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bookwormbunny's review against another edition
4.0
Blackbird Summer by Em Shotwell is an interesting paranormal mystery romance novel. This is the first book that I have read by this author and the premise of the story intrigued me. For me, the story starts off slow. For a few pages, I started thinking that this book just wouldn't be a good fit for me because it wasn't engaging. I stuck with it though. The author paints a vague backdrop to the main character and her family. They are hated and avoided but why? Apparently, this has been going on for years...decades even, but I wanted to know and understand the root question of...Why?
Tallulah is 21 years old and she knows that soon she'll start dating various men that her relatives have picked out for her. So that she can follow in the footsteps that they believe are best for her. Before the author can really get into this a major situation arises that throws the family in chaos. Tallulah's sister is assaulted. Getting justice or even help behind this won't be easy because of who they are. The mystery behind this ordeal and what the family must face is what hooks me into the story. It takes the story from being an idling car with the potential to a getting in gear and moving forward with momentum. I have my own theories as I read and the author does a fantastic job fueling me more into the story as I go along.
The characters are interesting once you get into the story. I like how they are each unique and different and bring something different to the table. It helps to keep me engaged in the book. I will say that this book has a few editorial issues (misspelled words here and there). Nothing major to detract or distract from the story itself.
I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. I wish the story was more engaging from the beginning. I stuck it out, but if I hadn't I'd have missed out on some good elements of this book. This book has a good strong storyline, but you just gotta make sure you're willing to hang in there for a bit. This is an enjoyable book, but has some dark elements.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Tallulah is 21 years old and she knows that soon she'll start dating various men that her relatives have picked out for her. So that she can follow in the footsteps that they believe are best for her. Before the author can really get into this a major situation arises that throws the family in chaos. Tallulah's sister is assaulted. Getting justice or even help behind this won't be easy because of who they are. The mystery behind this ordeal and what the family must face is what hooks me into the story. It takes the story from being an idling car with the potential to a getting in gear and moving forward with momentum. I have my own theories as I read and the author does a fantastic job fueling me more into the story as I go along.
The characters are interesting once you get into the story. I like how they are each unique and different and bring something different to the table. It helps to keep me engaged in the book. I will say that this book has a few editorial issues (misspelled words here and there). Nothing major to detract or distract from the story itself.
I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. I wish the story was more engaging from the beginning. I stuck it out, but if I hadn't I'd have missed out on some good elements of this book. This book has a good strong storyline, but you just gotta make sure you're willing to hang in there for a bit. This is an enjoyable book, but has some dark elements.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
guenhwyvar's review
3.0
I enjoyed the story and characters from Blackbird Summer, although I found a suspicious number of parallels between this story and the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris (including one or two references to that series that the main character makes in passing). I did get the impression that the author was trying to ride the coattails of the "small southern town paranormal romance" that Harris' series made popular. That said, as she decent job it, with a reasonable amount of originality I'm mostly willing to overlook it.
As my thoughts are still a bit scattered on this book I think I'll break things into categories in order to keep things organized.
Plot: The plot was interesting enough, but I didn't like that it was driven almost entirely by external circumstance rather than the main character's choices. The main character isn't the direct recipient of most of the antagonism in the book, and aside from the climax of the book none of her choices seem to make much difference in what happens to her and her loved ones. The only thing she has a direct effect on is the romance, which is supposed to be a subplot, but winds up taking up quite a lot of main plot space in the book. In addition, I was not a fan of the way the romance panned out. There is instalove, of which I am never a fan, and it isn't explained in a way that makes it seem any less strange. It's hinted that it "might" be part of the romantic interests powers, but that never really explains why our MC feels instantly drawn to the romantic interest and... yeah, the two characters never really learn enough about each other to be believably in love. I'm sure there are plenty of readers who don't mind that kind of romance. Lots of people seem to enjoy the "inexplicable attraction" type romance. I am simply not one of them, so for me that was a big downside.
Pacing: The pacing was odd, but managed to keep me engaged anyway. I think the pacing would have seemed more natural if the action had stemmed from the MC's choices rather than events that simply happen to her and around her. So there are many lulls and no real progress in the mystery aspect of the plot until suddenly all is revealed at the end because the antagonist decides to make a final move. Not the most organic and interesting pacing, but things were busy enough to keep me intrigued. Something I largely attribute to the characters.
