Wilde's Fire by Krystal Wade

Published May 13, 2012.

Author website.

Katriona Wilde has never wondered what it would feel like to have everything she’s ever known and loved ripped away, but she is about to find out.

When she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she’s dreamed of for six years, she finds herself faced with more than just the frightening creatures in front of her. Kate’s forced to accept a new truth: her entire life has been a lie, and those closest to her have betrayed her.

What’s worse, she has no control over her new future, and it’s full of magic and horrors from which nightmares are made.

Will Kate discover and learn to control who she really is in time to save the ones she loves, or will all be lost?  (netgalley.com)

Okay, let me just put this out there: I don't read books with the intent to crap all over them.  When I pick up a book to read and/or review I do it because it sounds like something I'd actually want to read.  I don't go into lulz or DNFs knowing that's what they'll be because, quite frankly, why would I waste my time?  So when WILDE'S FIRE turned out to be a total turd I was disappointed.  Like I said, I don't like not finishing books but the entire time I felt like I was reading a draft of a manuscript and I really felt a little embarrassed for the author.  It just.  Wasn't.  Good.

The writing alternated being heinously rushed when it probably should have slowed down and dwelled on the situation a little (like explaining her history with Brad, the whole "you are the Chosen One" thing where she was over it in like half a second) and lingered for far too long on minutiae that I just didn't give a crap about (potatoes.  EFFING POTATOES.  She ate them a lot.  And cleaned.  And made other mechanical movements throughout).  I wouldn't say it was sloppy as much as it was amateurish.  Hate to say it but that was my impression.  These are writing kinks that one's supposed to work out by the time they're published.

The mechanical movements?  I was reading stereo instructions of character actions.  There was no flourish to anything and for a story that's supposed to be so action-packed I just ended up skimming along.  No oomph, no marvel.  Nothing.  Point A, point B, point C, point D.  End.

And one just can't forget how super awesome of a swordsman Kate was the second she picked up a sword irrespective of the fact that she's never even touched a sword in her life.  It was pretty much at that point I checked out.  I don't even think I made it to 100 pages.  I just couldn't do it.

The concept was pretty neat: this world is being devoured by darkness where there are these creatures that pretty much tear the hell out of everything.  Too bad they're a flash in the plot up until the point I stopped because kissing Brad was so much more important than getting eaten by some kind of Hell Beast.  Totally.  Ugh.  Really disappointed with this one.  Perhaps irrationally so.  It could have gotten better as the story went on but I wasn't going to slog through such mediocre writing to find out.

Ban Factor: High: Fantasy world without a Christian god.  That's pretty much all you need.  Although it plays on the whole light and dark concept, it's not a Christian light or darkness.