What on earth to say about this mish-mash of a book? It’s a hot mess of episodic vignettes that supposedly tell a complete story, but feel as if they were written by several different people, and with an ending (using the word in its loosest sense) that almost reaches book-to-wall levels of annoyance.
The premise is wonderful – the heroine, Elizabeth Cage, has a seemingly unique talent to see the colours surrounding people, like an aura. From these colours, she can identify mood and other characteristics in people. She quickly learns to keep a low profile and not attract attention to herself, and she marries a rather dull but loving man who gives her the sort of low-key life she’s looking for. This part of the book is excellent. Sadly, it doesn’t last long.
When her husband dies, Elizabeth discovers that he was not what he seemed to be, and is sucked into a frankly unbelievable world of high security government research, ghosts, time travel (!) and full-on horror that was all so ridiculous that it made me wonder if everything since her husband’s death was merely a psychotic hallucination. The mousy Elizabeth suddenly becomes sparky and feisty, and her new ‘friend’, Michael Jones, is just too good to be true.
All of this would not be so bad if these events were somehow connected to the main plot, but they seem to be so disjointed that I wondered if they were written separately and then stitched together to make a sort-of whole. And then there’s the ending, which still makes me cross to think about.
This is the first part of a series, and I suspect that the remaining books will pull everything together so that this one makes more sense. I shan’t be reading them, however. Recommended for fans of the author only. Two stars.
Phew! I thought it was just me!
Very disappointed