BOOK REVIEW: The Descendants by Ally Capraro

“Ava Davenport is in the midst of her wedding preparations when her world is thrown upside down by a night visitor. He has a mind-blowing message and Ava can’t keep her mind off it and… off him.”

Please note that I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. This just got awkward – I’m giving the book one star out of five. [Click here to see the system I use to rate books.]

The Descendant promises all that I hope for in a book – fantasy, romance, action, and a touch of humour. It contained all these elements, but the delivery was its major let down. I can forgive grammatical errors that slipped through the pages (which I lost count of by the end of the book), but it was the breaking of the cardinal rule that prevented this book from living up to all it could have been. The rule? Show don’t tell.

To the author’s defence, she specialises in children’s fiction, which is generally designed in a more simplistic nature, relying on drawings alongside prose to flesh a story out. So in this case, given that there were no drawings, it required a lot of imagination on the reader’s part – but not in a good way.

On top of that, the book was riddled with clichés, plot holes, underdeveloped characters and settings, loose ends, and cringe-worthy moments. It made for a disappointing read.

I noticed on both Good Reads and Amazon that The Descendant has mixed reviews – some people lapped it up and can’t wait to read the next book in the series, while others hit the same stumbling blocks as I did. It makes me wonder if I am just looking for something meatier and that this book is better suited to a younger audience.

At its essence, The Descendant was a great concept and the author clearly had spent some time world building and dreaming up this story. It is a shame it felt short in other ways.

Title: The Descendant (Guardians of the Worlds Book 1)
Author: Ally Capraro
Type: Fiction
Category: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Capraro Press
Publication Date: 2016
Edition: First Edition
ISBN: 1943386137