Bex's Book Reviews: insights from a book-a-day addict

Cover from Goodreads

This is the type of book review I absolutely hate to write. I want to be able to say good things--or at least neutral things--about the books I read. But sometimes that just isn't possible. Sadly, Sacred Vines by Don Stevens, which I had selected from NetGalley, was not a book that enthused me as a reader, although I had been intrigued by the blurb. I did read the entirety of the book--I especially try to do that with my NetGalley selections to be sure that my review is 100% fair. However, getting through it felt like trudging through deep mud. And trying to look back over it after the read, I find I don't remember many details of the story because it really didn't stick with me. I think the biggest issue was that the style just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like I connected to the characters and sometimes it seemed like there was backstory that I was being left out of. I never felt much like I could see the characters or the events, which contributed to the disconnect. The version I read was an advanced reader copy, so it is possible that some of the other issues were fixed in final edits, but the copious number of wrong word errors and other issues related to editing exceeded that I would expect from an ARC. But even apart from both these factors, I felt like the mystery itself was "blah." Yes, this isn't an overly descriptive word but that's how it felt. Just blah. So I end up giving this book only 2 stars. I hope it received further editing between the NetGalley edition and the actual final release, and other readers may enjoy the style far more than I did.

Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://bex-dk.com/2019/07/31/book-review-sacred-vines-by-don-stevens/