My first book review - Daughters of Isis

Have you ever read a book that was so bad, you just couldn't finish it? I genuinely hate when this happens. I want to love every book that has ever been written. But in this case I just couldn't.

The first book that I selected to review for Dorrance Publishing Co, was Daughters of Isis. The book has a great premise. Three women discover that they are descendants of Cleopatra's secret daughters. They discover that they possess great abilities which they must use to defeat a great evil. Really, the story was there. It was just so poorly written that I just couldn't get to it. I blame the editor more than the author.

To begin with, the book jumps from present to past tense for no reason. The parts that are written in the present tense just seem awkward. "As so and so was walking to the door, someone else was dancing to a jig while pouring milk down the drain." It just seemed like it would've been less awkward to say "As he walked to the door, she poured herself a glass of milk." I think the author was trying to make you feel like you were right there in the story by using the present tense, but it just didn't work.

Then there was the level of detail in the story. Sometimes the author would go through crazy excruciating detail describing something that was absolutely mundane. One of the examples I can think of is when one of the characters becomes head chef and is making his demands regarding his new restaurant. The author went into ridiculous detail describing what each and every demand was. This had nothing to do with the story! The head chef wasn't even a main character! There was a complete lack of description in other areas. Two characters who barely had any interaction with each other all of a sudden decided they were falling in love. Since when!? You've barely even spoken to each other!

The final thing that bothered me was the extreme suspension of disbelief. I understand that this is a fantasy novel, so the magic and the monsters didn't bother me. What bothered me was this. The three women are distant distant descendants of Cleopatra. Cleopatra died in approximately 30BC. These women are living in modern day. If they were that distantly related to her, they should be in various different parts of the world. But they are not. They are cousins. All with the same last name. In order for that to be true, there has to be some serious inbred stuff going on. I just couldn't understand how the author could be so much detail on something like what the kitchen looks like and not think about the geneological impossibility of their existance.

I'm really sad that my first book review was a negative one. I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. I give it 1 star and that 1 star is only for effort.

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