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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The Voice In my Ear by Ken Newman : A Review By Deepika - Our Beloved Guest Reviewer

                                                          


Title : The Voice In My Ear
Author: Ken Newman
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Legend
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Review By: Deepika Anandakrishnan
How I Got This Book: Every night before going to bed I prayed to God asking Him to magically send some books my way to keep me from going insane. And He showered me with the two wonderful authors of this blog to whom I owe my sanity now.
Summary:
The story jumps through timelines back and forth to show how Zack Cole survives a horrific near-death experience and loses and slowly regains his memory. The secret to his survival turns out to be Layla: a 4000 year old witch who hangs on to him. Literally! She has been transformed into a living tattoo and stuck onto his back with all her mighty powers intact.  Over time she develops a strange intimacy with the womanizing Zack. Add to this confusion, a band of violent fanatics who are out to hunt Zack and a hot new girlfriend who could be “The One”. We have a boatload of problems now. Will Layla use the powers in her reserve to help Zack? Or is she too jealous about his new girlfriend to bother about his life now?
Review:
Newman tries to get your attention from the word go and his narration aptly supports his intention. It is a delight to watch Larry, the alien, hatch his plans with such glee. Plus he has nailed the Texas accent as I was quite astonished to actually hear it when reading the dialogue. Though this could be to my new experience of speaking to a Texan for five hours a day, it is nevertheless commendable.
If you think this could be a sci-fi story, think twice. It is more like a sub-genre of an urban legend. But if you are a sucker for those stuff (like me), then this is your playing field.
The living witch tattoo twist is a fairly new idea to me and the way she has been introduced was honestly quite funny. He actually turns out to be her human guardians in return for having “Larry the Angel Dude” save his life from a devastating accident. Add to this Zack Cole’s constant womanizing attitude and Layla’s temper flares. It’s quite a love(ly) game indeed. The author seems to have introduced the pseudo worlds between Layla and Zack in order to delve deep into their personalities and develop their relationship. All it does is increase the passion between them and aggravate Layla’s old ‘bad’ personality traits which actually resulted in her becoming a tattoo. That story too is quite riveting. On top of such a high voltage drama, we have a religious group of vicious members out to bag Zack’s head. Why? They think he is an…..Sorry…I am not letting out that twist here!
So many different characters are introduced but they all somehow manage to meld together to form a supernatural thriller. Be it Marci, the villainous girl who is out to get everything or Larry the rock-star Texan angel who hogs the screen whenever he is on; the author manages to pace it all beautifully. And what’s up with the farm guy they try to kill? In my head he looked quite distinguished too! Why couldn’t he have been the hero’s secret father or something like that!..sigh!!
What I like: Excellent for the senses but easy on the eyes too.
What could have been better: Probably the narrative flow could have been a bit smoother. It tends to drag at some places.
Verdict: Save the book for a cosy weekend. Have a cup of your hot beverage and try to find that comfortable position before you start reading. You won’t regret it.
Rating: 4.5/5
Price : Rs.303 (Paperback)
Book Link : http://www.amazon.in/Voice-my-Ear-Ken-Newman-ebook/dp/B00MV3717Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1-catcorr&qid=1416370731

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