Heart Thief by Robin D. Owens

So, remember when I read Heartmate and said I just wasn't sure of this series? Well, I've now read book 2 and have to say that I'm not going to continue on.

I can see what Ms. Owens was trying to accomplish and to a certain degree she accomplished it, but it just missed the mark. Something is missing and that something is pretty major.

This is the thing that frustrates me the most; both as a reader and as a writer. Writers who have a ton of potential and a great idea, but it gets lost somewhere in the translation. The world she's created is interesting, but I think there are a couple of things that hinder the creativity.

The first is the fact that Celta is a planet colony. Obviously, sometime way in the past, people were leaving Earth and Celta just happened to be one of the planets chosen. Cool idea and stuff, but the thing that drives me batty is that she just doesn't delve into that past at all! Here she has all this history to build on, but instead she uses weird words that she's made up and all throughout Heartmate she kept stressing the importance Celtans put on magic. Because Rius is a Null, now it's computers and the fact that the magic that the Celtans have all relied on is actually mostly a computer.

Makes me think of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern and the book where she introduced the computer just to mess with all the history she'd created. I was so frustrated with that book and I think that's my biggest issue with this book...inconsistent history. Drives me batty.

And I realize I'm coming across as harsh. That's honestly not my intention. There are things about the book that are redeemable, but it's not enough for me to continue on with this series. I know there are a lot of people out there who really like this series and I say more power to 'em. However, it just doesn't work for me.



My Rating: C-