A unique fantasy world, full of adventure for young adults. Shade is a halfling who has the ability to hear strange voices in her head, voices that command her to do things. "The magic of Faerie has finally brought her back to us." While in the underground city, Shade learns more about the 'glamour' as Ilarial teaches her to discover the identity of those around her: Braelynn the great sorceress, Than the skilled hunter, Sary the warrior princess, Stephen the full faery, Rylan the shape-shifter, and Ewan the part-giant. In third person narrative, we see Shade long to return back home just as Bilbo does in The Hobbit or Alice does in Alice in Wonderland, yet her curious side takes her deeper into the underground world of Aturine and farther into the land of Santirans. Adult content: only a few words of profanity. Alexia Purdy developed an interesting fantasy world. She did a great job sending Shade on a fine adventure. **Book issued to me free of charge from Indi Inked for a fair and truthful review, in conjunction with NetGalley services**This book was downloaded from Amazon.com on May 1, 2014***WARNING SPOLIERS***This is a story that will be enjoyed by Young Adults/Teens – Adults will find the target group that the level of the book seems to be written for will not be as sophisticated for their tastes. I do want to start with what I DID find enjoyable about this book. The author did take time to describe her characters looks in detail – which is something that a lot of authors do not do today. When I read a book I would like to have a picture in my mind of what the character I’m reading about looks like and most authors do not provide you with that information. Alexia Purdy did a wonderful job bringing her characters to life with her descriptions.I do like the fact that even after it is made very clear that Shade is a female that has a LOT of males in Faery Land looking to land her as a mate to continue their race that she sticks to her “good girl” values and doesn’t even “go there”. Two very chaste kisses is perfect and outright rejecting the thought that guys would be pursuing her for marriage. Granted the thought of having a bunch of hot male elf’s chasing you all over the place (picturing Legolas very clearly in my mind) would be any teenage girls dreams. But to impart the message that it’s okay to be chased as long as you hold onto the values your parents taught you – that is a PERFECT MESSAGE, as far as I’m concernedI did like the plot line of the book, though at times I felt it was a little disjointed and needed a little bit more back ground information given to the reader to understand how point A related to point B to get to point C. In many cases I felt like we started at point A and jumped all the way to point C and I was left wondering what happened in the middle. I do not know if this information was left out by the writer or if an editor cut portions of the book. I did feel like the very end of the book was very “hurry up and wrap it up”. There was a lot of long fighting to get to the fountain – then suddenly, it was over. It was anticlimactic, in a way, how it ended so abruptly. Conversation between characters flowed very easily almost all the time and fit the theme and story line of the book – but once in a while, there was an instance where it got disjointed and I was wondering “okay, where the heck did THAT come from?” when there was an odd remark here or there that was completely out of context.I would really like to impart to the author that I do understand that this is your baby and that you have spent many hours of your life, blood, sweat and tears on this book and the series. I fully comprehend and appreciate that. I too live in Las Vegas, Nevada (but don’t call it Sin City) and devour books on a regular basis. I know you put so much of your heart into this work and I can see that it does have the makings of a very good series, I really wanted to be as detailed in my review with my thoughts as possible. I know that corrections can’t be made to printed books, but I know that Kindle corrections are made on a regular basis now.Also, I was wondering if you named your main male character after Dylan’s Dance Hall on Boulder Highway. Just a stray thought.Now, I would like to note the things about the book that really, truly need to be improved that would make this a stellar Young Adult fiction book that would probably appeal to adults too. If these “speed bumps” were cleared up in all the books in the series, I would be more than happy to buy and read them myself. But as it stands at this point, the way this book is written, I would not buy the full series. First the book needs a good Editor to work with the author to work out the grammatical errors and help keep the facts and events straight in the book. There is also quite a few words that are used incorrectly, spelled incorrectly, etc. Some of the errors that I spotted could actually have been taken care of if the text had been written in Windows Word and ran through Grammar Check. Example of keeping facts straight, our main character, Shade is talking to a sorceress and you are reading the “narrative thoughts” as they go thru Shade’s mind. At the top of the paragraph Shade calls her a “sorceress” but at the bottom of the paragraph she calls her a “warrior”. Now this IS all in Shades “internal narration” about the same person – and this it is a lack of consistency that is throughout the book. The grammar gets clunky throughout the book. Once moment it will be going along just fine, and then suddenly, BAM, it is like hitting speed bumps. You notice little aberrations that are just jarring. Jarring enough that it interrupts the flow and enjoyment of your reading. Below is just a tiny example, just one – I found many, many more throughout the book that after a while, it would become way too cumbersome to document them all. Please note the words in brackets, remove them. Read the sentences with and without and see what you think:A. “It’s all right. You’re (still) hurt, so don’t try to move too much. We’ve healed most of your wounds, but you should (still) move slowly. Your head is still healing.”The term Shade’s entourage is used over and over again throughout the book. The actual meaning of the word entourage is; a