Review by ThyraYin -- Unbalanced by Courtney Shepard

[ThyraYin]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Unbalanced" by Courtney Shepard.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The novel Unbalanced by Courtney Shepard is set in version of the twenty-first century where there exist four sisters with elemental powers, which are hunted by a secret entity. During the first part of the novel the reader gets a brief glimpse of their lives, until things go horribly wrong and they are forced to abandon the almost normal lives they have established for themselves. Growing up being aware of their powers and of the very real threat to their lives, they are trained to different degrees, but all of them unaware of their three sisters. After they meet for the first time in a fierce fight for their lives, they go on the run together. The fight, also reveals another set of players in this game, which seem to have similar powers than them. Void of sufficient information to go on the sisters decide to meet and team up with them, later splitting up on their search for more information about the entity that is trying to kill them. The novel ends in a fight with an unknown destiny ahead.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked the pacing, the writing style and the characters. The author managed to get me hooked throughout the whole story. Starting from the first page I wanted to continue reading, and I’m really looking forward to read the second novel. For that reason I am rating it 4 out of 4.

Unbalanced is the start of a series and as such, a lot of world building and introduction of new characters is done here. The background mythology doesn’t appear to be all too complicated and is served in small chunks, making the storyline easy to follow. Apart from the fact that this is a fictional story, it is also a romantic tale.

While Asha is the main character and gets the most pages, her sisters and their four male counterparts are handled as more than supporting characters. Having eight almost main characters is a challenge for every author, while I think Courtney Shepard handles it extremely well. In the beginning I thought that the characters of the girls are not different enough. They each get their own backstories and have different interests and talents and of course different elements, though there is not much difference in character and way of acting in the beginning. This changes later on when we see them in different situations and in their interactions with the boys as well as each other. There are some really great part in a few of the characterisations, which are different enough from mainstream character traits to be noticable.

The only negative parts, or rather parts that didn’t match my taste in novels were the following: First, the description of the sisters outside appearance is kind of fanfiction-like. The traits are too obvious the way they are described is something you wouldn’t normally see in a fiction novel. Second, at some points, they are too detached from their surroundings. The violence in this novel is pretty heavy, even though not described in detail, and would leave a mark on those who experience it. After the amount of horrible things this people have seen and gone through, they should be severely damaged, but appear to be nothing more than a little sad when their loved ones are killed. Maybe it would be a good idea to dial down on the violence a bit, kill less people and make their reactions stronger. The third point is only a small one. The novels plays out over the stretch of a few days. For my taste, the romantic relationships between the characters are way too fast to develop. However, there may be a lot of people who think otherwise.

******
Unbalanced
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes

Like ThyraYin's review? Post a comment saying so!