Book Review: Shattered (Dream Realms Trilogy #1)

Sophia Sharp

Format:Kindle Edition
File Size: 589 KB
Print Length:122 pages
Publisher:Dream Publishing (June 18, 2011)

Short, spoiler free review:
Shattered was a very interesting book. It only takes about a day to read because it is only about 122 written pages. I felt very frustrated with this story because the author sometimes failed to flesh out her characters and left a lot of plots hanging. I was drawn to the concept of the dreams in this novel and was, honestly, the one thing that really kept me reading. I admire Ms. Sharp for her creative ability, however I do wish she spent more time on this novel instead of rushing into getting it published. I didn’t enjoy the rushed relationship between Laura and Logan and the dialogue was strained in my opinion. For some reason I did enjoy Shattered . I look forward to reading the sequels to the book, hopefully it gets better. I really love this cover art as well, done by Sophia Sharp herself.
*Warning:This review contains spoilers*

Laura Cubus was perfectly content with her life. A junior in high school, she felt perfectly normal. She had good friends, a great family, and did well in school. Nothing particularly exciting ever happened where she lived, and everything was stable.
But that all drastically changes when a new student arrives at Laura's school. Wild rumours swirl about his past, and Laura becomes determined to find out the truth.
As she gets to know the mysterious student, he shares with her an ancient secret... one that may yet put both of them in grave danger.
And for the first time in her life, Laura is exposed to a completely unfamiliar world. She is swept away on an exhilarating journey that takes to a place where great destiny may yet await... and where supernatural powers run rampant.
Shattered
is the first book of the Dream Realms Trilogy

-From Amazon.com

　

Shattered was defiantly an interesting book. Short and quite to the point, I had a strong love/hate relationship with Ms. Shape’s novel. I had read a lot about this books before finally deciding to get it. There were those who “love, love, love[d]” it, and then those who “hated this book with a passion”. If I had to pick what made me buy it: the price. For only $0.99 I really wasn’t giving up much and I love reading Indie novels; I’m a huge fan of Indie/Self-Published authors.

So I gave it a try. This book had a lot of grammatically and spelling mistakes. But that aside, this book also had a strong resemblance of Twilight, which I do not hate nor am I a “Twi-hard“ searching for a new Twilight replacement. There were elements that was all new to Vampires, in my own experience, about Vampires accessing the “dream world”. I thought this was very interesting, but there wasn’t enough of it. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me start with the beginning:

Laura lived a very normal life, one that she was very happy with keeping, she really didn’t want any changes. Then Logan shows up and everything kind of happens in a blur. They get stuck together in a week long after school detention on math. Then the guy Laura was so in love with tries to rape her with his buddies- DURING SCHOOL!- by this time Logan is all super cool and saves her, but she gets upset. (I felt like there should have been more with this event, like Laura tries to talk to the guy or he tries to beat up Logan, but Ms. Sharp seems to just drop the subject after this, only using it has a bit of a gateway to get the story rolling.) This was actually a bit understandable, especially when the author explains it a little while after.( A reason why I was so torn between loving and hating this book.) When Laura tries to apologize, Logan all of a sudden is showing her his superhuman “abilities” which she isn’t really freaked out about, then he shows her the dream realm and still although she justifies that it is defiantly not “human” she still does not really seem to question what he is. It is not until the middle of the book where, from the little information she has on Logan, that she figures out that he is a Vampire. Now, I knew that he was a Vampire, I had read a lot of reviews etc., but honestly from the little we knew about Logan and what he could do, he really didn’t seem like a Vampire to me. Then when the Vassiz‘s hit men, the term is used to name the Vampire race, comes after then, Logan has to take her away, and although she has only known this guys for about 2 weeks or less, she goes off with him not once bothering to protest that she can’t leave. She does mention that she is leaving her family behind, but that’s it. Logan never attracts me. He’s a bit strange and not in any way mysterious or magical or however Sharp intended him to be. I felt like he was a bit like Edward at times, except he was a bit more stupid at times. He knew that the Vassiz Elders monitor the dreams and that he shouldn’t carry Laura, but he does for hours in the dreams world like an idiot. Laura doesn’t stand up for herself and doesn’t ever put things together. There were parts in the book that fell short and I thought could use a bit more explanation. The dialogue was sketchy and was not at all natural. The characters conversed in long, drawn out sentences that just wouldn’t end and I found myself having to reread pieces because my mind kept drifting. At times I wanted to through my Kindle because I was so frustrated (but because I love my Kindle I didn’t).

But as it seems I’m bashing the book, there are things that I liked. Mainly, this was interesting to see a Dream world. I would have loved to learn more about it, but as it stands, Sharp brings about interesting topics and situations that end in a flash. Logan mentions a Maria that he loved once, but never says more. And in the end when Laura says to change her so the Vassiz cannot track her scent, Logan hesitates for only a second before her changes her. Then the book ends.

I hope that the next two books pick up and that Sharp fills in the bits and pieces she left behind. For $0.99 I really couldn’t ask for a novel like Dark Inside or Blood Red Road. You will either love it, or hate it, or you might be like me and won’t really be able to choose.

In all honesty, I felt this book could use work. The author herself admits this so do not think that I’m bashing her. I felt drawn to the story, yet I wanted to rip it to shreds (figuratively of course because it is only available in E-book formats). I admire Ms. Sharp’s creative ability and I look forward to reading the rest of the series as well as her new book in a new series.

Where you can find Sophia Sharp:
Amazon Kindle
Nook
Blog
Goodreads

About the Author:
Student and aspiring writer. 19 years old. Born in Seattle and moved across the country a few years ago!

                                                      - Sophia Sharp's Amazon page