Book Review | The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling

I was lucky to receive an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling at BookCon earlier this year, and decided to give it a read before it's released in October. The Diamond Thief is a genre-bending, young adult story, and it's like nothing I've ever read!

Our protagonist is Rémy Brunel, a sixteen-year-old trapeze artist who works in a traveling circus. While the circus is in London, the circus master gives her an assignment – she must steal a rare and expensive diamond. Rémy accepts the task, since she and her fellow circus members are all trained to steal as well as perform in the show. But as Rémy goes undercover to scope out the diamond's whereabouts, things don't go according to plan.

The story that follows is full of surprises. The Diamond Thief is part historical fiction, part mystery, part steampunk, part love story, and so on. It truly reaches a variety of genres while still forming a fantastic story with a number of unexpected turns. I was thoroughly impressed with the uniqueness of The Diamond Thief, and Gosling's ability to create an imaginative story.

My only drawback with this book is that the writing is very pragmatic. I can tell it is written for a younger audience, and that took away from my reading experience a bit. With such a mysterious plot, I would have liked a different writing style that showed instead of told. Nonetheless, I give The Diamond Thief a four out of five stars on Goodreads for its ingenuity, and recommend it to younger readers (middle school through high school). The Diamond Thief will be officially released on October 1, 2014, and available for purchase on Amazon HERE.

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Book Review | The Wolf by Lorenzo Carcaterra

I was really excited when I won an advance copy of The Wolf by Lorenzo Carcaterra from Goodreads a few months back. The cover looks amazing, and the plot was definitely intriguing.

The Wolf is a crime novel in which organized crime leader Vincent Marelli (the Wolf) is waging his own war on terror. Marelli's wife and daughters were killed in a terrorist act, and because he doesn't know exactly who is behind the crime, he decides to begin wiping out all of the known terrorists in the world until he can be sure the killers perish. In order to fulfill this goal, Marelli calls together all of the mafia and gang leaders around the world to work with him and attempt to complete his war without causing catastrophic results.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my reading experience with The Wolf. The first issue was with the points of view in the novel. For most of the story, the book is told from the first person perspective of Marelli. However, at times the perspective will switch to the third person so the reader can get a glimpse at another part of the action. While changing perspectives in a novel can be done well, here it was very confusing. It was never noted when the perspectives would be changing, and there were some chapters where I had to wait a paragraph or two to find out if it was Marelli talking or not. At one point, the story was in the third person, but one paragraph only was written in the first person. I am hoping this was simply an editing mistake that was corrected in the final copy.

I also struggled with The Wolf because Carcaterra is assuming that the reader has some knowledge of organized crime to begin with, which I do not. I found myself a bit lost at points in the story because things weren't explained, but I think someone who is familiar with crime novels regarding the mafia, for example, might not have the same issues. Similarly, I found The Wolf to be very slow-paced, and I was waiting for a lot of the action to happen for much of the book. I was expecting a lot more thriller elements in the story, but even past the halfway point, the story was dragging.

My final issue with this book is that the ending did not wrap up in a way I would have expected. I will not give any spoilers, but I did feel as if this was the first book in a new series. There were many questions left unanswered, and the character's main goal was not fulfilled. As far as I know, The Wolf is a stand-alone novel, but if a second book were to come along I would not find that surprising.

I gave The Wolf a 2 out of 5 star rating on Goodreads. While there were many issues for me in this book, I did think the original plot idea was a great one, and the language itself was easy to read. I also really loved how this book was designed. The cover, title page, and even the font page in the back was very well done. I simply wished I enjoyed the story more and could recommend it to you all! If you've read The Wolf or any of Carcaterra's other books, please let me know your experience in the comments.  

I received this book for free in a giveaway from Goodreads. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.