Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews: November 2024

Sunday, November 3, 2024

November Reading List

Last month started out well. Then the last couple of weeks, I got hit with some psychological problems so I ended up pushing back my final reviews for the month.

Trigger Point (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Mystery Book 5) by Russ Colchamiro

Priceless Passion by Ary Chest

Sailing By Gemini’s Star (The Constellation Trilogy Book 3) by Katie Crabb

The Serpent's Bridge (The Serpent Series) by S.Z. Estavillo

Innocents, Immortals, and Amoral Gods by Harry Dehrian

Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders by Antoineta Contreras

The Young by Nicholas John Powter*

An Extraordinary Turn of Events by J.C. Hopkins

The Candid Odyssey: Exploring India and The Philosophy of Life by B Johnny

you have a book that you would like me to review, beta read, edit, proofread, or write, please contact me at the following:

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Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Prices are as follows (subjected to change depending on size and scope of the project):

Beta Read: $35.00-50.00

Review: $35-50.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $75-300.00

Proofread: $75-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$100-400.00

*These are books reviewed for LitPick and will only feature a summary and a few paragraphs. The full review is on LitPick's site.

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, Coffee and Thorn Book Group, LitPicks, BookTasters, Reedsy Discovery, Voracious Readers, and other noted book groups.

Payments can be made to my PayPal account at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.

Among Stars and Shadows by Diane Farrugia; Beautiful Romantic Fantasy Between An Elven Prince and Human Woman

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Diane Farrugia’s Fantasy Romance Among Stars and Shadows can be formulaic and predictable with its story of the love between a human woman and an Elven Prince. However, Farrugia does enough in terms of characterization and world building that she works well within the formula to make the book a standout.

In the kingdom of Lockhaven in the land of Encantraalm, Prince Declan is sworn to defeat his tyrannical father by any means necessary. Declan’s allies have discovered an artifact that could remove The King’s magic and potentially end his life. The only problem is that it's inside the domain of the High King. For Declan to gain access to the artifact, he has to receive admittance from the High King. To do that he has to offer his hand to the High King's daughter, Princess Myra. Oh well, some things are more important than Declan's personal feelings and whether he likes Myra or not is immaterial as long as his father is defeated. Unfortunately, a serious wrinkle in Declan's plans arrives in the form of Kayla Winters, a woman from London, or Humaynraalm to phrase the vernacular. After receiving some devastating news, Kayla is swept away by a mysterious vortex right into Encantraalm and Declan’s presence. The two are instantly attracted to one another despite Declan's misgivings about a human in the elven realm and also his growing awareness that Kayla might be his Lasai Cara, his twin flame.

The world building is that right blend of imagination and archetypes that can be found in this genre. When Kayla first stumbles into Encantraalm, she has a strange encounter with an underwater siren only to be rescued by a winged elf, also known as an avariel. Many of the characters display certain gifts like Declan's empathic abilities. In one very creepy chapter, The King displays his abilities of mental manipulation.

The backstory of Encantraalm is combined with the legend of Camelot connecting the mythical and the real worlds. Another clever bit is Kayla's astonishment at Encantraalm having electricity and appearing modern when in her mind, a fantasy realm would be Medieval in appearance. It is fascinating how the book plays with expected characters and situations but also has fun exploring new ones and concepts within them.

Declan and Kayla's relationship goes through the usual spots of difficult first meeting, arguments based on assumptions, and different worlds to the point where those spots are predictable but somewhat comforting in their predictability. It's like comfort food. You know what's going to happen but like it anyway.

There is a lot of depth in their relationship that takes the novel in interesting dimensions. One of the complications is that Kayla was diagnosed with lupus before arriving in Encantraalm. She is not just in danger from this magical world but also from her own body and is in a place where the people don't know about lupus and certainly don't have any treatment for it. It's also refreshing to see a character in an Epic Fantasy setting dealing with real world problems.

Declan and Kayla's romance takes a long time to build and actually goes through several stages that take advantage of a long 900+ page book so they are fully developed as individuals and as a couple.