Mieradome By Kate Hegarty Review #34

Author: Kate Hegarty

Publisher: Hegarty & Co.
Format: E-book
Will Be Released On: March or April
Pages: 451

Rating:
My YA fantasy novel, Mieradome, revolves around a young girl named Amavia, who believes she is a human girl, but slowly comes to find she is a faery in the world of Mieradome. Amavia's mother, Anastasica, had taken her out of the faery realm and hidden her away here in our human realm, so that she may be protected from her parents' past mistakes. But that was not enough, the forces that be found Amavia, and brought her back into the cosmos of the Grandmother Tree. There she meets other faeries, goblins, Telkar dragons, and Utopisols. Slowly who Amavia really was began to unravel to show the truth. The truth, that she just may be the evil they need to destroy. This is where our story begins.

Kate Hegarty has amazing idea/storyline with a classic vibe to it, but it falls short in one huge area. Mieradome is about a young girl name Amavia who finds out she's a fairy and the story takes us through her journey of going from acting as a human girl to really understanding her heritage. The idea is marvelous, and reminds me of old time classic fantasy's stories. Also it's the first YA book I have read where the protagonist chooses the guy, that I as a reader really want her to choose. The two main love interests are, Garin & Cadin which isn't really much of a spoiler. Through the whole story you start out adoring Cadin, but then Garin comes along and he's irresistible. So as a reader you really become torn, and later you'll be able to understand who you think is right for Amavia (and yourself :) )
But even though the story line intrigues me I thought the writing could of been more developed. It was missing key elements that I really thought should of been in the story. Which, because of that, sort of brought the book down.
One of the main key points that I noticed missing was character thoughts. You would get a brief second into the characters head and then it would switch to description. This really bothered me because I had a hard time understanding the characters and you had to guess what their personalities were. Some characters were easier to guess (Cadin, Garin, Thewlis, Inocian) and others, like Amavia were hard. And because Amavia, really, didn't have any thoughts I had a hard time relating to her and understanding her at times.
Characters were really underdeveloped in this book, and it might be because this is the first book. I didn't really see any change from Amavia's human life to her fairy life. Also I felt that Prince Boyt went so quickly from being a wimp to being a strong person who can handle anything. Also you don't see a lot of the antagonist (maybe 2 or 3 chapters) , you just hear about her. Which made it really hard to get to know her and see her motives. I would of like hearing about her less, and seeing her more.
The main thing that bothered me and I thought should of been changed in the story is the description. I think there should of been less description. There was way to much of it, and at times it was hard to read through it, even though the book is generally fast paste. Also I felt that the author shouldn't have given the name for every character because at times that just really confusing. I think the most wonderful thing about books is that you can imagine your own world in books and the author doesn't need to describe a lot. But when a author describes a lot, it confuses and generally gets the imagination off task.
General complaints I have about the book are, I didn't like the fight scene with the antagonist. It was to quick, and outcome of it just was to unbelieveable. I thought the whole idea of Amavia trying to figure out what her mother was trying to tell her was kept to long *the end of the book* from the readers and it should of been spread out throughout the middle. The dialogue at times was a bit unrealistic, and I felt that accepting so quickly to go to another world was also unrealistic. Also I would of like less narriation, and more Amavia narrating it.

My favorite characters in the book were: Garin, Cadin & Thewlis. Though I also had a soft spot for Walji. Of course since this is the first book, not all the questions are answered. But the most confusing ones are. The book ends with a cliffhanger, leaving readers wanting more. So will I read the sequel? Yes. Why? Because the cliffhanger left me thinking that the second book might out beat the first one, and I still need some of the questions that I have answered :) !!!
So in the end, great story/plot line but fell short on the writing area.

Thanks to Kate for letting me review her book, and to see how the progress of Mieradome & it's sequel check out here & here & here !!!
Yours truly,