Review 565: The Wandering Season

The Wandering Season by Aimie K. Runyan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Interesting premise, but the writing lacked polish. There is a bit of magical realism in the book, but despite that there unexplained moments, such as understanding people speaking a different language. If it’s already magical there could have been just a short line explaining this.

The problems, unfortunately, did not end there. Too often, from the character’s POV, the reader is told something that the character would not know. Such as at a bakery in a city unknown to her she finds pastries that were made from recipes handed down through the generations. She does not know this, can only guess, but the wording in the book makes it seem she absolutely knew.

There were many instances where this type of thing occurred, and every time it pulled me out of the story. Also, many of the descriptions were not detailed, instead explained and used general words, such as modern and tasteful, well what exactly is that? It felt clunky and awkward whenever this occurred. Also, there was reliance on too many clichés, and way too many convenient coincidences.

Since this was an advance review copy I was reading, my hope is many of these things were fixed before publication.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thanks to HarperCollins Focus/Harper Muse and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.