Shifting Fate (The Chronicles of Fate 1)
By: Alexis Leno
AISN: B004PLNQ4C
Available Format: ebook
Published February 25, 2011
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Shifting Fate by Alexis Leno introduces us to the world of the heroine, Brynn. As the princess of the kingdom of Alii in the mystic realm of Lizon, Brynn lives a rather ordinary and uneventful life with her parents and two brothers. When a man from her past resurfaces with new and dangerous power, her familiar world is turned upside down. A once certain and literally predestined fate is suddenly thrown off balance, and Brynn finds herself on a journey to discover just how extraordinary she truly is.
I luckily snagged a complimentary copy of Shifting Fate in a book giveaway. I truly appreciate the opportunity to read and review new books!
Overall, I believe the core story of the book is really great. I was drawn in by the characters and what they could do from the very beginning. Leno unquestionably has a tremendous amount of creativity and imagination. I most certainly never had any trouble visualizing the setting or any of the characters. The chemistry between Brynn and Cyrus was believable and entertaining without going overboard. I also appreciated the dynamics of the royal family and the people of the village Brynn later visits.
At times I felt that the writing was a bit too wordy. I think Leno tended to “over-describe” everything a little. She also used the same words several times in a paragraph quite often. I cannot criticize too harshly, because I know I do the same (having been told so by someone else)! What I really feel that this book needed was a great editor. The content is there; it just needs to be cleaned up!
Back to the pleasant stuff: I would really love to see Alexis go back and write more about the Great War of the past. I felt a lot of the events in Shifting Fate would have made a lot more sense if she had started the story a little further back or dedicated some more of this book to clearly explaining past events. I think she has a great deal of fabulous material to carry this narrative on for at least another volume or two, and I encourage her to work on that!
