I am proud once again to be able to promote more self-published work. This, an interesting co-written novel that tells a story from one half of two main characters. The other half is written by Eliabeth Hawthorne and you can see the girls joint blog here.

The premise features on Odette Reyes, a girl blind from birth who suddenly and inexplicably begins to draw. Not just simple drawings but as good as any skilled artist. Yet, she cannot see the images that she is creating, shocking her brother Leocardo who wants to understand how she is able to do this. The two now live on an island known for having magical properties and even the experts are at a loss to explain what is going on here.

There are many questions to intrigue the reader and encourage you to read on. What is the nature of this island? Where is it? How did they get there? Why are they there? And finally, how come their parents cannot remember them? (they have moved away from their parents and Leocardo contacts them several times – each time the mother reacts angrily) With so many questions to answer, it is easy to get absorbed into the narrative from very early on – and stay there. Despite having all of these question spinning around your head, the story developed very nicely along the lines as expected from a fantasy novel. It is incredibly well paced and for that the author should be commended.

Regular readers will know that my fantasy tastes lean more toward the urban fantasy end of the spectrum rather than the “swords and sorcerers” approach so this work was definitely more my sort of thing. However it does contain an element of both, with the overt magic of traditional fantasy and the very real-world setting including mobile phones and other modern technology that will keep the fans of urban fantasy happy. These styles are well fused. If you are in favour of one particular fantasy style you’re likely to enjoy it.

It is written in quite a simplistic and approachable style – which is not a problem in itself as Suzanne Collins uses this style rather well in The Hunger Games. And of course, it’s an accepted feature of Young Adult literature to write in an engaging and approachable style. However I do feel the language feels a little stilted at times and it could have done with one final and thorough edit for writing voice and to inject a little more passion. But this is something that we all learn as writers as we develop our voice over the years. No doubt Alvarez will look back at this in years to come and identify her own errors. I still do it now with my earlier work.

I tend to struggle with books where I don’t like the protagonist and I must say I didn’t particularly like Leocardo. It wasn’t just the fact that he thought he was god’s gift to women (this did irritate me but then I am a 38 year old male), I just didn’t find him particularly sympathetic. However the world was enough of a distraction for me to enjoy this overall.

This post is part of the Blind Sight Blog Tour. Blind Sight is an urban fantasy novel written in two volumes, each telling the story through a different character’s perspective.