Beagle Book Space: September 2014

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Review - Innocence by Dean Koontz

Innocence by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Kindle Version, 338 pages

Published December 10th 2013 by Bantam (first published 2013)

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:
'He lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from society, which will destroy him if he is ever seen.

She dwells in seclusion, a fugitive from enemies who will do her harm if she is ever found.

But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chance—and nothing less than destiny—has brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching.'

My Thoughts:
So, at first I was really excited to start reading another Dean Koontz novel as he is definitely up there as one of my favourite authors of all time. Unfortunately, Innocence was a bit of a let down to me in the end and all I seemed to experience from the start was frustration with how slow the story moved along.

The main character, Addison Goodheart, is apparently a hideous looking boy who no-one can stand looking at without wanting to kill him. He has to live alone in a bunker and only ventures out at night when he can keep well hidden. This was my first port of frustration as we keep being told time and time again how hideous he is and how he needs to keep himself hidden, but there is never a full explanation or description of what his deformities actually are and what makes people want to kill him.

The next major frustration to me was the mix between current events and flashbacks of the past. This got very annoying at times and seemed to make the story feel extremely disjointed and also made it seem like the story was taking forever to develop.

There were also some supernatural elements mentioned quite a few times within the story that were never really expanded on and on reflection seemed to just be paragraph fillers and not really helpful in developing the story in any way.

Lastly, the ending just made me go 'What the?' It seemed way too rushed in my opinion and again felt very disjointed and even a little confusing. I definitely think the ending could have been expanded on a lot more to explain how things came about to round the story off in a much nicer manner (maybe some condensing of the story in the middle could have made way for more of an ending?) but I guess we'll never know.

I do have to admit that Koontz definitely has some wonderfully poetic writing in this book and it was very similar to read in some parts to the Odd Thomas books. It was such a shame that it just didn't have that excitement I was after or any real sort of page turning suspense.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Review - The Legacy by Melissa Delport

The Legacy by Melissa Delport
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kindle Format, 366 pages
Published 2013, Tracey McDonald Publishers

Synopsis:

One man obsessed with power.

One woman prepared to sacrifice everything to stop him.

One war that changed the world.

“World War Three lasted twelve days. Twelve days was all it took for mankind to devastate the planet and almost eradicate the human race. No victor emerged from the ashes and billions lost their lives.

We survivors lived through the bleakest of winters. A primal existence became the new order, and the little that remained of our humanity hung in the balance.

Then one man stood up and changed the world. I believed, as did everyone else, that he was the hero of our time, the man who had saved us from our own demise. His name is Eric Dane and he is the President of the New United States of America.

He is also my husband, and my greatest enemy.

I grew up oblivious to the truth, until my father found me when I was nineteen years old. He told me about the many horrifying facts that our new leader kept hidden from us. And he told me that beyond the borders the Resistance grew and fought for freedom from the oppression that Eric Dane had imposed on us.

My name is Rebecca Davis. I am twenty-six years old, and in me the Resistance has found the ultimate weapon.”

A narrative of good and evil, love and passion, right and wrong – and at the centre of the story a strong woman who is prepared to sacrifice everything for the cause she believes in.

The Legacy is an action-packed, adrenalin-inducing thrill ride which will leave you riveted long after you have turned the last page.

My Thoughts:
I was very excited to dive in to The Legacy when I received it for review as it sounded to me like it would be very similar to The Hunger Games when I initially read the synopsis.

To my surprise it was very different once I started reading it but in a good and original way.

The one thing that bothered me about The Legacy was the lengthy build up at the beginning. I know it was supposed to set the scene for the rest of the book but it dragged on a little bit for me and could have been a little bit shorter in my opinion.

But, once I was around 30% into this book, I struggled to put it down. The action and storyline really picked up and from this point on there was plenty of action and original concepts that kept me wanting more. I especially liked the special 'abilities' that some of the characters were given and found that most of the characters were fun, interesting, likeable and very easy to relate to.

Another positive of this book was the in-depth descriptions of the world as it was after World War III had hit. It really made you think how things would be realistically if this happened in our current way of life.

The Legacy contained a good amount of twists and turns which made me want to keep turning the pages and keen to see what would happen next. It also contained a small amount of romance and a bit of a love triangle but this didn't steal or spoil the story in any way which I really appreciated.

I am definitely interested in reading the next instalment in this series because the cliffhanger ending in The Legacy did nothing but leave me completely intrigued and hanging to know more.

If you are a fan of the dystopia genre then I thoroughly recommend you read The Legacy. This is not a genre that I am normally a huge fan of but I really enjoyed reading this book and can't wait to read the next one.

About The Author:

Wife and mother of 3, Melissa Delport is the author of The Legacy Trilogy and the stand-alone self-published e.books Rainfall and The Traveler.

She graduated from the University of South Africa with a Bachelor’s Degree in English in 2000

At the age of twenty-four Melissa started a logistics company (Transmax) from the spare room of her flat and built it up to two fully operational depots in Durban and Johannesburg. Now, 10 years later, she has sold her business in order to write full time.

Melissa lives with her husband and three children in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The Legacy (book 1 of The Legacy Trilogy) and The Legion (book 2) are available now and the final book, The Legend, will be released early 2015.

An avid reader herself, Melissa finally decided to stop ‘watching from the sidelines’ and to do what is her passion.

“I was driving home from work when inspiration struck, and a storyline started unravelling in my head. For a few days it was all I could think about and eventually I realised that the only way to get it out of my head, was to put it all down on paper. I started writing, and that was that.”