Even the Least

I just finished a book, Arcana Academy, given to me by a woman I sat next to at a festival this past summer. The cover reminded me of the Harry Potter series. And while the woman said it was a bit like that, it was also for adults in that there was anticipated sex (and then there was). Finishing the book, the woman handed it to me. With such a nice gesture, of course I was duty bound to read it. 

Finally, coming through to my kindle, I began the book. I liked the graphics and the part of magic done by cards. but the rest moved too slow for me, and having read a Harlequin romance a day back in one of my high school summers, I was not a fan of the story arc: dislike bordering on hate, a slow attraction to an awakening of desire, which then became anticipation, backtracking, and more anticipation, until, yes, the burning desire fulfilled.* 

What was fun was that another person, one I had given the actual copy of the book to, read it at the same time. Her thoughts (while harsher) aligned with mine. Reading and discussing, I made it to the end with, literally, ten hours to spare before it would (magically) disappear from my app. 

Once I made it to the last seventy pages, I enjoyed the book. Prior, I think a heavy edit, very heavy, would have made the novel better. What I did love, though, was the phrase used often, "Don't cry over an empty coffin." Looking it up, I saw it means to not give up hope. To me, though, it was better an idea against needless worrying. Wow. So true.

I doubt I'll read the sequel - and this one is set up so much more than any other book I've ever read to have a sequel - since, truly, it just took me too long to get to the end, or what there was to the ending. 

With that said, while not my favorite book, having the quote and a person to read it and discuss in real time was worth the read.

Gives Gifts

*It was this reading, though, amusingly enough, that I used when I finally decided to teach story writing. Introduce character and setting, add in a conflict, work to solve it, have it fail, and then ultimately find success. I'd stopped after the first few years because the stories written could be pages and pages long. When starting again (after telling of my own failed story in high school, ten pages long of love and the west, neither of which I knew anything about, and all written with terrible dialogue), I had the structure down to 7 seven to 10 sentences. Tight writing to work from until they were ready to go with more.