group of attendants or associates, as of a person of rank or importance. I don’t really see Shade as being a person that is “a person of rank or importance”. Maybe better words like escort, companions or retinue could have been thrown in. After a while it started to grate on my nerves to see the word entourage. I expected to see a group of paparazzi jump out of the bushes at any minute.I really don’t get the nickname Soap for the character Rylan. It really has to be one of the most horrible choices of nicknames I’ve come across in a book. Seriously?! Soap?! What is wrong with just calling him by his regular name, Rylan or naming him Soap to begin with. If he was named Soap, maybe I wouldn’t have had such a problem with the nickname.Chapter 1 is a complete TRAIN WRECK that I would like to go over point by point. Chapter 2 is only a CAR WRECK, which I will also go over point by point. Chapter 3 is much better; I think it is only a PEDESTERIAN ON PEDESTERIAN COLLISION IN A CROSS WALK. The rest of the chapters are mostly SIDE WALK COLLISIONS BETWEEN PEDESTERIANS. I only saw some things here and there that made reach for my note pad. It is either that or I had grown accustom to errors at that point that my brain was “self-editing” them.Chapter 1 TRAIN WRECK1. There is a silent “narration” of the characters Shade and Brisa at the very beginning of the book – problem is the FOCUS of the narration changes back and forth between Shade and Brisa without any notice. This is NOT typical writing style. If you have a silent “narration” in progress, it follows one character. You don’t switch from one paragraph to the other between characters. This is sloppy writing.2. Shade is waiting for her mom after school. It was mentioned earlier that she had a cell phone. Her mom is really late in picking her up…..obvious question would be, “Why didn’t she call her mom to find out when she would be picked up?”3. When the “voices in her head” tell her to go into the deserted warehouse and she automatically does what they tell her to do, it would be a very good story building spot to give an example of WHY she trusts the voices. Just to say that they bug her for days on end isn’t a good enough example. What was going down with Jack and Vange would be over within the next 30 minutes, so the voices would have left her alone. If the author had given a background “for instance” story of how the voices had helped her on time in the past, it would have been much easier to understand why she followed their direction without hesitation. 4. How the basement window shut because of the wind – this is a technical matter that bugs me. She had to get down on the ground and push with her feet to budge the window because of rust. The window opened INWARD. There is no reason why the window should have banged shut because of the wind blowing outside (moving upward) – the wind should have just glided over it, there was no return pressure from inside the building pressing the window BACK UP. Maybe if there was a HINT OF MAGIC, THAT I would believe.5. Jack and Vange are fighting up stairs and Vange is using Sonic Booms - - - Sonic Booms would have been easily heard from the street as well as from the basement. This is sloppy writing, lack of attention to detail – how did they hide the SOUND of the Sonic Booms from outside the building? Why didn’t Shade hear the Sonic Booms before she reached the floor where they were battling?6. Jack says to Vange “The Queen wants you alive, but I’m sure that if you were wounded, she’d understand it was a matter of life and death.” Examine this sentence, it makes no sense. If he said “The Queen wants you alive and UNHARMED, but I’m sure that if you were wounded, she’d understand it was a matter of life and death and I had no choice” okay, it would make sense AND with my additional words, be a full thought. But the way it is written, it makes NO SENSE.7. The next part deals with word usage. Jack is battling Vange and he starts to throw around lightning RODS?? I really don’t think so. Maybe the author was trying to liven up the scene and use different words to describe his magical weapon. If he was really throwing RODS – WHY?? Was it a way to make a way to create a trap to capture Vange with electricity within its arc? If so, that would be a very nice plot twist to follow thru on – if not, it should have said he was throwing lightning BOLTS. But then we find out in the very last chapters that lightning RODS are used to negate a Teleen lightning bolts. So the words Rods does not fit in here at all.8. When Shade asked Jack if Vange could fly, he says that no she couldn’t that she more like “Floats….Gracefully”…….Ummmm, okay – that is just about the dumbest thing, I’ve read – Okay, probably not. I’m sure I’ve read dumber things in my life since I DID work for the government for 30 years. Floats Gracefully I think pretty much qualifies as FLYS.9. Next plot problem – he is part of the Faery Realm, Shade asks him what is going on and he just spills his guts. Yeppers, tells her everything, doesn’t leave much out. Shows her his true form, tells her what was going on with Vange, etc. And he met her about 5 minutes ago. Is this the way the secretive world of the Faery Realm usually works? I really don’t think so, because they wouldn’t remain a secret for very long!10. This next bit I had to read a few times to figure out what was bugging me. When Jack and Shade went to leave the building. Jack approached the door and started pulling boards off from the INSIDE. They have been nailed over the door on the INSIDE OF THE BUILDING. Once removed, they open the door and walk out freely down the stairs into the street. Big problem here. Since when do they board a building up from the INSIDE???? Last time I checked you BOARD A BUILDING UP FROM THE OUTSIDE.11. At the end of the chapter Shade follows after Jack into the woods, she is very late getting home after school and she doesn’t once think about calling her mom to let her know where she is? Doesn’t think about checking her cell phone – her cell phone hadn’t been ringing off the hook from a worried mom? As a teenager to a single mom that she has already mentioned has too much on her plate, she is acting like she has free will and no regard for her mother. Also