Hi everyone! I'm sorry I've been so absent on the blog this month, but as it comes to an end I've managed to get this post to you all! Today I'm reviewing Melody's Key by Dallas Coryell & I would like to thank him for sending the book to me in exchange for an honest review. And trust me, this review is brutal honesty.
Chapter length:✭✭
Characters:✭✭✭✭
Cover:✭
Pacing:✭✭
Cliche count:✭✭✭
Overall rating:✭✭.5
Warning: I DNF'd it
at 65%.
Synopsis: Tegan Lockwood’s dreams were dead, sacrificed on the noble altar of duty before they ever had a chance to live. Her entire existence was disappearing into the abyss of apathy as she labored her days away keeping her family’s struggling business alive. There would be no emotion, no color, no beauty in her life. That is, until a mysterious visitor begins to draw her out of the darkness of her past towards something that will challenge the boundaries of her world, and unlock the most deeply held secrets of her heart.
Cover: I really wanted to look past the cover and rely on the storyline of the book to compensate for it, but unfortunately both disappointed me. It looks... odd? I'm not particularly fond of the inverted color look, and the font of the title/author name doesn't make it any better. Meh...
Chapter length/pacing: I don't know if it's just the fact that I was given this book in a PDF... or that the chapters are really that drawn out, but I digress.You all already know I'm a short chapter kind of girl and unfortunately this book did not conform to my taste far as so. Some chapters were okay, but others I felt like would never end.
Cliche count:
*le sigh*
Every so often I can get into a love story if it has good progression, but I feel as though this one didn't. Cliche: big famous guy, small town girl! Although, the summer English country side setting is what makes saved the rating. Another thing that saved it were the amusing points when Mason (an American) is teased for his misuse of English slang (that was funny).
There's some specific things that I could search the book for and point out that irritated me far as cliches go, but I feel as though that is unnecessary. So just have faith in me that I found enough cliches to give it the rating it got.
Characters: The characters are pretty much the only thing I can't complain about with this book. They are all written very diversely and are crazy memorable. Even the two dorkish brothers are memorable. I think my favorite would have to be Teagan's sister Ryleigh because she is so blatant and dirty-minded. I love it. She had me laughing multiple times during her and Teagan's encounters. Another character I liked (but not as much as Ryleigh!) is Simon because of his witty and jovial demeanor. He made me smile.
Other thoughts...
I'm very conflicted on how I feel about the book and how I constructed this review. Of course all of it is straight honesty, but I just feel really bad because I wanted to like this book. I wanted to be engulfed in the feelings shared between Mason and Teagan. I think the setting worked better than the love story. Teagan's family and their business is something original that I haven't had the privilege to be apart of in any other book, and I really appreciated it. I enjoyed the summer setting and the beautiful description of the manor house & the surrounding grounds. It's incredibly unfortunate that I enjoyed literally everything else besides the love story.
So you might ask: Cierra, why on Earth did you DNF it a little over half way through?!
For one, I was sent this book on October 3rd and I only managed to push through half of it in that time.
Now you might ask: well what if you were just procrastinating?
Well my answer is, yes, I was procrastinating. However, I was only procrastinating because I wasn't enjoying what I was reading, and I believe you shouldn't force yourself to continue reading something you're not enjoying. I even said on one of my update statuses on Goodreads that I felt bored of the plot. Once the confessions came out at 44%, I felt like that's it, I've reached the climax... what now?
And even though I'm 99% sure that the confessions weren't the climax, I don't feel the urge to finish the book to find the true climax. (Even though I wound up skimming to the last few chapters & pretty much predicted the ending anyway...)
The last thing I couldn't get with about this book is how wordy it is. I swear, every other sentence I was looking up words. That gets very annoying very quickly. (Keep in mind - I'm even a person that LOVES to expand their vocabulary!) I think this book taught me that simplicity in writing is very crucial. When you overwhelm your audience with vocab to the point that they can't get through a description of scenery, it hinders the overall mental picture they're struggling to form. I'm not sure if I'm the only one that had this problem, but regardless I did and it's one of the things that vexed me most about the book.
So overall,
Characters & their relationships? Setting? Loved it.
Pacing? Chapter length? Cover? Love story? Not so much.