The Astral Ordinance Review

Title: The Astral Ordinance

Author: Meltem Y.K

Date of Publication: December 22, 2012

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: Jayna is about to graduate from high school and embark on an exciting journey in higher education – or so she thinks. In the wee hours of one fateful night she finds herself in the middle of a battle with demons. She assumes it’s a nightmare; a young warrior, Ethan Wells, convinces her otherwise. Jayna discovers that she is an evolved human who can travel between dimensions and is also capable of extinguishing demons. She is a prime candidate for the Astral army. An innocent first-love blossoms between Jayna and Ethan. They become partners in the Astral army against demons and other forms of evil. Ethan is in charge of her training; they spend the next few years as carefree college students by day, demon fighters by night. However, there is a small glitch in their happiness: They are forbidden by the Astral Masters to see each other on Earth. As much as they love one another, they cannot be together in their physical forms. However, the Astral Plane is about to experience a first.

My Review:

Writing poor reviews is always the hardest part of having a blog, especially when I really wanted to like the book. With an original idea and the potential of a cute romance paired with action and excitement I was really looking forward to reading The Astral Ordinance. Even though the novel did have its redeeming qualities I just found that the redeeming qualities it did have didn't outweigh the things that made this novel difficult to get into.

The Astral Ordinance provided an interesting idea, however it just wasn't pulled off properly. I liked the idea of the Astral Plane and all the demons and excitement that went with it; however the poor character development and childish writing made it hard to get into the story. I wanted to like Ethan and Jayna and with a little more personality I think I would have. The novel definitely had the potential to be good; it just isn't quite there yet.

The hardest part of the novel to get into was the characters. Flat and two dimensional both Jayna and Ethan lacked the spark that made them seem real.  Riddled with stilted dialogue and lack of emotion it felt as though I was watching the story unfold from afar as opposed to living it with the characters. Both Jayna and Ethan lacked anything that made them feel unique and unfortunately that made them impossible for me to relate to.

Likewise the writing made it difficult to get into the story. Choppy and a bit childish I felt as though the author was telling me what was happening as opposed to showing me what was happening. With no apostrophes in sight and cut off sentences the writing just didn't flow in a way that made it possible to become engrossed in the novel. I found myself having a read a few sentences several times to understand what the author was getting at. While I didn't necessarily have a hard time understanding what was going on I did have a little trouble understanding some of the writing and sentence structure.

I commend the effort made by Meltem Y.K. and maybe with a bit more practice she could write a wonderful novel. I really did like the plot and the idea behind the novel, but this one just wasn't my cup of tea.

2/5

*Note: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.*