Exiled by RaShelle Workman 4 of 5 stars
I originally saw Exiled on a review blog where it was featured in a giveaway. The cover looked interesting and the storyline seemed different. So, when I saw it available on Amazon for free, I made sure to download it.
The story was interesting enough- I read it in two days. Exiled is the tale of a Kelarian Princess named Venus. She lives a stable life until she passes out and awakes to find that her family has disappeared and she has been framed for their killing. Zaren, her “Formytian,” (basically her bodyguard/servant,) makes sure she makes it safely to Earth. There, they discover that they’ve been set a task by their gods to help the boy named Michael. From there, they meet up with Dervinias, (a.k.a. Vinny,) who is the villian of the tale. He’s basically a psychopathic, murdering, immortal Kelarian who has his own agenda. He also has a bunch of humans, (including Michael’s girlfriend, Cheverly,) under his thumb. The story continues with Venus and Zaren trying to complete their mission by helping Michael and is complicated by the love triangle between the three of them and Cheverly.
Meanwhile, Vinny sends out his minions to make attempts on Venus’s life, (which sort of fizzle out to pointlessness in the end.) But time starts to run out anyway for Venus as her body becomes more and more poisoned by Earth’s atmosphere and she starts to die. The story races to an interesting end which has a cliffhanger of sorts- will Vinny gets what is coming to him? Will Venus and Zaren find out what happened to her family? It’s clear there’s going to be a sequel.
I actually enjoyed reading this story: it was fun, entertaining, and had enough action to keep me reading. There were some typos that indicated one more editing check should have happened, but overall it wasn’t distracting enough to stop me from reading the story all the way through. I did/do feel bad for Zaren in the midst of the whole love triangle- I’m kind of hoping the next installment will resolve that dilemma for him, at least. There were some complaints that the love triangle seemed contrived- but I remember being a teenager (horrors!) and I remember having 3 or 4 crushes at the same time (who never even knew I was alive lol.) So, I kept that in mind while I read.
The slang used was a little annoying and dorky- sometimes authors need to keep in mind that when they use slang in books- it pinpoints CERTAIN TYPES of teen groups. Slang differs from each teen cultural group to the next- just like it does for adults- so plleeeeeze be certain you’re using the right slang!
Also, the idea of Venus’s planet and culture were really interesting and compelling and drew me into the story immediately. Being thrown back onto planet Earth with Michael was a little confusing/overwhelming at first, but pulled together as the story went on. But I would love to learn more about Venus’s planet and culture- they were interesting enough to pull me into the story in the first place.
In any case, none of the things in the book that irked me, bothered me enough to destroy my enjoyment of the story. The story itself is hard to classify- is it Contemporary Sci Fi? Is it Urban YA? Is it Mythological Romance? Hard to say.
Guess you’ll have to read and decide for yourself!
@Francene Thanks 🙂
I like this honest, straitforward review. Well done.