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| Release: 2012, Pages: 199 |
Ghosts, imps and witches, oh my! The Artist’s Inheritance (Book #1 in a continuing series) is full of the good stuff, but a disjointed plot and lack of chills hampers the overall experience. Still, the goods do outweigh the bad with this book and if you’re interested in finding out more, just chant with me “Read on. Read on.”…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from Amazon is as follows: The balance between good and evil can be an art… or a curse. Trevor and Caitlin were once happy newlyweds, profiting from Trevor’s art. Until Trevor inherits his brother’s house, and with it, his part of a family curse. Now, Caitlin will stop at nothing to save her beloved husband from insanity and suicide, even if it means she must embrace her destiny and become a witch.
You can tell that The Artist’s Inheritance is setting itself up to be a series of books, telling tales with the character Caitlin, her witch friends and her troubled husband, Trevor. The book gives you the basis of what is going on and what kind of supernatural beings we’ll be dealing with, but it does falter in the coherent plot department. The book starts off easy enough, with Caitlin and Trevor moving into Trevor’s recently deceased brother’s home, next to an old Civil War fort. Trevor is an artist and he has been focusing most of his time on building a strange chair in the attic, much to the dismay of his wife Caitlin, who keeps her self busy worrying about Trevor, hanging out with witches and experiencing freaky visions. Caitlin is given word from her friends (the witches), that the certain people Trevor is working with, are not who they say they are and are possibly not even human. Caitlin starts to investigate further into the history of Trevor’s past and the people around him and it isn’t long before she realizes that tragedy, despair and death run in the family.
The Artist’s Inheritance manages for the most part to tell an interesting story, yet, a big part of me feels that it’s all over the place, almost like writer Juli D. Revezzo was having trouble finding a groove and figuring out where to take the story. We have hints of a ghost haunting Caitlin and some freaky Civil War visions, but we the reader are never presented enough information to know exactly why some of this strange stuff is happening. Near the end of the book, a sudden jolt in pace happens and a bunch of plot points, like the mystery behind the chair, or the strange man Trevor is dealing with, are resolved in a super quick fashion. In fact, while I was reading the book, I felt like I skipped a chapter by mistake, as I was taken aback by how abrupt the main story lines were being resolved and why it was being done in such a confusing fashion; like the whole chapter was a dream in the main character’s head. Also, I can’t quite say I felt that the book was scary. It definitely has moments where it might send a shiver or two, but it certainly isn’t a book that will make you freak out over any small bump in the night that you hear. Last but not least, I haven’t quite yet warmed up to the character of Caitlin, as she really seems to be all over the place with her suspicions and murderous feelings towards people. She’s quite unstable if you ask me.
After reading my review you might see way more negatives than positives, but don’t let that fool you into thinking I didn’t enjoy it. You see, I’m willing to forgive some of the problems with The Artist’s Inheritance, as it’s a stepping stone in a series that will hopefully only get better with each tale. The book kept me interested in finding out more and has definitely got me interested in continuing the adventures of Caitlin and her band of witches, but I’m hoping next time the story is evened out a little better and takes it’s time providing me a more coherent plot.
Rating: 3/5