Independent Book Review: The Carnelian Legacy by Cheryl Koevoet

The Carnelian Legacy - (link to Amazon)

I recently read The Carnelian Legacy by independent author Cheryl Koevoet. I've been planning on starting a series on independent authors because they do deserve more attention and credit for the works they publish. Unfortunately, there are bad ones out there that give independent author's a bad reputation, but many other excellent stories do exist.

The Carnelian Legacy is a YA romance. I would actually be more specific and say it's a YA Christian fantasy romance. It isn't overly heavy on the Christian aspect, which I appreciated. It's there, and there are a few times where Marisa prays, but it isn't a main aspect of the story.

The Carnelian Legacy is about a girl named Marisa MacCallum, 17 about to be 18. She ends up in a different dimension that is sort of "medieval" in nature and has no real hope of ever finding her way back home. She meets Darian and Arrie, whom she travels with after they discover her. Marisa falls for Darian and meets a rival of Darian's to the throne, Savino da Rocha. The rest of the story is about her struggle to not fall for Darian, as he is royalty and could never be with her, and also a struggle for her how to best proceed with her life in this new land.

That's the gist of the story, without spoiling anything. If you followed my updates on Goodreads while reading this story, you'll know that I struggled with it a little bit. For about 65% of this book, I found Marisa very hard to like. This is a problem, considering she is the main character. I liked Darian and Arrie, and all of the other characters that you are supposed to like along the way. Marisa, though, was hard. I couldn't stand her. She asked questions of Darian and Arrie, and then asked them again, but phrased differently. Or she would not ask questions when I thought it was more appropriate. For example, when she first finds herself in a new dimension with two strange men and they start to explain where she is, she doesn't think to ask how these two know so much about parallel universes. She does ask, eventually, but it seems too delayed. I know if I were in that situation, one of my first questions would be, "Wait. How do you know all of this?" Especially considering the type of land Carnelia is supposed to be. Also, she repeatedly spoke without thinking and didn't consider how her words would affect someone.

It also kind of irritated me that it took so long for Marisa to show any real concern that she would likely never see her family again. Koevoet briefly touches on it, but it isn't until chapter 9 that Marisa really expresses any worry that she's stuck in Carnelia. I suppose all of the things that annoyed me about Marisa could be considered typical teenage behavior, since she is 17 at the start of the story. However, I've read so many books with teenage characters and the only one who bothered me more than Marisa was Bella from Twilight.

That all being said, though, it wasn't until I was about 65% into the book that it dawned on me that Marisa wasn't annoying me as much. Her character finally seemed to be progressing. There was still a moment or two where I literally either thought, or said out loud, "WTF?" I don't want to include spoilers here, so I'm not going to explain what it was that made me think or say that. But it just seemed so out of place for her character. It was a brief moment though. I became more engrossed in the story, finding it harder to put down. I would stay up later to read as much as I could, even though I had to go to work early the next morning.

There is definitely a plot twist that I did not see coming! I had my theories, about 2 or 3 different possibilities as to where I could see the story going. None of my theories were right. I think it would be possible for someone to predict how the story turned out, but I didn't expect it to end up the way that it did. By then end, I wanted to read the next one in the series (The Carnelian Tyranny). Up until that 65% mark, I was fully planning on giving this a 2 star review. However, that last 35% bumped it up for me a full star. I would give this a 3 out of 5 stars. I wish the story would have hooked me a lot sooner, but the ending gave me hope that Koevoet really found her groove and that her next book would be better. I can say with confidence that, despite my criticisms, I look forward to reading the next one in the series and finding out what happens in the world of Carnelia!

Cheryl Koevoet

*I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.