I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

 

Faelorehn is the first book in The Otherworld series.

 

I should have read some of the reviews on booklikes or GR before deciding to request this book from Netgalley. But then again, I usually don't do this so to keep a unprejudiced mind and make sure I don't get any spoilers.

 

Meghan is a strange girl. It's very important that you remember that, and in case you should forget, it's repeated every few pages so don't worry. After being found alone wandering the streets in LA aged two and being yo-yoed between foster homes because she's weird, she's finally found a home. Or so she believes...

 

It's not just the story that seems to go nowhere and to be as lost as Meghan is. There's some other very annoying things like Instalove and the plot was very similar to that of The Winter People. And some of the reasoning is kind of ridiculous. An example. Meghan has this friend that's into wicca and likes to dress up in black dresses. Meghan says she used to think her friend was just trying to get attention, but after she offers Meghan a piece of information printed from Wikipedia, she changes her mind in this matter. I mean, everyone who goes to great lengths to print something from wikipedia must be the real deal. (Uhh?)

 

I was disappointed by the story, even though the premise sounded very nice. I don't think it will surprise anyone that I won't be continuing this series...

If this isn’t one sided instalove then I just don’t know what is!

I’m a sucker for books involving the fae, even those awful trashy romance ones and yes, I’ve read a lot of those. Anytime I see one I buy it or in this case request it. Boy oh boy was this a crappy disappointment.

Let me start out by saying that I knew the fae were involved by reading the title and by reading the blurb. With that being said, why did it take until 25% of the book to get a glimpse of what was going on and 50% to finally find out what was happening. That is ridiculous! I found out more reading the blurb than I did reading half the book!

But whatever.

So we have Meghan Elam who is our ugly duckling main character. She is highly unpopular, has weird visions and pretty much creeps everyone out. She knows there’s something different about herself but she had yet to figure it out. Her adoptive parents have had her on medication but it never stopped the visions so she stopped telling everyone about them.

Then she meets Cade MacRoich who saves her life after being attacked by “otherworld” creatures. I won’t go into anymore detail about him because he does play an important role in Meghan finding herself and her true identity. And I was surprised to learn who Cade actually was.

What I didn’t like was the one sided instalove that bloomed out of Meghan after spending a few short hours with Cade. I understand that Cade treated her like a normal girl unlike her classmates but give me a break! She was basically fawning all over him instantly and it was so unrealistic.

Like I said before I’m a sucker for fae books, so there’s a chance I’ll read number 2 but not without careful consideration. I don’t want to be sucked into more instalove.

This ARC was provided by Indie Inked via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing premise ruined by bad writing, terrible pacing, a lack of tension, weak characters, and an absence of both focus and follow through.

I can't. I just can't.

I really wanted to like Faelorehn. That's why I got this anyway after losing the GoodReads giveaway. A story about fae and mystery? Yes, please! The idea is great, the story I think Johnson wanted to tell has so much potential, but the actual execution has so many problems that even the idea is ruined.

As another 1-star reviewer said, when cleaning the bathroom is preferable to reading this book, then something is very, very wrong. (Not with my bathroom, however. It's sparkling now!)

The writing itself is not that good, overly simplistic and meandering, poor word choice and poor grammar, lacking the punch that carries a reader through a story. As I read, I felt a very basic writing class on construction and structure would've immeasurably helped the work. Too much extraneous information thrown in, much of it description of things that don't matter and add nothing to the story or do anything to push forward the plot (and oh! How that plot needed pushed forward!). Unimportant things are repeated while what should be major plot points are just flat out dropped, forgotten and never referred to again. The pacing is terrible: for the first third or so of the book, nothing freakin' happens. That's not acceptable, especially since when something does finally happen, the scenes are so flat and are more like descriptions of something we missed "seeing" rather than scenes we're witnessing unfold.

The characters. Honestly...what characters? There aren't fully formed characters here, only the equivalent of paper dolls. No depth, no personality, no flow of true action and reaction; they don't even interact with each other in a way that isn't stunted! After a while I felt as if Johnson started writing without fully fleshing out any of her characters, using cardboard [Insert Character Here] placeholders along the way and never bothering to insert the actual living, breathing, well-developed characters.

Boring. Cardinal rule of writing: don't be boring. Faelorehn is excruciating, so boring I actually forgot I was reading it: I would decide to go read, try to remember where I put my book, and then have a moment where I couldn't remember what book I was in the middle of reading. Unforgivable.

Skip this one. Ignore the free ARC reviews or at least take them for what they are: reviews "purchased" with the gift of a free book. Although reviewers claim (and often genuinely try) to lack bias, there's often a very real danger that the ratings are skewed far more toward the positive side, out of some combination of gratitude for a free book, an affinity with the author for giving said book, and some subconscious desire not to upset said author. This doesn't apply to all, certainly, but in cases like this where there are so damn many that they take up much of the review page, take them with a grain of salt. I've never seen so many ARC reviews on a book before, traditional or self-published, and that should've sent up a red flag. How many copies did she have to give away just to get people to read?

Go read something else. I've heard rumors that the dictionary is more interesting.

Meghan has broken her geis, now she is unprotected. She broke it when she went to Elie because she wanted to save Cade, in the end he was the one who saved her. It has been months since she seen Cade. She has fully recovered from her injuries but not the emotionally scars. She is scared to go out in fear of the creatures that loomed in the dark.Ms. Johnson has done it again, writing an amazing sequel in The Otherworld Trilogy. I could not put this one down. I had to continue to the end, and I was not disappointed. In this sequel we get to find out who were Meghan's biological parents, as well as Cade's history. Meghan gets to explore Elie, see and experience new things. The relationship between Cade and Meghan does get intense. At times, I screamed at my kindle "tell him, just open your mouth and speak" or "he is in love can't you see" or "aww that is so cute". Dolmarehn was fabulous from the beginning to the end. Quickly paced, well written, action filled, and a touch of romance, and magic. Definitely, eager to read the last installment.I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 starsLet me start by saying this is probably one of the hardest reviews I have ever written because this book just had so little impact for me. I’m not saying it was bad, in fact I remember thinking when I finished the book that I sort of liked it, but now (only a few days later) I can hardly remember anything about it, and that isn’t good.This book is based on the Fae and Celtic mythology; it is very good in this respect, quite unique and really interesting. The characters are what let the book down, there isn’t much substance to them and I felt they were under developed. The romance between the two main characters felt forced, like the author had put it in because she felt she had to rather than because that was what worked best for the book. Also, this book is yet another case of the girl deciding she loves the guy after they have spoken about twice, and the very predictable big misunderstanding that nearly ruins everything and is caused entirely by the main character just being an idiot. Sigh. The idea and basic storyline behind the book is good; it just needs more development for the characters and their romance, a little more action and a general polish and it could be a very good book. In my opinion it is not there yet though. Give this book a try if you like fiction based on mythology as that aspect of the book is very good.*I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, this has not affected my review in anyway*