A Simply Enchanted Life

Mark of the Princess by B.C. Morin

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

They say you can’t judge a book by the cover. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that I have learned with this book. The cover really is gorgeous and intriguing.

When I had the chance to read this book I wasn’t sure what to think.

Had I realized that it was self-published, it would have probably been a deal breaker from the start as I’ve found the quality of self-published books to be lacking. That was certainly the case with this book.

To be honest, I am very shocked and surprised at the 4-5 star ratings for this book. A one star review is very generous but unfortunately that is the lowest rating that is allowed. The grammar is atrocious. Sentence structure is terrible and it only gets worse from there. If you’re reading this review, you can probably tell that grammar is not my strong suit. So, if I’m saying it is bad? It is very bad. There were misspelled words such as “new” instead of “knew” or “past” rather than “passed” and even words that are incorrect such as “thrusted”. A person may have thrust their sword into someone. They didn’t “thrusted” it.

The most epic mistake however had to be this one, “A stocky troll spoke stood at the doorway looking at the floor.” I had to have read that four times or more before I realized that the stocky troll said something rather than imagining a troll-sized bicycle spoke as it leaned against a doorway. I don’t know though—sword belt and holsters were pretty funny as well.

It was if the author had never read a fantasy novel to know about sheaths, scabbards or baldrics. This book could have definitely used an editor. Really, anyone with a high school education could have been employed to clean it up a bit. Needless to say, though the story ended in a cliffhanger—I will not waste my time decimating my brain cells any further with this series. My grammar is bad enough without reinforcing it.
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This story idea could have actually been very interesting. It follows Allanah, a fae princess as she tries to unlock the secret of her "Mark". In this story all of the fairies are born with a mark that tells what their predetermined powers are. All fairies may master new traits and expand on their own. The most decorated fairies are those that have trained hard to further their skills and traits. I thought that concept was interesting and would have liked to have read a well written version of this idea.

As per most fantasy stories—there is a bad guy who is set on the destruction of all the other fairies. Maligo captures Allanah in an attempt to wield her power but fails at his goal when she is rescued by a warrior fairy named Brennus.

In terms of an actual story line, there is a princess, a sister with a possibly sinister past and an intriguing love triangle. The idea was a cool one but it was poorly executed. Perhaps if this author had a professional editor go through it and rewrite the entire story it could be salvaged. I wish I could really delve more into this storyline for you all but I feel it is a waste of my time. The story had far too many shortcomings for me to ever suggest this book to anyone so a thought out story description seems in vain. Live and learn! Always thoroughly check out a book before agreeing to read it!



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B.C. Morin was born in Miami Florida and has been writing since middle school. Starting with poetry she moved on to short stories and began her first novel by the time she graduated high school. It was actually in her late twenties that she developed a stronger love for reading and writing which eventually unfolded into her debut novel Mark of the Princess. B.C. is currently hard at work on the rest of The Kingdom Chronicles trilogy and a new Paranormal Romance named The Abiding.

I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.