Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dust and Moonlight by Keta Diablo

Dust and Moonlight My Rating: 4 stars Genre: Erotic Fantasy Romance Format: e-book Pages: 189 Read: January 2009 A tale of love that knows no bounds, good versus evil, endearing characters and vivid imagery set in an extraordinary world. When gutsy psychological profiler Kira Barton, on the trail of a serial killer, is thrust from our current time to the mystical Locke Cress, I felt like I was transported with her. A kingdom of magic, where evil lurks & sorcerers, warriors & beasties abound. Keta Diablo brings characters to life, the extremely sexy Light-Prince Balion, Kira, named after the sun, Sirene the ethereal sorceress, loyal Jarlock & sweet Ainsley. Umargo, The Story Mage, Garrick & Gwenyth are portrayed and unveiled with the malevolence they're due. The sexual tension between Kira & Balion was palpable, I couldn't read fast enough to reach the inevitable outcome, which by the way was sizzling. Kira's amusing banter had me giggling and the suspenseful plot was a nice surprise. I did however remove a star rating for a number of reasons. The first one being, reading an e-book on my computer did not rate high on my list of enjoyable experiences, I much prefer the old fashioned paper read LOL. My other criticism is the first chapter or 2 seemed a little disjointed & I did find the overabundance of spelling errors, cliches and similes a little irritating. These small criticisms detracted a little from my overall enjoyment of the novel. On a positive note Keta's beautiful descriptions transported this reader to a magical place, (this was just one of many) a magical refuge, "a maze of rambling arbors and flowering vines, a virtual flotilla of deep scarlet and rich purple, reminiscent of the wisteria and clematis at home. Haunting aromas, a mixture of candied spices and rose attar acted like a soothing balm to her troubled soul." An enchanting love story which has me awaiting the sequel Dust & Starlight with much anticipation If you like this review vote for it on Goodreads

4 comments:

  1. You ladies rock! You did such a wonderful job writing this up. Are you sure you're not an author?

    I'm honored to be associated with The Eclectric Reader and can understand why readers want . . . no, NEED to visit your blog to get the scoop on books.

    Great job.

    My best, Keta Diablo
    www.ketadiablo.com

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  2. just read your review of Keta Diablo's DUST & MOONLIGHT and I must say I'm impressed by your expression and the flow of the review. I also appreciate that you give reasons why you like and dislike a book--hooray! Personally, I hate receiving a review of 4 or 4.5 stars and never hear why I didn't make it to the big 5 level.

    I would like to take exception with one little thing, however. You said you marked down the review in part because the book is an e-book. My own view is, if you review e-books it seems unfair to penalize the author because the book is electronic. Obviously, the story and the characters in DUST & MOONLIGHT grabbed you. Aren't they the important aspect, despite having to sit at the computer and read?

    I review too, and I try hard to judge the book on the story and not on the format or book cover or anything else extraneous. If I receive a book in HTML format I can download it onto my e-book reader, but if I get it in PDF I also am stuck reading on the computer. In that case, the best I can do is snatch my hubby's laptop late at night and take it to my comfy chair in the living room. Otherwise, I'm spending long hours in my office chair. I feel your pain!

    You explained some of the other reasons you marked down the review, and I agree—in my reviewing I reduce ratings for those same things. If an author head hops or doesn’t have her POV straight or has misspellings and it distracts me (not saying these are the cause for the -.5 stars in DUST & MOONLIGHT), those are viable reasons for a reduced rating.

    I hope you'll continue reviewing e-books because you obviously enjoy a good story and there are many out there in electronic format. You create wonderfully rich and well-worded reviews. I look forward to reading more of them.

    Anne Krist/Dee S. Knight
    http://annekrist.com
    http://deesknight.com

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  3. I can't read the review. I have this book up to read very soon! :) I'll be back after I'm done.

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  4. Thanks for your comments Dee,

    I believe removing 1/2 a star for a number of flaws in a novel, is a very generous, fair review, and proof of how much I actually liked the story line otherwise I would have marked down further.

    Spelling errors, missing words, (which I brought to the attention of the author) disjointed first 2 chapters (in my opinion), & an overabundance of annoying cliches & similes, together with my first not very enjoyable experience of reading an e-book on a computer were my reasons for removing 1/2 a star.

    I wanted to do Keta Diablo's novel justice so I made the effort to read Dust and Moonlight in the wee hours of the morning (when our internet timezone was a little more peaceful) I don't think it would be fair of me to review an e-book on the computer with the distractions of incoming emails, alerts, group messages, etc.

    Hope my explanation makes it clearer for you

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