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Thursday, August 23, 2012

"The Order" (The Gift) by Marsha Megan Stokes

Summary:
 
Peter's job as a Locator is to find extraordinary people—those with the Gift. The Gifted can sense and harness different kinds of energy and manipulate it in incredible ways. They have a heightened sense of the good that surrounds them, but they also more easily fall prey to the bad as well—to the Evil.

As a new year at Grayson College begins, Peter is thrown into a whirlwind of terror, danger, and love. Will he be able to save a newly found Gifted One from the seductive influence of the Evil? Will he be too late?

Or will he also fall victim to the darkness?
 
 
Particulars of the Book :
Published by:  Createspace
Pages:  229
Author:  Marsha Megan Stokes
Genre:  YA/Paranormal
 
 
About the Author:
 
A graduate of Utah State University, Marsha discovered her passion and ability for writing while being a stay-at-home-mom. The Order was her first novel, and she is currently working on a sequel. Marsha lives in Utah with her husband, sons, and dog.
 
 
The Dame's Review:
 
This is a first attempt at a novel in a paranormal and YA genre written by an adult and set in a college setting.  All of these things are apparent, of course.  I felt the author made valiant attempts to bring together her good skills as an author with her imagination about supernatural gifts.  However, where she fell short was a clear and current understanding of college-aged kids in this generation.
 
The writing was staged and stilted and dialog was aged when it came to the college students.  I felt the author was pulling on her own college experiences, and hadn't researched today's climate or kids.  This was a problem over all for me, and made the reading of the book difficult but not impassible. The dialog and descriptions were just improbable in sections, it seemed to me.
 
As for the paranormal experiences of the students, the concepts and imaginary situations were interesting and caused me to continue to read.  I was drawn in by the relationships they engendered between the author's characters, and felt this was the strongest area of her writing.
 
Paranormal "gifts" in an ordinary setting falls short for me in the reading, no matter who has written the book, but I thought this one had many redeeming qualities.  As a first novel, it was especially promising and Ms Stokes's book improved as it worked toward the climax and end.  I think she will continue to grow as a writer.
 
If you would enjoy the supernatural and paranormal in a provincial college setting with fairly naive students, this may be the book for you.  Although there were no student uprisings here, there were fights for the minds against Evil, and for the discovery of extrasensory "gifts."  In that sense, I believe Ms Stokes was successful in accomplishing her goals.
 
3 stars                      Deborah/TheBookishDame
 
 

2 comments:

MK McClintock

Thank you Deborah, for hosting The Order on this book tour. Great informative review!

Marsha Stokes

Deborah, thank you for hosting my novel today. I appreciate your honest and informative review. As a debut novel, I don't expect it to be perfect, and I am glad you were able to still enjoy the reading experience. Thanks for hosting!

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