{"id":2696,"date":"2016-11-11T09:16:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T09:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2016-11-11T09:16:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T09:16:29","slug":"urban-fantasy-review-speak-by-r-m-webb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/11\/urban-fantasy-review-speak-by-r-m-webb\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban fantasy review: ‘Speak’ by R M Webb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I don\u2019t read much urban fantasy, but this one grabbed me from the opening pages. There\u2019s an intensity to it that I don\u2019t often find in any kind of fantasy, which tends to concern itself much more with actions, events, reactions, battles and magicky stuff. This one is all about Zoe, and is so well embedded in her head that I felt everything that she felt, heard everything she heard, responded exactly as she did. That\u2019s a rare talent, for an author to get under a character\u2019s skin so strongly.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the premise: Zoe seems like just another girl \u2014 quieter than most, a bit subdued, a bit odd, perhaps. She has trouble talking to people, and sometimes she just goes into sensory overload, and can hear everything, every last detail. She has a best friend, Becca, who looks out for her, understands her and protects her from the world. And then, one evening at the bar, she meets Noah, who has a weird effect on her\u2026<\/p>\n

Since this is urban fantasy, it\u2019s obvious that Zoe is \u2018special\u2019 but it takes a long time to get to the discovery point. By then, the action begins to get fast and furious, much is revealed and much, naturally, remains to be discovered about Zoe and the world she belongs to, because this is, after all, the first part of a series.<\/p>\n

For regular fans of this type of story, there perhaps won\u2019t be much that\u2019s new, but the depth of reader investment in Zoe makes this a special read. I loved it. Five stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t read much urban fantasy, but this one grabbed me from the opening pages. There\u2019s an intensity to it that I don\u2019t often find in any kind of fantasy, which tends to concern itself much more with actions, events, reactions, battles and magicky stuff. This one is all about Zoe, and is so well embedded in her head that I felt everything that she felt, heard everything she heard, responded exactly as she did. That\u2019s a rare talent, for an author to get under a character\u2019s skin so strongly. Here\u2019s the premise: Zoe seems like just another girl \u2014 quieter than most, a bit subdued, a bit odd, perhaps. She has trouble talking to people, and sometimes she just goes into sensory overload, and can hear everything, every last detail. She has a best friend, Becca, who looks out for her, understands her and protects her from the world. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[202],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2700,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulinemross.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}