Character: I enjoyed the characters and the character development and generally found the characters believable and multi-dimensional. However, again, the MC's choices didn't drive the plot and that was irksome. I felt like she was pretty incompetent for most of the book, and often wondered why we were following her story and not her sister's when her sister seemed to be far more interesting. By the end of the book that changes somewhat, and as this is clearly meant to be a series, I suppose it's forgivable that it takes that long to make the character seem like someone worth following. At least she is consistent until then. Mild spoiler:And, a big plus was that despite the set up to the climax pointing to her waiting on a deus ex machina in the form of a hunky male coming to the rescue, that wound up not happening, and the MC actually manages to save herself in the end. I was pretty happy with that. Although, I have to say, the whole part -slightly more specific spoiler where the MC is dragging her 6'1" boyfriend over to her waif of a sister instead of dragging the sister over to him, is laughably stupid. I truly enjoyed many of the secondary characters however.
Editing: This was an advanced reader copy and contained a number of typos and grammatical errors that were frustrating but which will hopefully be removed from the final draft. The developmental editing and overall writing and structure were solid.
Formatting: The formatting was fine. Nothing stood out as being overly annoying. A few weird paragraph breaks etc. but I don't remember it bothering me constantly as it has in some of my recent reads.
Overall I enjoyed the book and in all likelihood will read the next one in the series.
*I received and advanced reader copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
As my thoughts are still a bit scattered on this book I think I'll break things into categories in order to keep things organized.
Plot: The plot was interesting enough, but I didn't like that it was driven almost entirely by external circumstance rather than the main character's choices. The main character isn't the direct recipient of most of the antagonism in the book, and aside from the climax of the book none of her choices seem to make much difference in what happens to her and her loved ones. The only thing she has a direct effect on is the romance, which is supposed to be a subplot, but winds up taking up quite a lot of main plot space in the book. In addition, I was not a fan of the way the romance panned out. There is instalove, of which I am never a fan, and it isn't explained in a way that makes it seem any less strange. It's hinted that it "might" be part of the romantic interests powers, but that never really explains why our MC feels instantly drawn to the romantic interest and... yeah, the two characters never really learn enough about each other to be believably in love. I'm sure there are plenty of readers who don't mind that kind of romance. Lots of people seem to enjoy the "inexplicable attraction" type romance. I am simply not one of them, so for me that was a big downside.
Pacing: The pacing was odd, but managed to keep me engaged anyway. I think the pacing would have seemed more natural if the action had stemmed from the MC's choices rather than events that simply happen to her and around her. So there are many lulls and no real progress in the mystery aspect of the plot until suddenly all is revealed at the end because the antagonist decides to make a final move. Not the most organic and interesting pacing, but things were busy enough to keep me intrigued. Something I largely attribute to the characters.
Character: I enjoyed the characters and the character development and generally found the characters believable and multi-dimensional. However, again, the MC's choices didn't drive the plot and that was irksome. I felt like she was pretty incompetent for most of the book, and often wondered why we were following her story and not her sister's when her sister seemed to be far more interesting. By the end of the book that changes somewhat, and as this is clearly meant to be a series, I suppose it's forgivable that it takes that long to make the character seem like someone worth following. At least she is consistent until then. Mild spoiler:
Editing: This was an advanced reader copy and contained a number of typos and grammatical errors that were frustrating but which will hopefully be removed from the final draft. The developmental editing and overall writing and structure were solid.
Formatting: The formatting was fine. Nothing stood out as being overly annoying. A few weird paragraph breaks etc. but I don't remember it bothering me constantly as it has in some of my recent reads.
Overall I enjoyed the book and in all likelihood will read the next one in the series.
*I received and advanced reader copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
shaegeeksout's review against another edition
5.0
The author was kind enough to send me a copy of this book.
I really enjoyed this book! It is for fans of the Beautiful Creatures series! You have Tully and her family with various Paranormal powers, living in a small southern town.
In enters Logan, and everything begins to change in life, good and bad for Tully. Murder, romance, and a tight southern family set in their ways!
The writing was very engaging, and I hated when I put this book down. I highly recommend picking it up!
I really enjoyed this book! It is for fans of the Beautiful Creatures series! You have Tully and her family with various Paranormal powers, living in a small southern town.
In enters Logan, and everything begins to change in life, good and bad for Tully. Murder, romance, and a tight southern family set in their ways!
The writing was very engaging, and I hated when I put this book down. I highly recommend picking it up!
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