Traveller

This book was a delightful surprise. The whole concept of Travellers and their mission on this planet was fresh and exciting and the story was quick to unfold in a way that kept me actively flipping pages to see what would happen next for Emerson and Michael. I loved Emerson's character, getting a strong humorous female lead was a welcome change from some books. She could hold her own and while she was completely out of her element when she fell down the rabbit hole that was the traveller way of life. Michael for an alpha male was sweet on Emerson and even though you could tell he struggled with Em being different than the women he's used to. This story was full of action and some twists I didn't see coming and I would love to see more of Emerson, Michael and the other Travellers. This was a complimentary e-copy provided by the author and publisher in exchange for a honest review via Netgalley.

I really, really liked this book. was even better than I thought it would be

I loved Emmerson and her Southernness. I've never read anything else from this author but I will be looking her up.

Emerson is a former Beauty Pageant Queen from Kentucky with a penchant for martial arts, in fact it was her 'talent' when she was competing. She is studying in England and catches the eye of a tattooed traveller (a type of gypsy) called Michael Nightingale. After making a connection Michael gives her the cold-shoulder until one night she follows him and sees him and a group of friends fight and kill a monster.

It turns out that the Travellers are actually a group of gifted warriors who were once entrusted by the gods to help protect the dwellers (the rest of us) against the evil Moktar who reproduce by raping Traveller women. Once the women have had children or are of no use the Moktar eat their brains.

This had a slight vibe of Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. Emerson is full of aw-shucks similes and she quotes Sun Tzu's Art of War at any occasion, each chapter is preceded by one of Grandma Sugar's aphorisms. Whilst I found it mildly annoying I could see that Emerson was going for that Steel Magnolia southern belle and it kind of worked. I could also visualise the strict rules and misogynistic Traveller society as being a hangover from an ancient warrior sect - as if a band of Vikings had been transported in time to the present day. And for a while the originality of the premise kept me going but it all fell over for me in the second half of the book.

What went wrong? I felt as though the entirety of the second half of the book. First Emerson is not welcome in the Traveller settlement. Then she is. Then she does something wrong and they want her to leave. Then something else happens and they want her to stay. Then they take her passport away without her knowledge and talk about forcibly keeping her in the settlement. Then they talk about exiling her. There's a British children's TV comedy duo called the Chuckle Brothers who developed an entire act around a push-me pull-me joke where they shout "to me", "to you" again and again and this felt very much like that.

Oh, as I said, Emerson is good at martial arts. Apparently she's like Buffy and Kate Daniels and Xena rolled into one Southern belle, yet every so often she is too delicate for words and must be protected for her own good. Both Michael and the enigmatic Leo frequently admonish her for making stupid decisions - I could clearly hear the "you are only a stupid girl after all" subtext every time. Don't even get me started on the actions of Emerson's so-called 'friends' within the settlement when the decision is taken to exile her. Her grandparents have no other living family and yet they were willing to (and indeed did) obey the rule of exile which required them to ignore her calls and texts and never mention her name ever again.

Overall I found the initial premise intriguing but the execution simply infuriated me. Abigail Drake didn't seem to be able to make her mind up whether Emerson was TSTL:

I slept with Michael’s ring on my finger and the book he’d given me next to my pillow. It didn’t matter that Leo had tried to strangle me or a Moktar wanted to kidnap me. I was miles away from my family, I’d lost my journal, and had to write a paper for my Shakespeare class, but I didn’t care about any of it, because Michael loved me.

Or the aforementioned love-child of Buffy, Xena and Kate Daniels (although none of them ever uttered such ridiculous nonsense):

Due to the narrowness of the hallway, they could only attack a few at a time. It really wasn’t even a very fair fight. I slashed and lunged and killed them without much effort at all. I found it almost boring.

I had just killed a legion of Moktar, but I still wanted more. I wanted vengeance. I wanted to keep fighting.

The next minute she's a damsel in distress watching Her Man fight for her.

I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t get to Michael either. All I could do was watch, wait, and pray.

I highlighted so many passages towards the end of the book which were either eye-rolling, annoying, clichéd or infuriating that I can't quote them all, but I end with this, I leave it to your imagination to guess what the subject is:

“It feels like velvet.” I smiled at him in wonder. “Velvet with steel inside.”

