Review: Eve's Return (The Book of Eve #1) by Crystal A Bourque

Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Everything's Temporary 
Publication: November 21st, 2013
Series: The Book of Eve #1
Pages: 233 (Paperback, Kindle Edition)

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Synopsis:


After having her heart broken, Jordan Andrews drops out of university to travel the world and ‘find herself’. Without a penny to her name, she returns home, only to discover a terrible tragedy has occurred in her absence.

Determined to find her elusive twin brother, she does her best to ignore the terrifying hallucinations that begin to plague her.

It quickly becomes clear that Jordan’s hallucinations are very real. She is attacked by a hoard of demonic creatures, but is rescued by a woman who claims to be a warrior angel. Through her, Jordan discovers that she has a power that is too strange to believe, and a seductive past that proves to be too irresistible to ignore.

Now, Jordan must not only find her brother, but also obtain an ancient artifact. It is her only clue in discovering more about who she is, and the role she is destined to play

Rating:    

The copy has been provided by the author in exchange of an honest review.

Eve's Return straight gets down to business; the first scene is Jordan arriving home only to find something shaking, something big that turns her life upside down. It's actally so big that I can't properly summerize the plot without bulging it therefore I will head into the review at once, too without spoiling. 

Despite the quick start, the story unfolds quite slowly. We get bits and pieces of information here and there along Jordan's journey as she meets people from her past as well as strangers and gets attacked by weird creatures time to time and we also find out about their relationship with her, her-exboyfriend, Owen, and her brother, Parker. (I loved that part by the way. It was more than surprising and not the most relevant to the story, but, to me, it added a lot to it. ) There's also a thread for the past, initially for the above mentioned three, later for the world building's sake. And for a while, it's enough. Exciting even. The one-at-a-time kind of information giving keeps us wanting to find out more and the attacks serve us with action to keep our eyes glued. However, at about the half of the book, the enthrallment of the action worn off and it started to feel repetitive and dragged out. Attack, everybody gets injured, attack, everybody gets injured, attack, everybody gets injured, and it goes on and on and on with some tiny bit of world building inbetween and I began to have to push myself through the rest, only to have real motion in the last twenty pages. But then unfortunately it was already too late to pique my attention back.

As for the characterisation, I didn't get it at all. The main problem was that I wasn't fond of Jordan or could connect with her. She acted like a complete selfish, self-pitying, coward jackass for the first 2/3 of the book and for the rest, I just didn't care. I understand that she had a harsh period of life, but she isn't the first person on Earth to be broken up with, but even apart from that nothing that happened to her justified her behaviour. And in spite of that, all the other characters - or the ones that weren't evil from birth - supported her, loved her and helped her by any means. The only more complex character was Levi, who I still can't decide if was good or evil. Probably neither for a change. And then there's Parker who went somewhat, pretty unbelievably, overboard with his jelousy. It made him look simply cruel on an impossible level.

Also, although the story is in Jordan's POV in third person, I was given the impression that I would have worked out better in first person. Especially in situations where we would have been better off getting into the FMC's head, but the enormous amount of talking to herself may prove me as well.

There wasn't much romance in the story, some kisses and musing over romantic relationship, but frankly, I didn't miss it. The plot didn't need it, it was fairly well off without it, too.

In the end, the thing I appreciated the most was the world building. Though there are pending questions left, by the end of the book a decent part of it got revealed and I was pleased with what we had; demons, imps, supernaturals with supernatural power, salt and possession. Sheer cool. Later on, the Biblia got involved in a way I found rather intriguing even though I don't often read books that based on religion.

In conclusion, I see potential in Eve's Return, and probably will continue with the series when the next book comes out.

Cover: 4.5/5

Characters: 2/5

Plot: 3/5

Pacing: 2/5

World building: 4/5

Style/Writing: 3/5

Originality: 4/5

About this author

Crystal Bourque is an up and coming, new adult, urban fantasy author. She is obsessed with all things fantastical, so much so that she has a recurring dream about being a princess with a sword. When she's not busy writing, she loves trying new recipes, plotting her next travel destination, and singing loudly.

You can check out Crystal's website at: www.everythingstemporary.com, or get in touch with her via email: info@everythingstemporary.com,
Twitter: https://twitter.com/everythingstemp, or Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/everythingst...