Genre:
Urban Fantasy/Young Adult
Description:
“As the
owner of the coffee shop Deja Brew in Savannah, Georgia, Anna thought
her life was ordinary. That is until her sister is kidnapped by a
demon, prompting two handsome men to march into her life
unexpectedly. Valen, the sinfully gorgeous, overprotective werewolf
who is Anna’s sworn guardian and Roman, the most handsome and
powerful Warlock in the entire Netherworld.
Suddenly,
her world is stripped of everything she knows and replaced with
frightening news about who she really is - a powerful Grand Witch.
Now, it’s up to her to draw out her dormant magic, rescue her
sister and stop an impending heavenly war threatening to eradicate
the human race all while staying alive.”
Author:
From Casey
Keen’s Smashwords author page: “Self-published and determined is
how I started my writing career. With an overactive imagination and a
healthy passion for anything paranormal, I decided to write about it.
Why not? I allowed myself to indulge in the boundless depths of my
imagination and my Anna Wolfe
Series is just the tip of the
supernatural iceberg!
Born and
raised on the outskirts of Philadelphia, I grew up loving
cheesesteaks and soft pretzels! I attended Drexel University where I
obtained my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. I still reside in
suburbia, working on the Anna
Wolfe Series."
I’ll
Be Damned is Casey Keen’s
debut novel. To learn more check out her website and Facebook page.
Appraisal:
Anna Wolfe is a twenty-nine-year-old, who has led a sheltered life and has no
idea who she really is. Having suffered from nightmares her whole
life, which she never bothered to investigate, seek guidance, or
advice for, Anna has become a master at pushing things aside to deal
with them later. Avoidance seems to be her motto, as it is repeated
endlessly through the story. “I need to talk you in person, not
over the phone… I’ll give you the details later.” “I can’t
wait to leave these annoying worries at the door.” “I really
don’t want to even think about this right now.” “…concluding
I’d rather wing it than make it tangible.” “I tuck them away in
the nether regions of my brain promising myself I’ll address them
after all of this is over.” Anna comes across as whiny and weak,
not a good start for a heroine.
I’ll
Be Damned has a good story
somewhere in amongst all the unnecessary words and repetitions. Ms.
Keen loves her words and overabundant descriptions about everything.
However there seems to be only one kind of tree in Savannah, Georgia,
but she illustrates it beautifully over and over again. In the
beginning Anna is a pretty bland character and seems insecure despite
her professional accomplishments. She does, however, make several
half-witted decisions throughout the story, which only lead her into
trouble. Her best girlfriend is a huge party girl who has a good
heart. Anna’s other friend is a flaming gay black man from Louisiana
who owns a local bar down the street from her coffee shop, Deja’
Brew. Martello is by far my favorite character, but I found his
speech pattern a bit disparaging, which I can only write off as the
author’s prerogative. His character has a lot of depth and he is
Anna’s most supportive friend. Valen makes a slow appearance, which
portrays him as more of a creeper than a guardian. But, after this
rough start, Valen is the only other character with any meaningful
depth. The sexual tension between Anna and Valen is scrumptious and I
found myself wishing this wasn’t a young adult book.
The plot is
VERY slow to develop, even after Anna starts to learn the truth,
because all she wants is a normal life. Avoidance will make it all go
away, right? With her powers starting to awaken, Anna has no choice
but to learn to control them and face her new reality, which is
filled with strange creatures from the Netherworld, werewolves,
demons, and warlocks. The political aspect of the Netherworld is
unique and only lightly touched on in this book. There is a good
story in here somewhere. The ending has a dramatic cliffhanger, which
wasn’t really a surprise. For those interested in continuing this
series there are two other books published so far.
FYI:
I’ll
Be Damned is the first book in
The Anna Wolfe Series.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Small
number of proofing errors that range from missing, extra, and wrong
words. I think a good editor could help Ms. Keen focus on the core of
this story.
Rating:
*** Three Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 110-115,000 words
No comments:
Post a Comment