Book-Snobs: Bellvara by Jessica Slater

Where oh where do I even begin with this wonderful read? Bellvara tells the story of a half-witch, living in exile in an alternate dimension due to her mothers past indiscretions with a betrothed man. Her day to day existence is abruptly thrown out of rotation with the sudden entering of a yummy Riley - a light elf, and the kidnapping of her mother. Together with her miss-fit group of friends including elves, witches and vampires, Sienna sets off through a dangerous forest on a rescue mission. Sounds pretty simple right? WRONG! As I said, we're talking a whole new world here. The author Jessica Slater really threw her imagination into hyper-drive creating unique creatures, magics, obstacles, twists, turns and an entire history for the many species that the magical land of Bellvara holds. This is a quick read, making it a great story to pick up over the weekend. If you're even slightly enclined to paranormal or mythical, and if you enjoy a YA romance, this is the story for you! Being the first officially released novel by the author, I personally found myself wishing for the story to be fleshed out a bit. This kind of tale usually requires so much detailing and a huge history lesson. Think Avatar... that's similar to what I mean by a whole new world. Nothing is as it is here on Earth. Jessica told her tale in kind of a nut-shell version. By this I mean that she bypassed much of the 'fleshing out' that I had expected. However, she does so in a way that just kind of leaves you to accept everything for what it is. I'm typically one to dissect a book. I didn't feel the need to do that with this read though. All the nitty-gritty was laid out for me, the reader in very cut and dry, black and white and I was completely able to just accept it and turn the pages, looking for what would come next.

The only real problems that I had were minor. Sometimes the character dialogue was lacking in contractions, making it seem a bit robotic but I also felt like this isn't Earth, so maybe that was done intentionally? Jessica made up for all that with a few moments of flash humor though, when the characters would drop the s-bomb and they reminded me of something I would say in conversation with my own friends. The only other real issue I had was with the romance. A new relationship developed. While it had all the makings for YA awesome, it did come on awful fast. Again, this could be overlooked when considering the character age. At 16, it's not uncommon for girl to meet boy, and to then suddenly be head over heels in love.

Aside from those few minor hiccups, I really enjoyed the read. I think Ms. Slater will likely learn from her first adventure in writing and grow into one serious piece of awesome, so I'd be on the look-out for her in the future. Everybody's gotta start somewhere right? All in all, I'd recommend Bellvara as a quick, action packed read. But be on the look out! As soon as you think you've got it all figured it out, it switched up on you with a plot-twist. So never drop your guard!

The author, Jessica Slater has several more WIP, so be sure to look up her PAGE and check out what else she has in store for us.