Review: A Spell In The Country by Morgan Smith (Spoiler free)

By Dan Melson on July 15, 2017 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The Good:

This is an enjoyable little story

I like the characters, the dialog and the narration are good, and it kept me reading and interested. As jaded as I sometimes get about books, that's not a trivial feat. If what you're after is a fun little read with some intelligent plotting, a good story. It doesn't put me in mind of any great, well-known stories - the closest in mood I can come is the moderately obscure Curse of Sagamore by Kara Dalkey. I would say it's most appropriate for a pre-teen or younger teenager - no adult things going on, and few adult situations, none more salacious than a pretty girl batting her eyes at men who should know better.

Finally, I should note that this is an actual novel, not a short story or novellette trying to tease you into getting into a serial. Unlike a lot of what I see published in e-book format, a solid value.

The Needs Improvement:

Pretty much everyone in the book other than the protagonist is incapable of putting two and two together. Soldiers who cannot tell that a person that is still alive, and similar things. Nor would I rate it high on the scale of pseudo-historical verisimilitude. This is a younger person's story and these things are forgivable in that context. But the general incapability of everyone else in the story puts this right on the border of Mary Sue territory.

I would rate this an eight on the ten scale - as I said, it was an enjoyable read, and I had no problems staying interested. I would like to read the next story. By Amazon standards, a solid four star product.

If you want me to review your book, contact me via my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Dan.Melson.Author My schedule can mean it sometimes takes a while, and it definitely wouldn't hurt your chances to review one of mine. I do not do puff pieces - real reviews only - but neither do I do hack jobs in vengeance.

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