the word "midget" used to describe a magical character.
There were quite a lot of missing words.
And for some reason it really stuck out to me at how many times someone would causally assume an animal is male. Shannon would, to me quite rudely, say ".... is a 'her'". Not sure if it was just the frequency this line was used that bothered me or the tone I read it in.

SPOILER:
[ When the situation went down where Andy shot himself hoping to get rid of Drom, after he got to him from David, I wondered why no one seemed to ask after Becky, who now carried Drom, but generally as a partner, people didn't seem to look into relations? I would have thought her name would have been mentioned more, by Chen, for example, even though he seemed to not know of the existence. I also found it odd how Luke still pretty set that Shannon is mentally unstable, seemed to get forget everything and joined in this mind battle like he believed it all the time.]
END OF SPOILER

I enjoyed the last 10% or so. The wrapping up was interesting.

It is a strange feeling though because I feel like although I didn't really enjoy this book, and it was a slog to get through, I've spent so much time with our characters that I'm a little curious as to what happens for them next but not curious enough to check out the sequel (Power Multiplied). I'm gutted I didn't enjoy this, especially now as I've seen nothing but positivity, but I just didn't get it, it was lack lustre, and just... weird for a lack of better word. Don't get me wrong, I love weird, but it just didn't work for me.

Unfortunately, this book "expired" before I had a chance to read it. I'm going to look for it at my local library, though. :)

An interesting read from a voice I'd not heard of before. I enjoyed the sci fi world it created and the descriptions.

I tried to read this on kindle but the formatting was terrible. I could magnify or shrink the text but the line length did not adjust to changes in the font size. It was so awful I gave up. I went back to try a different format but the book was archived on NetGalley. I suggest that you fix the kindle edition.

A very strange tale indeed - dust in your mind? And alien powers? And I did wonder how she kept a dog of that size in a small place, glad she had a dog walker, but still.
I really found this tale compelling but odd, I did want the whale to go free as I am very much against all zoos and keeping animals for performances. I understand treating them until they are well, but free them afterwards, so I was urging her on all the time.
Would i read a follow-up story? I don't think so. I am not really sure where you can go with this other than using the Lavender to discover emotions and possibly PI work. But it would be interesting if she does go up to the Arctic and work with whale rescue but that is a whole different story.

This was a faced paced sci-fi and I loved it. This follows an alien child, a beluga whale, and a woman who has to figure out how to return the alien child to her homeland, find a way to free the beluga whale and defeat the ancient alien race. This was so captivating and engaging from page one. The atmosphere, setting, and lush descriptions of the world is enthralling. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. This will appeal to readers who want to be sucked into a sci-fi fast-paced adventure.

Sadly I was not able to finish this book as I found it a little too difficult to lose myself in the story or the characters (I did read half of it and gave it a good chance!)

It started well despite some odd mythological references that had no context, and I was engaged with the characters right away. Unfortunately, the characters did not develop and I personally needed some background to fill them out.

The writing was good, and the author definitely has some potential. The premise was very unique and interesting and may appeal to readers more interested in global issues. It felt more like a Young Adult novel which isn't a criticism at all, but because of this the protagonist being adult was hard to assimilate. The use of metaphor was heavily simile-led and this meant the book lacked some depth.

Overall I would consider reading this author again once more established.