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amreading, Christmas, Christmas Esme, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, Esme Trilogy, fantasy, Halloween, Halloween Esme, HEA, inspiration, lizzy ford, musings, published work, review, reviews, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Esme, thoughts, update, Urban Fantasy, YA, YA Urban Fantasy
Author: Lizzy Ford
Publisher: Lizzy Ford
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Rating: 3 Stars
Esme is a half angel living in a tiny town with her full angel mother and a zoo. Her home life is warm, loving, and she loves it. However, she’s bullied and alone at school. Everything shifts for her when two strangers come to town and start renting a couple rooms from her mother in their house.
This review is for all three Novellas as a whole, because honestly while the author calls them novellas, they read more like a serial trilogy than three separate novellas. The plot doesn’t resolve itself at any point during the first two, Halloween and Thanksgiving, instead everything builds and builds until the final installment, Christmas. As well, both Halloween and Thanksgiving both end in serious cliffhanger reveals, which push you to pick up the next one. While not a bad way to lead someone to buy and read the next installment, is a little frustrating when called a Novella. I expect some resolution at the end of a novella, even if it’s part of a trilogy for an over arching storyline.
Over all, it did take me a little bit to get into Halloween but I was curious enough that I persisted. About half way in, Halloween hooked me and I consumed the rest of it, and the other two, in record time. The three are fairly quick reads at only roughly 100 pages a piece, so it is easy to pick them up and finish them in a short sitting. The plot is interesting, and I was very curious how it would wrap itself up.
You’re probably asking, but Meri if you liked the plot and enjoyed the books as a whole, why is it only three stars? Well, unfortunately, there were some grammatical errors littered throughout the first two that for me (maybe because I’m a writer myself) pulled me out of the story as my brain paused to fix the error before continuing the story. And while the auto-fixes for my brain were fairly quick it happened enough times that it made it noticeable to me. It’s something that a little more time editing them would have fixed.
As well, there were times that I was incredibly frustrated at the lack of details given. An example, in Thanksgiving Esme wears a dress to the Thanksgiving event at the Community Center of their small town. We’re told that this is something she never does. We’re told that she’s going to wear her boots with it anyway. And we’re told her mother bought the dress for her. But we are never told what the dress looks like, on a hanger or on her. Not the color, not the cut. Is it floor length or tea length? Is it blue or pink? is the neckline sweetheart cut or scoop neck? Does it have a pattern on it?
This may sound like something trivial in the grand scheme, but it wasn’t just the dress that wasn’t described. After reading all three, I still honestly can’t tell you exactly what Esme looks like. I know she mentioned she doesn’t look like her mother, the blonde angel, but that still doesn’t tell me what Esme looks like. And when I’m trying to envision this story playing out in my mind, these details that were missed or skipped over leave shadowed patches in my head and it disconnects me from the book some. Which does make it less enjoyable as a whole.
Would I recommend these books as a read? If you’re looking for a quick, cute, HEA ending read? Completely. They are a good read, and the plot is engaging enough to be worth it.