A Simply Enchanted Life

The First Confessor by Terry Goodkind

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I won’t lie, I picked this book up completely unsure of what to expect. Half of me was really excited for the prequel to the fantastic Sword of Truth series and the other half was a little frightened at what I may find in a self-published book. Especially considering quite a bit of drama and hoopla revolving around this book and series for a variety of reasons that I care not to address or even involve myself in. As a reader though, these things were alarming and therefore I was a little scared.

There were things I enjoyed about this book but I was also a little disappointed. The cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous! The cover model is haunting and it really draws you in and makes you want to find out more about this mysteriously beautiful woman. The plot however was no different than the Sword of Truth series and I was very disappointed that this story wasn’t more original. I felt as if I had already read the story and that the characters were simply the old characters but with new names. Almost every single character in this story could have their names crossed out with the main characters of the Sword of Truth written in. Not to sound completely snarky but I thought that while enjoyable-ish-(hey, this is my review, I can make up a word if I want to!) the story has already been done. I wanted something new and instead I felt like one phrase stolen from Battlestar Galactica would have summed everything up, “All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.”

There were also a lot of mistakes that an editor should have found before this book ever hit the virtual e-shelves. Now, I’m far from a grammar Nazi, this much is obvious to you if you’re reading this review. So, if I’m finding mistakes in something? YEOUCH!

Was the story necessarily bad? Not at all! It wasn’t new and innovative and for that reason—I’m disappointed. I can overlook mistakes if the story is so doggone fantastic that nothing else matters—cumulatively it led to some disappointments on my part. Don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy this author’s writings—so much so that I named my daughter after TWO of his characters. However, I refuse to lie and say that this was one of favorites of his works when it’s pretty darn hard to top the Sword of Truth books.

Magda has lost her husband, the First Wizard. Now she is on a quest to ferret out the truth behind her husband’s death. It outlines the making of the Sword of Truth and the invention of the race of Confessors. Despite all of the reserves noted above, I really did enjoy learning how the sword was made and how intricately tied together the Confessor is to her wizard. That much of the story was brilliant. I think I would have liked to have seen more about the invention and the development of her power rather than much of the story which I felt was far too similar to the latter books in the Sword of Truth series.

Overall though, I give this book a solid three. Not the worst rating I could have given as it had areas that could have used improvements but the last half of the book was its redemption. I won’t lie—I would probably pick up book two about Magda Searus if one were made. Largely because I would love to see her become more proficient with her powers—see how powerful she became. If you’ve read the Sword of Truth series prior to picking this one up—I think you’ll still enjoy it. If you have yet to read the series—I would suggest holding off on this one and read Wizards First Rule as your first journey to the Midlands!
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Terry Goodkind is a contemporary American writer and author of the best-selling epic fantasy series, The Sword of Truth, creator of the television show The Legend of the Seeker, and writer of the self-published epic, The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus (a prequel and origin story of the first Mother Confessor). He has over 20 million copies in print and has been translated into more than 20 different languages, world-wide.
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Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes by Denise Grover Swank
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes" is the first book that I have read by Denise Grover Swank. It is not the kind of book that I typically would pick up and read and I absolutely cringed when I realized it was written in first person perspective. However, I decided to stick it out and give it a chance because I absolutely adore the person who referred the book to me! I have to say…I think this is the only book I’ve ever read in first person perspective that I got through without throwing it up against the wall in utter frustration.

The voice of this book is a girl named Rose. A spunky southern girl who is a bit naive, okay, a lot naive and a little bit crazy…at least to her neighbors and her mother. Rose’s mother is convinced her daughter is demon possessed. Why? Because, Rose isn’t like everyone else…she has visions about the future. Nothing hugely prophetic, usually the visions are useless information that Rose can’t help but blurt out such as someone locking their keys in their car or some other random slice of life.

When Rose has a vision about dying, she decides that she is going to live her life out in a short amount of time. Whether her momma approves it or not! Unfortunately, her poor momma doesn’t have much time to worry about her new found nerve. Momma takes Rose’s place in her vision and the town suspects that Rose is the one who murdered her! Desperate to live her life before a new vision proves true for her (or before she goes to jail) Rose sets out to accomplish a list of twenty-eight wishes. Her wishes range from opportunities that she miss out on as a child, such as, “dress like a princess” to “find a boyfriend”.

On this journey of self-discovery we get to know Rose’s sister, Violet, and a hunky neighbor named Joe who seems to be the answer to several wish-list criteria to the tune of “find a boyfriend”. Something is suspicious about Joe and honestly, there were times I wanted to scream “RUUUUUUNN! And other times I desperately wanted him to be better than he appeared. I suppose an easy-peasy romance would be a very boring read so of course there had to be drama! And drama there was!!!

I enjoyed this book, so…. I’m not going to spill all the details; you’ll just have to read it for yourself. I did have just a few complaints… Since my own sister uses the term “crappy doodles” I could overlook it...the first few times. I felt it was overused in some places since Rose was “growing up” I thought maybe she would finally choose a new expletive word at some point. And then my second complaint…now I’m not too stuffy when it comes to curse words in books but I felt the f bomb was a little harsh for such a fun loving light read (well, if you can consider murder fun-loving--which I did for this story). I understand they were used by persons who would be more likely to use them but it still felt a little…forced.

Overall, the story was well written and I think the author is one of the rare people who can actually write in first person perspective and do it well. The characters had an interesting voice on paper and a personality that kept me turning the pages to find out more!

About the Author:
Denise is a single mom who lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri raising five of her six kids. (The oldest has gone off to live on his own.) She loves to embarrass her children whether it be spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen or making her teens’ friends think she’s funny/cool. *gasp* (Even if its in her own mind.) On rare occasions, she is known to post stories about her crazy life on her family blog There’s Always Room for One More.She keeps her sanity by creating worlds to escape to and characters to hang out with.


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