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A review by baroo92
Empath's Lure by Jen Lynning
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I have so many mixed feelings on this because I LOVE the characters and the setting definitely seemed interesting, but the writing style was continually driving me crazy the whole time. There was a constant sense of being "tl:dr"-ed by the text. An important moment would be set up- we've got this plan to get information from Person A, everything relies on this, let's go! And then on the next page it would jump to "Two days later, main character thought about how useful it was to have gotten that information from Person A. Good thing that went well and nothing went wrong!" I kept getting built up to tension, and then blatantly dropped out of it- sort of like the feeling of being pushed into a pool at a party. There are so many pieces of this story that really intrigued me that I wanted to hear more about- I want to learn more about Khiran's past/childhood with his lure, and I want to learn more about Lisca's background and her friends/memories from home. Both of these topics are referenced OFTEN but not properly explained to the depth they deserve. There were also a LOOOOT of full pages of dialogue-on-dialogue, but no exposition to give me the mental image of where the characters are physically in the space, and what tone they're expressing their dialogue in. It really made it hard to trudge through- I considered DNF-ing several times, but my curiosity about how the ending would work out kept me going.
This story has SO much potential, but it definitely needs a stronger editor to do a pass on it, and maybe some beta readers as well. A lot of the story needs to be re-ordered (why did we meet his mother way after the primary conflict was over, and then her conflict was resolved before we even figured out what her problem actually was?) but it could really be incredible. I'm still debating on if I want to read the next book in this series- I don't want to go through this experience with the writing again, but I do really want to know what happens next.
This story has SO much potential, but it definitely needs a stronger editor to do a pass on it, and maybe some beta readers as well. A lot of the story needs to be re-ordered (why did we meet his mother way after the primary conflict was over, and then her conflict was resolved before we even figured out what her problem actually was?) but it could really be incredible. I'm still debating on if I want to read the next book in this series- I don't want to go through this experience with the writing again, but I do really want to know what happens next.