no fear that her mom may be at home at that moment calling every hospital, police station, all her friends or out in the car frantically combing the streets looking for her.Chapter 2 CAR WRECK1. As Jack and Shade are walking through the forest, Shade asks Jack completely out of the blue if he know Vange “intimately” and he answers that yes, that they had been lovers and engaged. Okay, this question was WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY out of left field, inappropriate for a teenage girl to be asking a grown man she had just met. The grown man should have NOT answered the question with as much candor as he did, telling a teenage girl about his sex life. There was no advance chit chat before the question, they had not established a friendship – so this question was completely out of line. If she had asked him if they knew each other very well – that is G or PG….but to ask him if they knew each other “intimately” – THAT is RED LIGHT MATERIAL.2. When they arrive in the Faery living area and are confronted by the Troll and he is suspicious that she might be a spy, Jack vouches for her, declaring she isn’t a spy. Jack just met Shade; he didn’t know her from…..well, Jack (as the expression goes and yes, pun intended). He didn’t get to know anything about her before he hauled her off into the forest, how is it he knows that she ISN’T a spy? 3. Jack claims that she is an Oracle to the Troll, but he has no proof of the voices in her head. He didn’t out a test to her at all to prove the voices. He just took her for her word. This is too inconsistent and too trusting. If the Faery all acted like this, all humans would know who they were and where they lived.4. When talking to the Faery Oracle, during Shade silent mental narration, she notes when the Oracle smiles she has crow’s feet that signify age and wisdom. Crow’s feet do NOT signify age and wisdom, they are called Laugh Lines. They are usually caused when someone is known to smile or laugh a lot. This sentence just really bugged me. If she had said that her EYES held age and wisdom, that would have made sense.5. Why would the Faery Oracle know Shade’s entire birth story if her real father kept it secret and why blurt it all out right then and there? This part of the story falls apart. If her real father loved her mother that much he would have found some way to keep track of her over the years and known when her human husband had died. If Shade’s real father was dead, he would have put fail safes in place to ensure that his “love” and his child were looked after too.6. One point in the story, I started to lose tract where, Jack claims that Shade’s voices in her head had told her to come with him to see the Faery Oracle – Nope, they never told her to go with him to see their Oracle. Shade never told Jack that the voices told her to go see the Faery Oracle. Jack just said “hey, you have voices in your head, maybe you should come talk to our Oracle” and she agreed that sounded like a good idea. Her voices pretty much remained silent after she arrived on the floor where Jack and Vange were battling.Chapter 61. PLOT DETAIL INCONSISTANCY. Jack warns Shade in Chapter 1 to never accept food from one of the small faeries, also known as Demi-fey. That they will ensnare a human and torture them and it is impossible to get them to let them go. But when Queen Gretel of the Teleen has a feast put out for Shade and her fellow travelers, it is the Demi-fey that serve the table. Shade does not question that the Demi-fey are serving them food and they all happily eat the food that the Demi-fey give them. This is a poor lack of attention to detail from a former chapter.Chapter 91. Miss-use of the word Crisscrossed – The definition of this word is: Form a pattern of intersecting lines or paths on. Origin of the word; early 17th century (denoting a figure of a cross preceding the alphabet in a hornbook): from Christ-cross (in the same sense in late Middle English), from Christ's cross . The form was later treated as a reduplication of cross. When they are getting ready to hit the trail, it says that Shade is sitting crisscrossed – it is impossible to sit crisscrossed. You can sit with your legs crossed in front of you or folded Indian style is the old expression. If you were doing the dance step Criss Cross you would be standing and it involves you jumping to spread your legs, you jump again to cross them directly under you, the immediately unwind so you are facing the wall behind you and then repeat the steps.2. When Sylphi is introduced by Jack as being a new addition to their company for the trip after their stay with the Teleens, Shade remembers how she was “So friendly to Darren the night of the attack”. When in fact, Sylphi had been overly friendly to JACK to the point that Jack was giving very overt “back off” signals and as they were going through the tunnels to go to bed Shade was observing Jack with Sylphi invading his personal space. It also bothered Shade quite a bit.Chapter 171. It mentions as Shade comes out of the bathroom of the room that she and Ursad are sharing that they had not turned on the lights in the room. This is the scene where he tries to use magic on her again to convince her to stay with him so that he doesn’t have to be alone. At the end of the scene, just before she goes to sleep she reaches over and turns off the bedside lamp. How can she turn off the bedside lamp if they never turned the lights on in the room? I reread the passage several times to make sure the lights were not turned on during their exchange and the only time she went near the bedside light was when she got into bed to go to sleep.All in all I know I was very harsh and detailed in my review. There were many other instances I found that needed to be corrected, but I’m not going to do an entire book correction in a book review. I don’t really think anyone wants me to do that. Probably no one wanted me to do as much detail as I did above. I hope that my efforts are appreciated and that they are accepted in the spirit intended – in the hopes of possibly improving what I think could be an outstanding series of books.
What do You think about Ever Shade (2012)?
such a good story. Can't wait to get immersed in the next book
—elena_from_moscow
