Review: Truthseeker by C.E. Murphy

Title: Truthseeker (Worldwalker Duology #1)
Author: C.E. Murphy
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: August 31st, 2010
Word/Page Count: 336 pages
Format: Purchased

ACROSS TWO EXTRAORDINARY WORLDS, TRUTH IS THE DEADLIEST MAGIC

Gifted with an uncanny intuition, Lara Jansen nonetheless thinks there is nothing particularly special about her. All that changes when a handsome but mysterious man enters her quiet Boston tailor shop and reveals himself to be a prince of Faerie. What’s more, Dafydd ap Caerwyn claims that Lara is a truthseeker, a person with the rare talent of being able to tell truth from falsehood. Dafydd begs Lara to help solve his brother’s murder, of which Dafydd himself is the only suspect.

Acting against her practical nature, Lara agrees to step through a window into another world. Caught between bitterly opposed Seelie forces and Dafydd’s secrets, which are as perilous as he is irresistible, Lara finds that her abilities are increasing in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. With the fate of two worlds at stake and a malevolent entity wielding the darkest of magic, Lara and Dafydd will risk everything on a love that may be their salvation—or the most treacherous illusion of all.

Maniai’s Review:

It took me a while to get through this book. Like all of my reviews, I won't bother with a summary, since you can read what the book is about by the blurb.

Ultimately, it's a compelling enough story that I do want to read the second book and find out how it all ends. I think the story itself is good. The problem is in the writing itself.

NOT that it's horrible, writing-wise. But there's apparently a romance here and I just don't feel it. Largely because I don't care about the heroine or the hero, for that matter. I don't hate them, but I don't really feel for them or even like them all that much. This wouldn't be a deal-breaker if the story was just a straight-up urban fantasy, but the result of the characterizations is that the romance is unconvincing. When it happens, it's shoved in my face, very suddenly and too fast, like it's making up for the nice, gradual trickle of romance that builds a relationship I can believe in.

The second major issue I had with the writing is that there are long passages that are frankly too precious. They should have been cut. Too much exposition about Lara's power and the "music" she hears and the universe. OKAY, we GOT it the FIRST time around. I don't need three more pages of that stuff in the middle of the last battle.

There were also passages where the dialogue and narration almost seemed to toy with the fourth wall. It's kind of a turn-off for characters to point out to me that a conversation is pointless or rambling or random. It just reads like filler, or like the writer got lost on a meandering path and someone (her editor) failed to stop her.

All in all, though, I liked the story at its core. I picked it up because it had fae and Boston. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much of Boston itself. Mention of a famous diner and a couple streets on the map doesn't make a recognizable setting - it could have been anywhere. Also, even though technically "Seelie Court" can apply to all things fairy, elven, pixie, gnomish, etc., it irked me that the author used "elf" and "fairy" interchangeably.