Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was so enamoured with For Darkness Shows the Stars that I ran out to the bookstore to buy the sequel/part two to this series before I finished the first one. Unfortunately, I could not be as enthusiastic about this book as I was about the first one. Generally speaking, the writing and descriptions of the world the author created were still as breathtaking, if not more, than the first book; however, the story continued to drag out for much longer than it was necessary.
With respect to the main character, the reader could identify glimpses of the author’s struggle to bring her to life. She was presented as a good and solid personality, but the author kept insisting on her emotional conflict, which took away from the flow of the story and the strength of the character. The secondary characters were not as fleshed out in this story as in the first book and the romance between the main character and her interest was not as believable as one would have hoped it to be.
The plot kept dragging on to a point where the reader could see the story looping in and around itself, begging the question when it will finally conclude.
As I mentioned above, the descriptions of the world created, the colours and scenery were absolutely breathtaking and really were the driving force in getting me through the book.
The writing was still easy to follow, but the author fell into the unfortunate hole of over-describing every little detail, which caused some confusion at the end of very long lists of details about what these details were supposed to be describing.
Overall, I still rate this story four stars, primarily for the pure imaginative power the author possessed in creating the world of For Darkness shows the Stars. I have not had the opportunity to read the original story this book was the retelling of, The Scarlet Pimpernel, therefore refrained from attempting to base this review on the foundation of a retelling. I would suggest this story to anyone, who has read the original, as well as those who truly loved the first book, For Darkness Shows the Stars.
