Book: A Study in Drowning

 Book: A Study in Drowning

Author: Ava Reid

Pages: 384

This is my 52nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales.  She's had no choice.  Since childhood, she's been haunted by visions of the Fairy King.  She's found solace only in the pages of Angharad - author Emrys Myrddin's beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King and then destroys him.  Effy's tattered, dog-eared copy is all that's keeping her afloat at Llyr's prestigious architecture college.  So when Myrddin's family announces a contest to redesign the late author's estate, Effy feels certain this is her destiny.  But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit house on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea.  And when Effy arrives, someone else has already made a temporary home there.  Preston Heloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin's papers and is determined to prove her favorite author is a fraud.  As the two rivals piece together clues about the reclusiv author's legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them - and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

This book wasn't good.  I know it is YA, but I was hoping from reading the premise that I was going to like it.  And it is a beautiful book on the outside - gorgeous cover and binding.  But that is where the beauty ends.  The writing is terrible.  The story was so choppy, I should have quit reading it.  It has moments where I thought it might redeem itself - the story IDEA is a good one.  But it never did because the writing did not improve.  The main character is very weak and I did not ever feel connected to the characters or the story.

Stars: 2