Mini Reviews: The Calling + Crossroads

THE CALLING
Ashley Lynn Willis
Adult Paranormal Romance (sort of)
360 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Mandy Hardy lost more than a breast to cancer; she lost her fiancé when he dumped her a week before her mastectomy. Her ego bruised and her self-esteem battered, Mandy’s sure she’ll never fall in love again.

Justin Seward is a headstrong Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer with a heart of gold and the supernatural ability to command the seas. He had to hide his feelings while Mandy was engaged to his best friend. Now that she’s free, he’s vowed to make her his.

Together, they may hold the key to each other’s salvation. But when Justin’s past catches up with him, and Mandy’s ex-fiancé wants vengeance, they realize they might not live long enough for happily ever after.

MY THOUGHTS
The Calling is a story difficult to adequately categorize, strong romantic elements accompanied by an interesting paranormal twist to give us something that should feel like a paranormal romance, yet something about that definition doesn’t quite seem to fit either, and we are left a bit adrift as we try to determine our overall reaction to this tale. Part of the issue lies with the world building, mainly the fact that there’s very little at all to help support and foster believability in the supernatural element. The world of The Calling is identical to our own in every conceivable way save the addition of Justin’s ability to manipulate and control water (a result of his being a descendant of Triton), and so his relationship to the sea feels a bit random in an otherwise contemporary and realistic world. If descendents of Triton exist, shouldn’t there be descendents of other gods as well? Where are all the other people who also have to heed the Calling? What are their lives like? We never learn much of the history surrounding this paranormal ability, and meet no other characters other than Justin’s father who share his gifts or similar ones, so we’re left with quite a few questions that if answered would have added a richness and tangibility to the reading experience.

Ms. Willis is a talented storyteller however, and her characters have little trouble carving out places for themselves in our hearts as we tangle ourselves in their lives and their trials. The relationship between Justin and Mandy feels genuine and is one we can easily root for knowing everything they’ve gone through on their journey to the warmth of one another's embrace, and we can’t help but have the almost irresistible urge to flip to the end just to ensure they find the happiness they both so clearly deserve. With the exception of one fairly large overreaction on Mandy’s part, both she and Justin are thoroughly enjoyable protagonists, and Ms. Willis is an author I will look forward to reading more of as her career progresses.

Rating 3.5/5


CROSSROADS (Crossroads Academy #1)
J.J. Bonds
Paranormal Young Adult
310 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When Katia enrolled at Crossroads Academy she knew things weren’t exactly going to be easy. The sole heir to the worlds’ most powerful vampire, her presence was bound to cause a stir. But nothing could have prepared her for this. Whispers follow everywhere she goes. So does trouble.

But Katia will do her time at Crossroads. After all, she’s only enrolled at the prestigious school for pure blood vampires to fulfill a promise to her Great Uncle Aldo. Tucked away in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Katia hopes to shed the demons of her past and focus on her education. Raised blissfully unaware of the entire vamp world, she’s got a lot of catching up to do.

As Katia learns more about this dark society and her own legacy, protecting her past becomes increasingly difficult. Bodies start turning up in nearby Rutland and Katia is sucked into a twisted web of danger and deceit. Haunted by nightmares she can’t explain and a thirst for blood that is never sated, Katia will do whatever it takes to keep her past buried. What choice does she have? Exposure will shake the Elder’s Council to its core and likely result in a death sentence at the hands of the Linkuri.

Nothing at Crossroads is what it seems and Katia’s secrets may be the darkest of them all.

MY THOUGHTS
Nicely paced and entertaining, Crossroads yanks us into the halls of its title’s academy and thrusts us quickly forward through Katia’s tale, not necessarily blowing us away with the uniqueness of the vampire lore or the complexity of the characters themselves, but keeping us interested the entire way through nonetheless. More strongly plot-driven than character-driven, Ms. Bonds builds an interesting mystery as we go, flashes from Katia’s violent past causing our eyebrows to raise in question as to their relevance to her present, and though those eyebrows stay raised for quite some time, all the seemingly disparate elements are beautifully strung together to create a powerful and action-packed conclusion.

While the story is well executed and has us closing the back cover thoroughly satisfied with the way the all the individual pieces were crafted, the characterization leaves us longing for the same depth and care as is dedicated to the detailing of specific events. Katia is a bit sour and generally moody for majority of the book, and though she often recognizes her own negativity, she does little to improve her attitude and therefore repeatedly thwarts our attempts to reach out and connect with her. We know little of the reasons behind her despondency other than she simply doesn’t want to be at Crossroads, and that reason alone is not strong enough to have us fighting to claw our way through her melancholy to uncover the woman beneath.

Rating: 3.5/5