Book Review: Isn't It Necromantic by C.I. Bond

Title: Isn't It Necromantic?
Author: C.I. Bond
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: 01/26/2011
ASIN: B004L624VW







Cassie isn't evil ... probably. She just lacks a few things: a boyfriend, a family, a soul. Convincing the "Others" she isn't evil has never met with a lot of success. It usually starts with a local coven of concerned witches (humanity's self-appointed protectors) making accusations and then there's shouting, a chase, and in one case, a stabbing which turned out badly-although, to be fair, how many stabbings turn out well? So now she keeps a low profile, tries to avoid all contact with "Others" and moves every two years. This philosophy worked well enough in her life until she got to Seattle and formed a commitment to finally settle down. Nine months into her rainy new life, things start to fall apart ...

First, something kills Harry-not that he didn't deserve it, but still, it isn't a good sign. Then Mr. Abbey, obviously a Dark Other who has been dead for over a century, tries to hire her to find some missing property and won't take no for an answer. A dark-haired stranger with vivid green eyes, also dead, is forcing her to ask difficult questions of herself like "If he eats people but he's hot can you still date him?" Normally this is when she would cut-and-run, but the seer's warning was clear: if she leaves Seattle, she dies. Of course, there are no guarantees that this won't happen anyway....

Overall this was a decent first novel. Bond has a decent idea here & that I can't immediately guess what type of supernatural critter Cassie is supposed to be is a plus. It ruins the fun when you can immediately tell what someone is since it usually gives you a good idea of what will happen later on in the series. I have to admit that part of my desire to read the next book is because I'm pretty curious about what Cassie will end up being.

Unfortunately this tale suffers the growing pains that plague most first novels, with some unwieldy shifts between scenes (some of which left me wondering if I'd missed a few pages or paragraphs) & underdeveloped characters. I enjoyed the book but I couldn't help but wish for just a little bit more world building & character development. What made so much of this so frustrating was that so much of it could have been fixed with a sentence or paragraph here & there.

This wasn't a bad read though & I'm optimistic that as Bond gets more writing experience she'll even out her writing style & get more polished as the series progresses. This isn't a New York Times bestseller by any means, but it deserves at least one read through. I can't help but worry that with the huge amount of UF flooding the genre, the flaws in this book might cause readers to get disconnected & float over to the next new book being released.


Final Diagnosis: The book is in want of a good hard edit, but there's a lot of promise to the series.

(Reader copy provided by author)

Read this book: Nickel Plated by Aric Davis

Hi everyone!

I want to tell all of you about an author that competed in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novelist Awards. His name is Aric Davis & he wrote one of the best excerpts in the forum, but unfortunately he didn't progress in the contest due to a technicality, but thankfully Amazon had the good sense to snap his book up to be released through their AmazonEncore line.

Here's the book synopsis:

Nickel is a survivor. He has to be. For as long as he can remember, his life has hinged on the flip of a coin. Or, rather, the scribble of a social worker’s pen. He’s been through the system, even had a good dad for a few years, until he was gone, too. But Nickel remembers everything he taught him, and since the day he escaped from foster-care hell, he’s put that knowledge to good use. Just twelve years old, he makes a steady living by selling marijuana to high schoolers, blackmailing pedophiles he ferrets out online, and working as a private investigator.

When a beautiful girl named Arrow hires him to find her little sister Shelby, Nickel figures at best the kid’s a runaway; at worst, some perv’s gotten a hold of her. He scours the internet and the streets of Arrow’s suburban neighborhood, and what he finds there is as ugly a truth as he’s ever seen. For beyond the manicured lawns, Nickel discovers children for sale, and adults with souls black as the devil. And people like that aren’t about to let some kid ruin their game. This edgy thriller introduces a canny, precocious anti-hero, the likes of which young-adult readers have never seen.

I'm really excited to see this in print & even more excited to announce this to everyone! If you want to order a copy from amazon, feel free to pre-purchase it here. It doesn't release until March of 2011, but from what I read of it the book is well worth the wait.

If you want to show the author a little love, you can always visit his website & contact him through there! Davis also has another book out that he self-published, which is unfortunately not in print anymore but hopefully now that Nickel Plated has been picked up we'll see that come back into print!