I’m really enjoying being a member of NetGalley. Keeper of the Watch by Kristen L. Jackson is my second book to read this year and I’ve given it 3 1/2 stars. It was a good read and a great start to the series. I’m looking forward to book 2. The paperback is available for pre-order now on Amazon and the book releases on the 1st of February.
Keeper of the Watch – My Review
I finished this book late last night and if book 2 had been available I would have purchased it straight away. This book is a little difficult to review because I had so many mixed feeling. It was one of those reads that creeps up on you and all of a sudden you’re hooked and don’t want it to end. The premise of the story was original and I loved the idea of jumping to different dimensions and the watch. It’s something new and I had high hopes as I started reading.
I’ll be honest, I struggled at the start with this book. I found it very hard to connect with the characters and they came across as very one dimensional. I’m putting this down to the book being mostly telling with very little showing. This made it hard to connect with the emotional element. Another problem I had was with the dialogue. It really jarred me from the story and came across so unnatural. For eighteen-year-old characters, the dialogue just didn’t work and I found myself editing it in my head as I was reading. There were words that really bugged me. An example of this was the use of cannot, I am, do not, would not, have not, etc. These were used in dialogue most of the time and I found myself wincing. Who says things like, “I cannot trust you.” or “I did not know where you were. I was worried.” These are supposed to be teenagers. There were a few occasions in the book where the dialogue used words like don’t, I’m, can’t, – it worked really well, but these were few and far between.
I found myself very disconnected from the book until I hit about 43% and then for some reason it just grabbed me and I found myself flying through the story. Once Chase and Alyx made their first jump the story seemed to take on a life of its own and I really got a sense for Chase’s character. The dialogue still sucked, but there was more action, and Chase suddenly became real. I loved his interactions with the dolphins and how he took the lead. I loved the softer, caring side of his character too. In fact, I didn’t want the story to end.
I think this is a good start to the series and I expect it to get better and better. My only hope is that the dialogue gets an overhaul and that there’s more showing when it comes to emotional scenes. It was very hard to relate to Chase in the beginning. He’d just lost his uncle, he’d been given a strange watch, and then he meets Alyx and finds out that’s he’s a keeper. It’s a lot to take in but it doesn’t seem to phase him at all. He goes to work and flirts with the girls. His house is broken into and ransacked and again there is no emotional display. He doesn’t slump to the ground in despair, he doesn’t scream, he hears the doorbell ring and opens the door to his best friend. This was the first scene where the dialogue really sucked. Two teenage guys just don’t speak like that to each other.
Like I said, this was a hard book for me to review. There was lots of repetition in parts, the dialogue really needed a rewrite, and there was too much telling and not enough showing, and yet even after all of that I would have jumped straight into book 2. The book just took a hold in the second half and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
I’m giving this 3 1/2 stars because of the issues with the dialogue, but I know I will be reading the next book when it comes out.
Until next time,
Keep reading and writing,
Amanda
Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author and writing coach. Amanda writes adult romance that often crosses into paranormal and fantasy. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012.
