I was interested in this book because it was about the lost city of Atlantis. However, I found the plot to be confusing and could not follow it. Thus, it had great potential but not well-executed.

I really enjoyed this story. You could tell the author did extensive research and wanted to get everything right. But I was not too keen on the insta-love. Completely distracted from the story. There were a few distracting parts, but overall I enjoyed it and kept going because of the mystery at hand and because I enjoyed thinking that darkness was invading the kingdom.

A story of two lovers separated by space and time, but joined together by fate.

The premise of Atlantic was captivating- a mysterious evil plaguing communities in its quest to destroy the dream-seer realms. I loved the concept of the watchers, intervening when humanity is led astray, and the variety of paranormal throughout the story.

D'Vinid was a dreamer and free spirit, led by his music and his insatiable appetite for new experiences. Bridgette could not be more opposite, her sense of duty and honor in stark contrast to D'Vinid. As the main characters, they were clearly defined and written quite beautifully.

One of my peeves with this book is the sheer volume of new characters being introduced throughout the story. This book had a LOT going on, and you have to really pay attention to the introduction of characters and their role within the plot or you could get lost pretty quickly. While I appreciate the plot within the plot, within the plot, and the need to ensure all pieces of the story are covered, keeping track of ten plus characters is pretty tricky as a reader.

Another thing I could not fully grasp within the story that negatively detracted from my overall experiences was the concept of "free-will" and its associated repercussions and the "traps of identity". I would not presume to know the author's intent but it came across as anti-individualism and slightly cult-like. Seeking to embrace free will should not lead to the downfall of society.

Despite my differing opinions, I enjoyed the premise of the book and would consider reading the sequel to see if the grey areas are covered. Thank you to NetGalley, SOA LLC and Mara Powers for providing me with this arc. All views and opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review for Shadows of Atlantis: Awakening by Mara Powers
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

First, thank you to Mara Powers and Netgalley for the ARC.

I wish I could rate this higher, but it was either boring or confusing. None of the characters seemed to have much personality.

i really enjoyed this take on Atlantis, the characters were great and I felt like it could be used as the actual myth. I hope there is more in this series,

The description of Atlantis in this book is very original and not what we are used to. There is a mix of technology and ancient history. The fashion and way of living of the habitants of Atlantis is well described and interesting. We can feel the extensive research that was done by the author, it is an impressive work, but some details were confusing at first and honestly, I mixed up a few characters also during the first chapters. There is a glossary at the end of the book, but with the kindle version it was harder to go back and forth to the glossary every time there was a new word, so it was confusing and I had trouble understanding a few concepts because they were not clearly explained in the story.

The characters were okay. Brigitte was a little cliché at times honestly and I didn’t like her that much. D’Vinid is more interesting, he also has a nicer evolution throughout the book. The romance between him and Brigitte is awful though. I understand why it happens, but it is so sudden! There is no build-up, I am not even sure that he knew her name the first time they kissed. It is insta-lust and insta-love (and insta-weird) and it was intense, but not in a good way.

Overall, the plot is good, but some parts were distracting. There is also a lot of vocabulary to get used to at the beginning, so it was confusing even with the glossary. There is mystery and I liked the idea of the darkness invading people and feeding on their negative emotions. Still, I was not compelled to continue reading this story. I finished it because it was interesting enough, but I had to force myself to read a little bit of it everyday, else it would have take me twice as much time to read it. It did not live up to my expectations, but it is not a bad book.