Changeling-Weaver Series #2 by Vaun Murphrey

This is the second installment in the Weaver series.

Cassandra and Silver are being pursued by Shiva-a dangerous being from another world. In order to save them Kal must take them to his world to be protected by his people. Or so he hopes. Will his people accept the chimera and protect them as family would, and will they live to tell the tale of these new experiences?

Having found the first book a good start to the series, I had high hopes for this follow on but found it really difficult to read. In fact trying to review this book becomes complicated as so much of the book did not leave a lasting impression. A few issues that I found negative (without allowing spoilers) were right from the start the fact that Silver had taken over the narration. While I understand the reasoning behind it, her flippant and sarcastic attitude, especially for someone her age, in one who is meant to be special, is hard to take. When arriving on the other world, they are bombarded with hatred from others. There is so much antagonism towards them in particular, it seems contrary to what has been promised for their protection . At this juncture in the book an enormous amount of new information is thrown at the reader which is only explained much later and you find yourself rereading passages to make sense of words which cuts into the flow of the story. At one stage the twins refer to a character who they remember when seeing a hair wrap-but I could not recall a mention of this character at all! The violence towards the girls and the amount of injuries they sustained seemed excessive-even during the time period before healing could occur some cuts took place at bone level yet the girls hardly seemed phased about the pain. As with the previous book, the sexual innuendo and offerings for someone so young did not seem right. It is never fully explained what happens to a male when sexually turned away, even though focus is placed on not encouraging this. The time jump at the end leading towards the encounter is not enough to justify the missing years and experiences. The singularity issue was also never fully explored. And unfortunately editing mistakes crept in like the incorrect use of where and were or its and it's. Authors write in the style that pleases them and hopefully pleases the readers, and this subjectiveness does not always bode well with everyone. A case in point were the phrases "invisible thoughts eluded me" and "she was a carefully controlled loathing cake with an icing of distaste and filling of fury"-to me this dropped the audience level significantly.

And yet even with the myriad of negatives, the series still holds promise. The idea remains interesting and with two books in the series remaining, I am hoping for tighter writing, emphasis on the important sections of the plot and a more cohesive fit of characters and ages to situations.