Asylum (Touched by the Fae #1)

I was really intrigued by the sample I downloaded and I felt this story had great potential. Great plot and characters however the author drags out the main character\’s experience in the asylum, I felt she just wrote words for the sake of writing and found myself skipping pages! The book doesn\’t really start to get anywhere until 75%!! And then abruptly ends, I found this frustrating. Also theres not much dialogue between characters, your mainly reading inside Riley\’s head. This could have been a great start to a trilogy as I love the plot idea, however due to unnecessary dragging on and on, I wont be purchasing the other books.

I got this book after reading the positive reviews and the sample from Amazon. The writing is quite good – both precise and descriptive. The story line is promising. Why only three stars? The pacing is awful – the main character spends a good three quarters of the book trying to convince herself that something is either real or not. Three quarters of the book. I know this is a trilogy, but the purpose of a story is …to tell a story, not to deliberately draw out the plot so that three books can be sold rather than one. Seriously, this got annoying. I won\’t be purchasing the second book in the series.

I\’m a literary snob, I don\’t read YA (especially written in first person), and I won\’t touch a book with a half-naked hunk on the cover… but! I\’m a freak for fairies, so I was compelled to get this one. Call it a magical compulsion. It did not disappoint. Asylum is an excellent gritty fairy tale with a compelling young protagonist and very realistic, true to lore fae characters, on par with Holly Black. I applaud the author\’s taste and tact, as well as the obvious familiarity with the subject matter. A superbly enjoyable book! I\’m tempted to remove a star for the tacky cover (a bearded fae? puhleeze), but I liked the book so much that I give it five shining stars. Now I simply must read the rest of the series.

I’m writing this review while I’m still reading the book. I don’t usually do this but I need to say this because it’s bugging me. The writing is good,however,the heroine seems a little slow. Things that the reader realizes right away, it takes her many chapters to figure out. Then she’s shocked & I’m thinking “how did she not know? It’s so obvious”. Most times when I find myself disappointed in the first 5 chapters, I quit reading it & start a different book. But, since the writing is ok, so far, I’ll keep reading it. Maybe it’ll get better. If not, I probably won’t finish it. I’m not trying to be harsh, just honest. **Update: I did finish the book & was pleased. I probably won’t invest in the rest of the series but it did have a good cliffhanger.

Cool premise with some interesting ideas. There’s kind of a humor to the story but it’s about some pretty dark things. Riley was abandoned when she was a baby; if you’ve read the prequel, Favor, then you’ll known more of what happened, but Riley has no or very little knowledge about what happened when she was a baby. She has been through foster home after foster home, and is now in a mental asylum because she blamed the Fae for a fire that left her hands scarred and someone dead; she’s been in the asylum for 6 years. She is approaching her 21st birthday, and will finally be able to leave the asylum. Riley has had a guardian type person, Nine, who has shown himself to her and only her since she was a baby. He has told her about the Fae and warned her about the danger she’s in from them since she was young, but now Riley believes it’s all hallucinations and such. Riley has been through a lot, so she has difficulty trusting in her own mind; when odd things happen, Riley doesn’t know what to make of it. Danger is getting closer and closer to her. I enjoyed the whole premise for this story. The Fae stuff is fun and has some unique elements there. Interesting characters too! Riley has issues; she’s had to deal with so much, but she still remains strong. Nine definitely has that whole mysterious thing going on; we don’t get a lot on him, but it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll be involved more in the story. The Fae in this book aren’t really the nice type; they are more the shifty type of Fae that you really should just not even involve yourself in. Unfortunately for Riley, she doesn’t really get that option. This story is mainly set in the asylum, so expect scenarios dealing with some tough situations with mental illness. This story also ends in a cliffhanger, so you’ll need to continue the story. There’s still lots of story to be told, but I’m excited to read where this story goes.

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