3 out of 4 stars
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Quest to the Unknown by Annelies George is book one in the Jessie Golden 21st Century Earth Series. This other fiction novel can easily be described as an intriguing blend of the crime, romance, and supernatural genres. According to George’s LinkedIn page, the series is “an apocalyptic series of five,” and although the first three books are completed, book one is the only one that has been published thus far.
As suggested by the name of the series, the protagonist of the story is Jessie Golden. Miss. Golden, an up-and-coming Dutch journalist for a business magazine, recently ended a fifteen year old relationship after she and her partner simultaneously discovered they cheated on each other. It doesn’t take long for her to start dating Carlos Gomez, business mogul, and playboy. However, Carlos is not the only person who is attracted to Jessie. Is Carlos the right person for Jessie?
Moreover, when Jessie finds a folder full of information on a mysterious miracle healer named Nancy and her son Paul, she feels it imperative to further research these two strangers. Her quest leads her to various persons in different countries. Throughout her journey, our protagonist has a few supernatural encounters that lead her to question her worldview and her motives for seeking out Nancy and Paul.
This novel has a few strong points and flaws worth mentioning. The author does a great job creating suspense throughout the story. The book even ends with the prologue to the second book in the series. I was interested in finding out what happens next. Unfortunately, George’s use of foreshadowing sometimes detracted from the mystery element of the plot. Also, even though there were quite a few number of characters in the novel, most of them were pretty well developed. However, it seemed as if George was trying too hard to get me emotionally attached to key characters. There were several 'heart-wrenching' sob stories throughout the novel, but I promise you, my heart was not wrenched. One of the sob stories was repeated about three to four times, but I was never emotionally invested in the story. It would be remiss of me not to say that this is a subjective opinion. There should be some readers that are touched by the emotional aspect of this novel. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy the book because it was moderately paced, the plot was intriguing, and there was enough suspense to keep me turning the pages.
My copy of Quest to the Unknown has a prologue, twenty-six chapters, epilogue and it also features the prologue of book two in the series. The book is approximately 350 pages long and it is virtually free of grammatical errors. I cannot say the same about the formatting of the novel. George uses many scenes to construct each chapter. Unfortunately, there is not usually a smooth transition from one scene to the other. Numerous times I had to reread portions of the book because it seemed as if I had skipped a paragraph. If there was some sort of marking that outlined the beginning and end of a scene, I am sure that I would not have had any issues with the format.
In conclusion, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I highly recommend this novel to everyone who is interested in the amalgamation of the romance, crime, and supernatural genres.
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Quest to the unknown
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Thank you for sharing this Jaime. You've given this book a fair judgment.
