All right, today was supposed to be buddy-review-day; however, we've been quite busy and well, we haven't receive any new guest reviews... So here is one of my reviews instead :P
published by Berkley Sensation in February 2007
Atlantis is an archipel of 7 groups of islands and was swallowed by the seas eleven thousands years ago. Each group of island has a leader and a group of warriors, named the Warriors of Poseidon. Leading all these warriors is the high prince of Atlantis and his own personal guards. The Warriors of Poseidon are not humans, but close. All can control the water elements (rain, mist, oceans, etc.) in addition to their own specific power. Their responsibily is to protect humans against vampires, creatures resulting from the union of Chaos and his daughter, Anubisa, as well as werewolves - who have all come out in the open not too long ago.
The present high prince is Conlan and has been abducted and tortured for more than seven years by Anubisa. He finally escapes and returns to Atlantis, but is too late as Poseidon's Trident - symbol of Atlantis King - is stolen by one of Conlan's subordinate. Conlan decides to go back on Earth to retrieve the Trident and inadvertantly saves a human, Riley Dawson who turns out to be an aknasha - an empath who can feel others' emotions as well as project her own in others' mind and also a power that once upon a time was bestowed to only Atlanteans.
Genre: paranormal romance, warriors, vampires, shapeshifters, mythology
Series: The Warriors of Poseidon, Book #1
Review: It isn't that the book or the story wasn't good; the problem was that the story's been written many times already and Atlantis Rising doesn't hold anything that makes it stand out. Truth to be told, the Warriors of Poseidon reminds me a lot of the Dark-Hunters series by Sherrilyn Kenyon and if you compare the two series (I know, little bit unfair for Ms. Day), well I'd give the edge to Ms. Kenyon.
The Characters - Riley Dawson is a social worker who's just witnessed another murder. She's on her way home when she gets attacked by 3 gang members who intend to rape her. Her assaillants are scared off by Conlan... and then starts the lusty attraction between Conlan. Seriously, I was very neutral about Riley... didn't dislike her, didn't like her. Again, a very generic heroine... What was particularly intriguing was that Riley's ancestors were possibly Atlanteans - she's an aknasha and also has a very particular eye colors, belonging to the Atlantean aristocratic families. As for Conlan... well the big issue with him was whether he lost it or not while being tortured by Anubisa... has the darkness overtake him?
Honestly, I didn't connect with any characters and it was very hard for me to care about any of them. We are introduced to Conlan's personal guards which consist of his brother, Ven, as well as Alaric, the high priest, and the other warriors. I have to say that I seriously had a problem with the names of the charactesr... it seems to me they were just chosen at random, that there was no meaning behind them and that bug me a bit. I mean: Conlan, Alaric, Ven, Alexios, Justice, Christophe, Bastien, Brennan and Denal... you see any logic here? So far, the only other character that might be interesting is Riley's younger sister, Quinn - who's already been matched with Alaric, serious series-baiting here.
The Story & Writing - the writing was good. Nothing that jumped right out of the book and annoyed me. As for the story, well I'd say there wasn't enough world building - I mean, the whole thing is still quite elusive to me. It seems also that the story focused more on the actions (Conlan meeting Riley and going after the Trident) than relationships or world building. It's not a bad thing, but I don't know if it's the right direction to go in a first series book.
The Cover - very waterish, fits the story very well.
Am I keeping this book? For the moment, yes...
Anything else? If you've enjoyed the Dark-Hunter series, you might really enjoyed this one too... unless you're doing an overdose of the genre. Also, Alyssa Day is the pen name of Ms. Alesia Holliday.
2 comments:
I WANT to read this!! It should be here soon!
This was a DNF for me. I just could not connect to the characters at all, and I thought that Riley and Conlan's first meeting was over-the-top. And the language, it was like it was trying too hard to be hip. Disappointing, because I was really looking forward to this book.
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