Yvonthia Meredith Leland – She Just Loves Books

I came across this book on Amazon and like I often do, grabbed it based on the cover alone. I highlight my e-books using the kindle notes and was already highlighting after the first paragraph. I’ll go into detail on that below, but after trudging through this book that was just WAY too long, I wrote the below review and provided my rating. After I write a review, I always check out other reader’s reviews. I like to see if others had similar feelings, etc.

I stumbled across a Goodreads review where the author of this book attacked the reviewer for a one-star rating. That took me down an absolute rabbit hole. I found that the author used her Goodreads Author page to discuss her displeasure with reviewers and is still using Twitter as a platform to call out “Goodreadstrolls” etc. I am appalled at this author’s behavior and actions towards reviewers. I almost deleted my review, but have decided to post it as is. I have added this section for awareness.

I went back and re-read the Amazon description of this book, and the author has brought her issues with reviewers into the description of this book, which is so unprofessional. You can find that here. Overall, this is the very last book I will ever be reading by this author. Her unprofessional conduct has turned me off from her and her writing.

So, with all of that off my chest . . . on to the review!

How I Felt:

The Length: This book is SO long. This is my 4th book with more than 1,000 pages (based on goodreads page count as I read an e-book). Two of those books I rated a 4 star, so I know I can enjoy a book this long, however, this book did not need to be this long. There were so, so many times that I wanted to take a red pen to the lines and start crossing out things that were not needed. This book needs to be edited down dramatically. It would not impact the story, but it would make the story so much more enjoyable to the reader.

The Writing: I’m going to break down my issues with the writing below. Overall, I found it repetitive, oddly worded, and overly descriptive. All of this led to the book being too long and left me feeling like the book didn’t go anywhere.

Repetitious writing: There were so many areas of the book where each sentence was started the same. It felt like a very juvenile writing style.
Example: “The wagon traveled steadily along the country path. The bright sun was shining over the expansive terrain. The green grasses and wildflowers were swaying in the warm breeze. The leaves on the trees were swirling overhead above us.” – The Wrythe and the Reckoning by Yvonthia Meredith Leland

Choice of Wording: The writing felt odd. It was like it had been written hundreds of years ago, rather than today. I understand that the time frame of the book is not today, however, the way this was written made it so difficult to stay in the story.
Example: “Following her careful observation of the shoes, she stared about at my head, of which I had gathered my hair upward and tied it with a yarn.” The Wrythe and the Reckoning by Yvonthia Meredith Leland
Why couldn’t it have been written, “She looked at my shoes, and then my hair, which I had tied with a yarn”?

Example: “About there was a large widow, which was situated next to the back door, on the left of it.” The Wrythe and the Reckoning by Yvonthia Meredith Leland

Example: “Like for the other newspapers he had applied to, he had applied also at Boston Times to work as a journalist.” There are so many more examples, but you get the idea.

Overly Descriptive: The descriptions used in The Wrythe and the Reckoning seem to go on for ages and I can’t figure out why they were important to the story.

Example: “Even though our grandparents weren’t wealthy, they appreciated everything they had. My grandmother was happy to lend out some of the items from her home, but she was also persistent about getting them back. our tea kettle had become worn out and developed a hole in the handle attachment, in such a way that we could no longer hold it by the handle to pour out the contents. So we borrowed the one from Grandmother and Grandfather’s house. We had planned to use it until we got another one, but I suppose it had been a while and they missed it. After all, we had kept it in our house for several weeks since then. we would now be using a regular pot to make tea and coffee until we bought a kettle of our own.” The Wrythe and the Reckoning

It took 136 words to say, “We borrowed my grandparents tea kettle and they wanted it back.” Additionally, it meant absolutely nothing to the story.

Flashbacks to Flashbacks: There were so many flashbacks in this book. We would have a flashback, and then have another flashback in the flashback. It became extremely confusing and difficult to follow.

To Read or Not To Read: I would not recommend that anyone read this book in its current edited state. It needs to be edited significantly before readers should have it in their hands.

The Wrythe and the Reckoning by Yvonthia Meredith Leland
Book 1 of The Wrythe and the Reckoning Saga
Page Count: 1286 pages
Publisher: Reverie Ardent
Pub Date: December 4, 2019