Under a painted sky

Under a painted sky is Jenna Roads‘ debut novel. It is the first book in new adult The Spirit Warrior series. It is an interesting story to read, and I can tell you, after reading this book, I want to go to the land of enchantment myself!

The story follows the 21-year-old Isabella after her divorce from her husband-for-six-months. Her aunt offers her to live in one of her houses, and she gladly accepts. Who wouldn’t, it someone offers you to live in their villa for free :). So there Isabella goes, off to New Mexico. Her aunt has hired the former caretaker of the house, Logan, to show Isabella arround. They really like each other and start dating. Isabella really loves New Mexico (and Logan 😛 ) and goes out to see all of it with Logan. One day they go out to visit the Petroglyphs, and Isabella touches a handprint on the stone. Something that is not allowed, but nothing really happens.

From that day on, she is experiencing some paranormal things. There’s a ghost in her aunt’s house, and she doesn’t know what to do.  Luckily Logan knows someone who has experience with ghosts. That is how she meets the spirit warrior. What  does the ghost want? Will Logan and Isabella stay together?

I liked the story, but had trouble getting into it. Jenna Roads had given me a e-book copy of the book to review, and that could be one of the reasons I didn’t like it very much in the beginning: I’m less sucked into a story when I’m reading it digitally than when I’m reading it in a ‘real’ book. And there are so many details. Details are great, but sometimes I felt like: lets skip this, and that, and oh, we’re still on the marketplace. I get why there’re so many details: the place sounds awesome and almost indescribable.

At some point when Isabella is talking to her mum on the phone, she is telling her mum she put her robe on before going out to look at some hotairballoons. And that is a great example of what I mean when I say some of the ‘talking’ in de book was surreal. Sometimes I really was like: what? Who says that?  But I think that is just a matter of  taste in writing, and maybe my poor English 😛 .

And, I have to add to the taste in writing part, I was not blown away by the writing style itself. There were lines that I thought ‘damn, why didn’t you juggle those words arround a bit’ so that it would be a bit smoother, and the story would get going. And I knew I was missing something in the beginning of the story: emotions. The way people look when they say something, the ‘wink’, ‘smile’, ‘lights in eyes’ things if you know what I mean. But, as the story commenced, it got better and better. 

A great story, but not a writing style I love. 2.5 out of 5 stars.