WTF? It really doesn't unless its covered in a pelt of thick fuzz!

So, someone once told me that if a book or its characters get you riled up its done its job, its made you think and feel. I kind of agree, after all isn't a meh book even worse? Well this book certainly got me riled up. Even the ending wound me up, the simple Deus Ex Machina 'Ta Da' finale doesn't win any awards from me.

I think this book would have benefited from some deconstruction and thought about Emerson's character and the Travellers' laws because they were all over the place.

Emerson attends the University of York in England is attracted to Michael who she sees every morning at the tea shop. When she decides to follow him out of curiosity, she discovers a whole new world of beings both good and bad.

I like that Emerson didn’t take things lying down and fought for herself. Michael, on the other hand, was the typical alpha male who wanted to protect the person he loved.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. The story begins to pick up for me towards the middle since we discover new revelations one after another about Emerson and Michael. It has a slightly different plot than other paranormal books which kept me interested and curious for more.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.

Yes, yes.... I read the description of this book before I read it. But I still feel like I wasn't really sure what I was going to be reading. I thought the writing was very good but this story isn't really my thing. Still, I'd probably recommend this book to the right reader...

I liked Emerson. It was fun to see a normal, average American girl, going to school in England. In many books, the American character is sort of worldly and sophisticated - at least a little - so it was totally fun to see a former Junior Miss Kentucky taking on the Brits! I loved how she used her experiences in the pageant world to navigate something so different than home. But it's not a fish out of water story. Emerson has been in England for a while and she's got a routine down.

Michael was okay. He was a bit of a strong, silent type and that got old, really fast for me. Michael had a lot of responsibilities resting on his shoulders. So I understood why he wasn't gregarious and outgoing. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. I also couldn't get a great idea of what Michael looked like. I ended up feeling like he was tall and skinny with a bit of muscle tone. But he fights these giant beasts and he comes out the winner so he can't be all THAT skinny, right?

I felt like the relationship between Emerson and Michael was pretty typical for a new adult romance. More than a little miscommunication and a bit of back and forth with fighting for the fledgling relationship or cutting ties and moving on. I definitely liked that Emerson stood her ground with Michael when he wanted her to stay in their compound and not leave. I definitely respected her a lot more after that.

I didn't particularly love this book but I don't love new adult romance a lot. But I think readers who are fans of new adult romance with some fantasy and paranormal aspects thrown in may really dig this book. I enjoyed the writing and I think this author is going to be very popular!

Different then the usual but in a good way!

This book sucked me in from the very start and I devoured it.

Emerson Shaw is a college student and decides to study overseas in an effort to find out more about her mother. She’s only there for a short period of time and never expects to find someone as handsome as Michael Nightingale. She’s been watching him from afar and never had the guts to approach him until one day.

Micheal is tall, tattooed, and people move out of his way when he’s near. He’s a traveller and dangerous, but that’s not all. He’s a warrior. At night the moktars come out. He and the other men have to protect the world from the evil beasts, especially the women. One has set their sights on Emerson and Micheal has vowed to protect her. There is also the feelings Emerson and Micheal have toward one another. Emerson isn’t welcome among the gypsies. Can Micheal keep her safe? What will happen between them?

I LOVED this book. Lust, suspense, romance, mystery, it was so good. Emerson was easy to connect to and Micheal left me swooning constantly. Both characters were well developed and so were the supporting ones. I felt a connection with Emerson’s best friends and their families. Great read!

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a short read and written well.

***ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

I wanted to try out this NA paranormal novel as I felt that the blurb was very intriguing and strong. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and felt that Emerson and Michael were really great together. Furthermore, I felt tha the story was engaging but I did not get lost in the paranormal elements. I loved their chemistry and look forward to more books from this author.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Backlit PR for a copy of this ebook..

This is the first book ive ever read by this author and i really liked the story and the lead charaters in this book.

This book has everything a good paranormal romance should have , it had lots of potential however ...the characters were a bit...unrealistic?Annoying?. Stereotypical characters, lack of depth and development , cheesy dialogues, unbelievable love story. The humor and sarcasm was also forced .