I am very unimpressed with this bland, undercooked fantasy.

Adrastea, despite being the main character and the one around whom the plot resolves, has little to no agency and no interiority. We never see her do or feel anything that she hasn't been forced to do or feel by either Mor-Lath (evil), who wants to marry her, or Mira (good), who wants to stop that marriage. Adrastea does nothing at all about this, just lets herself be pushed back and forth, and it is utterly boring. There's no reason presented against the marriage other than nebulous EVIL, and there certainly isn't a speck of romance in Mor-Lath's attempts to woo her (he just turns up every chapter or so to tell her that she's meant for him), so I ended up not being able to care one jot about what happened with the romance. They don't spend any time together until around the 75% mark, which is a long way to go before you get the slightest payoff!

I usually love a villain romance, which is why I was excited to pick this up, but the world-building is so weak that there was no drama or romance to be found. Adrastea doesn't seem attracted to the power Mo-Lath offers her, nor to him (when he isn't using magic coercion on her), but she also isn't particularly repulsed by him or his allegiance to evil either, so there's no tension. There seems to be one hint that there's more to Mor-Lath than just Big Spooky Evil Guy, but this is not explored, and quite frankly, I found Mira's (and the other villagers') insistence on the Light/Dark dichotomy to be poorly thought-out and approaching zealotry. There's no depth to this religion, no explanation, and for a book that explores the pull between Light and Dark, good and evil, those nuances really needed to be there. The magic system, involving intangible Lines of power, needed more explanation to provide background as to why Adrastea was so special - this felt unfinished and as if it hadn't ever been fully worked out by the author. Hand-wavy magic is a pet peeve of mine.

Added to all of that, the writing is uninspiring, with long swathes of dialogue and no vividness of image - the setting is generic fantasy village and there is no sense of the wider world. I don't know what any of the characters look like. Not one character has any depth - they have one or two basic facets that are repeated over and over, and do not seem like real people at all. There are also several instances of completely incorrect words being used (either misspelt, or used in ways that are incorrect), and there is no flow to the writing. Tenses are wrong in conditional sentences. Dialogue is often stilted, poorly inserted into the prose, and there's an odd mix of formality and modern slang, as if the author is trying to write in a classic high fantasy style but just keeps forgetting. I also found the use of 'Bugger' and 'Bloody hell' as the primary swear words in this book laughable for two reasons - firstly because they are so very British, which doesn't suit the setting, and also because they are very weak swear words in England, which are here used as if they were strong. Added to that, since Mor-Lath's realm of the Dark dead is Dom-na-gul, why would people swear using the word 'hell'? Again, there's no sense of culture or world-building in the language used - there is infrequent use of 'oh, blight' as a swear word, which would make much more sense in a farming community!

Disappointing, overall. Poor writing can be overlooked for compelling characters, an interesting plot, or great world-building, but these were all lacking too.

I think that this book was really boring, and I did not like it at all
To badly writen and the story is not that great

I went into this novel anticipating something really great. It started out encouragingly but then became confusing and difficult to stay with. I wound up not finishing because this was just not what I expected it was.

In a tiny town, an apprentice healer, Adrastea, is visited by a handsome man who wants to marry her. The only problem, he is Mor-Lath, the Dark God Mor-Lath. She is a Child of the Light, the opposing religious faction, and, as expected, turns him down, though he tries to seduce her by giving her tastes of real power. Putting on his most charming acts, Mor-Lath seduces the townspeople.

This is a fantasy duel between good and evil with the whole world at stake. Clearly meant to be a series, it ends with a cliff-hanger without the last plot point being resolved. I don’t mind cliff-hangers, but I do like a real resolution with hints of what will happen in book 2.

There are a great many characters, most of whom are not well-actualized. Those that are more well-rounded could use a bit more depth of emotion.

God of the Dark by Heidi Wessman Kneale
Actual Rating: 2 stars

This book had such a good premise. When I first saw it I thought this novel may become one of my favorites (this idea was based on the synopsis). But I was wrong. I think that this novel could have been a very fascinating novel but for me it fell flat.
My first issue with this novel was that its opening seemed rather rushed. The opening scene also seemed very disjointed from the rest of the book. To me it felt like it was thrown together after the rest of the book was completed so there was an introduction. Also the way in which Adrastea got her powers seemed very sudden and out of nowhere. I also disliked the introduction Mor-Lath. The almost instant attraction and yearning felt on behalf of Adrastea was frustrating. I personally don't like instant sexual attraction and tension I find this incredibly frustrating and I feel that it doesn't allow for realistic character growth in a relationship.
My second issue with this book was the language used. This is also a personal preference. I personally find it aggravating when a plot set in a setting similar to medieval times has modern day slang or language. I know that because it is fictional place the author can take liberties with the etiquette used but I find it hard to get into the story when the language doesn't match my idea of what the culture should be.
Finally my third big issue was the mythical aspect of the story. I found the religion, beliefs, and magic system to be confusing. The “lines” where difficult to understand and at times it seemed like the author struggled to decide just what she wanted the magic system to be like.
I think this novel could have been a fantastic novel. Most of the issues I had with the novel where personal preference issues. Therefore, I can not say how other people may respond to the plot, characters, and story in general.