Kat Lowe

I won this book through the Goodreads First-read program.

The book's description piqued my interest in it, and then the cover sealed the deal. The personal's ad at the front made me laugh, and the cheeky little sheep made me want to pick it up. Unfortunately, the rest of the cover design gave me the distinct impression that the book was geared more towards children... but then the book itself disavowed me of that notion through clever writing and some rather pointed adult references that never really crossed the PG/PG-13 line. The book was more clever than naughty, so to speak.

The cover doesn't quite do the book justice so, you know, don't judge the book by it. As the author states herself, the book is a satire, and a rather hilarious one at that. She pokes fun at the paranormal romance genre in general, as well as some of the more accepted tropes. She pokes fun at Grecian homosexuality, and more literary figures than I'd care to name. Her take on Hammurabi, though, was particularly hilarious. Her take on Lucifer makes me want to give her a high five.

All in all, this book is for the crowd who likes books like [b:Year Zero|12953520|Year Zero|Rob Reid|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1340573020s/12953520.jpg|18110528], [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|11|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)|Douglas Adams|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327656754s/11.jpg|3078186], and [b:The Colour of Magic|64144|The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1170621261s/64144.jpg|62283]. It's also for people who wish to mock books such as [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1307515757s/41865.jpg|3212258] and its ilk.

Don't expect wonders from the book, as it doesn't go as in-depth as [b:Year Zero|12953520|Year Zero|Rob Reid|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1340573020s/12953520.jpg|18110528] does - this is a slim volume. Nevertheless, it's as refreshing as a glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day and is more than enough to get a grin and leave you wanting more.

I, for one, am eagerly waiting for more from [a:Kat Lowe|5153887|Kat Lowe|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1323292945p2/5153887.jpg] and her fun humor. Keep writing, keep reading, and keep that cheeky sheep on the cover. It's hilarious. :)… (mais)

This is a really hard book for me to review. I feel like it had a really unique idea, but it didn’t really deliver. It seemed like it didn’t know who its audience was. It felt like a cross between a young adult and an adult novel, but didn’t really fit the mold of either. The pace of the book is also slightly off. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but it just seemed to jump around a lot. I think the best word to describe the novel is arbitrary. It was lacking cohesion.

The characters fell flat for me as well. Though I admired the idea of using historic characters as a basis, but it felt like they were trying too hard to be the originals. The only character I really liked was Lucifer just because he was unexpected. Even then, he needed more development. Elizabeth as a heroine was fine, but her teenage life was slightly far fetched. Her mother and grandmother were very strange authority figures…nobody would let their teenage daughter or granddaughter run off with a stranger that was much older than them without any objection. I wasn’t sure how to feel about the references to God either.

I wish I could have liked this book, but it was too fragmented and choppy, the characters too unrealistic, and the ending too anticlimactic. The best thing I can say about it is that it had its moments of humour and it’s interesting that there’s a scholarship associated with the novel.

I think that Lowe needs to work on cohesion and character development. Only then may she have a future as a young adult author, but this first novel falls short.… (mais)