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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
High Expectations Unfulfilled, October 3, 2010
This review is from: Truthseeker (Paperback)
When I recently obtained my copy of Truthseeker, I had high hopes for an exciting story with a twist on the "human woman meets handsome, powerful faerie lord" setup common to many books in the urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and dark fantasy genres. For one, C.E. Murphy's previous outings featured enough wit to make the story trot along, and she does a good job juxtapositioning the familiar toils and troubles of a single young woman (even one with an unusual gift for detecting whether others are lying) to supernatural events. Unfortunately the book didn't live up to its initial promise in the least, and it feels like an amateur is ghostwriting as Ms. Murphy. The first several chapters practically obsess over how thin and flat-chested Lara is compared to her buxom, curvaceous friend Kelly. This contributes nothing to the plot other than an underlying sense of insecurity about her looks. So of course Dafydd singles out the slightly awkward, unusual Lara for his attention after Kelly tries to play matchmaker on their part. The entire early story arc made my teeth ache and almost derailed my efforts to read the book, mostly because it was so long and irrelevant to why he was there in the first place. Some examples: explaining what women do when they go off into the washroom together; all the agonizing over how hot Kelly's boobs are; describing how neurotic Lara is. Who talks like that? More importantly, what reader wants to be bombarded by a number of whiny complaints when there is a story waiting to be told? None of Ms. Murphy's usual witty writing appears except in a few short, sparse passages. The rest of the story is extremely formulaic (I could predict things well in advance) without much redemption from the lengthy passages of dialogue or occasional action. So many chapters go by without accomplishing much of anything except to reveal how neither Dafydd or Lara uses contractions. I understand it's a common writing device to have an intelligent or experienced character use much more formal language, but almost every major character in the book speaks this way even in very relaxed situations or casual scenarios. I found it very jarring. Truthseeker had an interesting premise it never delivered upon. I don't believe much in the romance between Dafydd and Lara as it seems forced, and how could he be interested in someone so flat and boring? Despite plot twists and turns, the story is very predictable, and the last quarter of the book was an unhappy slog to reach a letdown of a conclusion.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaing Read, September 14, 2010
This review is from: Truthseeker (Paperback)
I just finished readying Truthseeker, and am surprised it only took me a day to read. I do want to start out by saying that I did enjoy this story, and I will be waiting eagerly to read the conclusion in Wayfinder. However, there were some things about this book that are keeping me from giving it a full five stars. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like the book at all, because the protagonist annoyed me greatly. Lara seemed socially inept when she started quoting dictionary definitions at a guy she was supposedly interested in. I also was not very fond of the large amount of description on how Lara heard truths and what she experienced towards the end after her power had grown. But that may be just something personal, as I was eager to get on with things to learn the fates of the characters involved. Now, on to what I enjoyed about this book. After warming up a bit to Lara, when she stopped being so dry and annoying, I found it hard to put the book down. I couldn't find any place to put a bookmark that wouldn't have me itching to find out what happened next. I love books that have that effect on me. I also quite thoroughly enjoyed the worldbuilding. I thought the way the author handled the real-world dealing with these sudden and unexplained happenings was creative. I liked that she had people actually deal with it, instead of glossing over it like it wasn't there, or worse, covering it up with some magical mass mind alteration. I found myself cheering for Lara and Dafydd after a while, which caught me off-guard at first. Somewhere along the way, I started connecting with them, and became involved with their lives and cared about what happened to them. It did take a little longer than it usually does, but it did happen. I have been reading a lot of werewolf & vampire UF lately, so I found this book to be a wonderful break. Overall, I would recommend this book to my friends.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
unique and interesting plot, September 26, 2010
Just wanted to add a quick 4 stars to this book review, as I noticed others rated it a tad bit lower-which is less than it deserves! The main character isn't a fast-talking, bitchy, leather-clad, she-warrior, like some other urban fantasy or supernatural romance novels (which I do like as well), so apparently other reviewers found her harder to immediately like-or like at all. However, I found her very amusing; she is actually quite witty and very intelligent-nothing wrong with dictionary and book smarts, as opposed to street smarts! Her profession as a tailor was unique and also intriguing-as long as you understand the concept that clothes (and their fit) can, in fact, make or break a person! :) Who knows, maybe she starts out a bit nerdy, and maybe I'm a bit of a nerd for immediately connecting with her, but I thought her character was well-developed and multi-faceted; additionally, she certainly changes and matures over the course of the book-becoming more street savvy and sarcastic-less limited by speaking only literal truths. The plot itself is unique and different-and with any such undertaking, there will be the risk of alienating some readers who simply can't get it. But if you are interesting in good writing, language, how language is used, and the ways in which truth can be used and manipulated, I am sure you will enjoy this book greatly! It was an entertaining read, truthfully.
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