Brenna Brooks is a veterinary technician with a stable job and a small savings, though she is not satisfied with her role in society. She often spends her free time with her mother, volunteering at a big cat rescue, and reading of other’s adventures. Shortly following her 22nd birthday, she begins experiencing a fantastical recurring dream which is more rooted in her real life than she realizes.
After tragedy shakes the foundation of Brenna’s world, she visits the land she one day planned to purchase for her future animal rescue. There being met with the biggest surprise of her life yet, Brenna learns what it means to be truly free.
"For audiences who like paranormal fantasy, and to just immerse themselves, this is a good book. For those who prefer detailed worlds or tight plotting, it's a less enjoyable read."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
Brenna and her mother are the last members of her family, planning to build a small farm in the country. Meanwhile she makes ends meet by working at a vets, and volunteering at the animal sanctuary. Then tragedy strikes, and she is left to pick up the pieces and hope for a miracle. The story flows, and the writing is clear and easy to follow. It picks you up and pulls you along with the story quite happily, and the parts where Brenna is dealing with the grief from her loss are heart-rending and will be familiar to anyone who has lived through it. The first half of the story are absolutely excellent, and I was curious about the secret behind the strange dreams. Unfortunately when you find out it just asks more questions, and those go unanswered...
I think what gets to me is a certain lack of explanation throughout the entire story. If the reason behind her wing had been something in her family line, if it had been a gift for something she had done, that would be one thing. Instead it is just something that happens, to her and others, and there is no reason for her to accept the change so happily. Who the guardians are, why they are, what their origin is is never covered. Events may happen but nothing is ever explained. For me, the characterisation is iffy. I was just getting a sense of Brenna as a person when she wasn't one anymore, and afterwards there's not really enough time to get a sense for her again as she is too busy revelling in her new wings for self-reflection. Before that she's a generally good person in a dead end job, trying to keep her head above water. There's also a huge inconsistency: She's supposed to be a generally good person. She works in animal shelters, which means she's seen what animal abuse looks like. And she left her cat locked in her flat to starve. She was consciously aware that she chose to, it was a deliberate action, and her only excuse was to hope that someone might find them. When she took that choice, any sympathy I had for her just vanished. Our rescue cat came from someone who did much the same. We've seen with the suffering it caused. The bluntest comment from the club was "I hope the next hunter doesn't have a conscience".
The ending point is logical and the story is finished, but there are so many unanswered questions it doesn't feel like it. It should feel like a triumph, but abandoning the last thing that loves her, ditching everything the she enjoys and gaining very little feels rather hollow to me.
For audiences who like paranormal fantasy, and to just immerse themselves, this is a good book. For those who prefer detailed worlds or tight plotting, it's a less enjoyable read.
This book seems to be interesting at first glance, but after reading this review, there is nothing I hate more than a story that leaves unanswered questions in my mind after I've finished reading it.
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