Review: Struck by Amanda Carlson

Struck

Author: Lisa Desrochers

Release Date: May 24, 2016

Publisher: Self-Published

Phoebe Meadows Book #1

ISBN13:  9780990392880

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Review Copy Source: Author

When Phoebe Meadows gets struck by a strange light in the stockroom of Macy’s, life as she knows it flies out the window. As if being hit by lightning isn’t bad enough, she’s accosted in the subway by a man with a missing hand, arrives home to find a raven on her kitchen counter, and her neighbor, Ingrid, shows up dressed like a gladiator hell-bent on protecting her.

Before Ingrid can shuttle her to safety, Phoebe is kidnapped and tossed into one of the Nine Worlds where she’s quickly forced to come to terms with what she is: A valkyrie. The only problem is, she has no idea what that means.

After a narrow escape, she finds an unlikely ally in Loki’s son, Fenrir. Together the valkyrie and the wolf must battle their way back to New York City and reach the valkyrie stronghold where Ingrid is waiting for her. But with danger and obstacles at every turn, she might not live long enough to learn the full truth about who and what she really is…

I really hate that I didn't love STRUCK. It had such a great idea going in, but there were some pretty big issues that kept me from falling in love with the storyline and characters.

I liked the characters enough that I wanted them to make it to the end of STRUCK. Phoebe, although kinda foolish, had an interesting background to learn. I probably would have loved her if she wasn't so ridiculously unwilling to see and believe what was right in front of her face. Because she was so adamant that everything was some huge mistake or joke she got in more trouble and did the stupidest things that I'm surprised she made it past the first couple of chapters. I liked Fenrir and don't really have any big complaints about his character. He seemed to make good decisions and did a good job of protecting Phoebe. There were a few other side characters that seemed to have decent heads on their shoulders as well. The relationship between Phoebe and Fen had it's moments, but I didn't feel there was enough development involved. It was more of an insta-love situation and I thought they needed to grow a bit more than they did for the amount of feelings they were feeling. 

A lot of the dialogue just about killed me. Not only is most everything way over explained, but it felt fake and somewhat forced a lot of the time. The whole book wasn't like that, but enough of it was that it totally ruined the flow for me.

The action is one thing that STRUCK didn't lack. There is danger and fights around every corner of the book which left the characters with very little down time. There were a lot of different nookes and crannies in the world that Carlson created in STRUCK and they were all very well built. I had no problem imagining I was there.

The biggest bummer I had with STRUCK is that I didn't feel the need to read book two when it was over. That is something that I look for in every book I read and if you don't feel that urge it's hard to want to put the next book on your wishlist. Unless I see some reason that will make me think that book two will fix some of my biggest issues —I really do hope I do see something because this series has great potential—, I don't think I will be reading it.

I gave it 2.5/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.