3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The Karma Chronicles Part 1: Hadrian’s Seal by Pepper Carlson is the first installation in a planned trilogy. The author hopes to publish part 2 sometime this summer and is currently working on part 3. Part 1 ends with a cliffhanger where Part 2 would probably start.
This story follows Kate, a girl who seems to have inherited a daunting karmic debt from Hadrian. Kate’s twin died at birth but as she was dying she had a vision of Kate’s life and realized that Kate would need her help throughout life. So, she cried out for angels to help her in this task and lo, and behold, four Archangels came to her aid. The archangels, namely Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Zadkiel, and Uriel, assist Kate’s twin to watch over her sister but that does not mean that Kate is free of harm. Thus, what is being done to help her and why is such a stellar team of archangels assigned to assist her in life?
I was glad that I was able to read this book in a few hours. It is a little under 150 pages and is composed of a brief prologue and ten chapters. The story is narrated by Kate’s twin. There are also many beautifully penned poems throughout the book that the Archangel Uriel wrote or inspired Kate to write. In my opinion, these were the highlights of the story. There were not any grammatical or formatting errors to complain about, so I believe this was professionally edited. Overall the book was very well written.
However, there were a few things that I viewed as demerits. The author could have done a better job when it came to the character development department. Kate’s mother, Paige, was referred to as the “Genius Mother” numerous times throughout the book. She was shown to be a smart student in school, but she never finished high school to pursue a relationship with the father of her children, Alex. Alex, in turn, was constantly referred to as “the street kid”, even as a man in his 30s. The archangels were introduced as, “celestial angelic angels”.I was not able to connect with many of the characters. This is a subjective point because I believe that readers who have gone through some of the unfortunate circumstances that Kate went through may be able to better relate to this story.
This story featured Howard Wills, a spiritual teacher. I find his teachings to be seemingly positive, but it is like he wants to lead you to “the light” of God without mentioning Jesus Christ. I am also not a believer in the karmic debt so I view this book as pure fiction.
In conclusion, I rate The Karma Chronicles Part 1 3 out of 4 stars. The book was an enjoyable read overall but I cannot give it full stars because I was not inspired to want to continue the series. I recommend this to persons who are interested in a short novel that features awesome poetry.
******
The Karma Chronicles Part I
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Jaime Lync's review? Post a comment saying so!
