Review of Nimue: Freeing Merlin (Barnes & Noble Edition)

[Moira x Garza]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Nimue: Freeing Merlin (Barnes & Noble Edition)" by Ayn Cates Sullivan.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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The premise of this book is promising. It is an updated Lady of the Lake tale to appeal to the newer generations. Unfortunately, the way the author went about it was poorly executed. We start off with Nina, an American high schooler who's spirited away to Britain by her mother. Apparently, she's grown up in America but she's written in a way as though she's never even stepped foot in any of the states. The author clearly wanted this to be an English story and very British. Which is fine, but there are a lot of points where characters, even magical characters who have no connection to Earth, say things are "distinctly American", and it's so incredibly awkward. Do people not hug or show affection outside of the U.S.? The author seems to think so.
Outside of stereotypes, the writing is far too face paced and nothing is actually explored. The descriptions of things in this world are minimal. The story moves along in a "A happened, then B happened" type of fashion. It truly feels like the author loathes writing about anything other than the magic in the story, which makes the reader less than enthused about what's happening. By the time Nina starts to learn about who she is, I really don't care because of how little I know about her. I'm hardly invested in her adventures.

When Nina does discover who she is and her destiny, we get multiple chapters of her past life, but everything is crammed together. She has who she's destined to be, who is bound to her by fate, but that's all the description we get, so it feels like that's that, too bad. We don't feel any real emotion for who she claims to love and have loyalty to.

I give this book a rating of 2 out of 5. The editing is practically perfect, but I couldn't ignore the poor execution of the story. By the end, I'm happy the story is over and sad that it had so much wasted potential. The lack of descriptions, as well as how quickly events moved, brought me to this rating.

If you want to absorb a story quickly with not much extra sprinkled in, this is definitely the book for you. The premise is good enough that it would be enjoyable. But if you want true world building with characters you're invested in, look elsewhere. You won't find that here.

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Nimue: Freeing Merlin (Barnes & Noble Edition)
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