Book Review: Exiled, by RaShelle Workman

Tomorrow, on the magical 11-11-11, the Dark C.A.R.M.A ladies (C. K. Bryant, Ali Cross and RaShelle Workman) officially release their novels! And today I get to share the good, the bad and the ugly pretty about EXILED, RaShelle's sci-fi romance.

Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become immortal, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family.

Now she wants revenge.

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate.

Only she doesn't know the first thing about love.

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters—alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her.

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week.

Still, Venus is a Princess and she's got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human.

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl—her.

THE GOOD: Amidst all the vampire, werewolf and fallen angel novels out there, EXILED is a refreshing and unique read. Little details brought Venus’s world, Kelari, to life: everyone's features are the same (silver and white) until they become immortal, Kelari's atmosphere is different, they have unique swear words (because why should someone on a different planet use the same swear words we do?) and, of course, the Kelvieri's Boots.

These boots fascinated me. "They were black as a starless night, soft as feathers, yet stronger than any metal ever discovered. Thrantum. That’s what the Gods called the material." Within the heels of these boots, the Gods capture symbols of a person’s imperfections. The idea almost gives me shivers!

RaShelle didn't waste time in getting the plot moving, meaning I had no problem turning the electronic pages on my Kindle. It was also great to see the story unfold from different characters' perspectives (Venus; her personal guard, Zaren; the human, Michael; the bad guy, Dervinias...). No character is present by accident, and almost everyone with more than a passing role turns out to be related to the conflict in some way. I love a book where the details fit together like pieces in a puzzle, and although this picture isn't complete yet, I can look forward to more pieces falling into place in the next book in this series, BEGUILED.


THE BAD: My enjoyment of this book was somewhat hampered by the numerous missing apostrophes, occasional clumsy sentence structure, one or two tense mix-ups and an accidental extra word here and there. BUT I am happy to tell you that I just went back to Smashwords and saw that a second version of EXILED was uploaded two days after I downloaded the first version. I haven't looked at the second version, but I'm sure the author has fixed up all those little errors I came across.


THE PRETTY: Do I really have to elaborate? I mean, look at that cover! Gorgeous!

And, for the record, TEAM ZAREN! (Yup, I have a thing for Venus's sexy guard...)

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RASHELLE WORKMAN lives with her husband, three children and three dogs. When she gets a quiet moment alone, she enjoys reading about faraway places. And, in case you were wondering, yes, she does believe there is other life out in the Universe.

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Twitter: RaShelleWorkman

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