A review by errantdreams
Gilt Hollow, by Lorie Langdon
3.0
At the beginning, Ash and Willow each seem angry at the other–Ash because Willow never wrote to him, and Willow because he never wrote back to all the letters she sent. Gee, seeing a pattern here? The only thing that annoyed me about it is that it was such an incredibly easy thing to clear up, if either one of them had the simple presence of mind to say, “why didn’t you reply to my letters?” I hate artificially drawn out conflicts.
I almost felt a little too empathetic in Willow’s case. It was obvious she was going to get hurt emotionally and probably physically, and of course since this is high school there’s always a humiliation piece or two. (I am not fond of that sort of plot.) For a short while I didn’t want to read any further because I didn’t want to see how she’d get screwed over. This does, however, speak well of the characterizations.
Once Willow and Ash warily circle the wagons, they have to figure out who really killed his friend. It doesn’t help that the head of the police has it in for Ash and is keeping an eye on him at every chance.
On a side note: Need a way to quickly establish a growly male as having feelings? Make sure he likes fuzzy animals. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.) It’s kind of second nature for authors at this point.
A number of the things Ash and Willow did seemed reckless and ill-advised; maybe the author was trading in on the fact that his characters are so young.
NOTE: Free book provided by publisher in return for honest review
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/08/review-gilt-hollow-lorie-langdon/
I almost felt a little too empathetic in Willow’s case. It was obvious she was going to get hurt emotionally and probably physically, and of course since this is high school there’s always a humiliation piece or two. (I am not fond of that sort of plot.) For a short while I didn’t want to read any further because I didn’t want to see how she’d get screwed over. This does, however, speak well of the characterizations.
Once Willow and Ash warily circle the wagons, they have to figure out who really killed his friend. It doesn’t help that the head of the police has it in for Ash and is keeping an eye on him at every chance.
On a side note: Need a way to quickly establish a growly male as having feelings? Make sure he likes fuzzy animals. (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.) It’s kind of second nature for authors at this point.
A number of the things Ash and Willow did seemed reckless and ill-advised; maybe the author was trading in on the fact that his characters are so young.
NOTE: Free book provided by publisher in return for honest review
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/08/review-gilt-hollow-lorie-langdon/