DNF Review – Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1) by Lisa Shearin (2/5 stars)

I am going to be honest, I am not sure I should even be writing a review for this since I only got 70 pages into the book…but I guess that says something about the book, right?  I was excited to read this book; it was supposed to be a fantasy with an urban fantasy flavor to it and sounded right up my alley…well it wasn’t.

The book drops you right into the middle of the action, but I just couldn’t get into it.  The action scenes weren’t all that well done.  The characters did not interest me in the least.  Right off the bat there were three characters, including Raine, but I didn’t like any of them.  I also didn’t enjoy the writing style, what I read did not have a tight plot and didn’t present an interesting world.

Truth be told each page, starting with the first one, was a struggle for me to read.  I just wasn’t in the mood to fight the struggle for another 300+ pages.  So I set it aside, then never picked it up again.

This was a series I wanted to love, but just couldn’t.  It reminded me a bit of Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra, but was not nearly as engaging.  This may be one of those books that grows significantly better as you get into it, or possibly has characters that are more engaging as the series continues.  But, I just did not like it even a little bit…and I have too many books to read to spend time on ones I don’t like; especially when the book is supposed to be a light and fluffy fun read (as I hoped this one would be).

Overall, I just couldn’t get into it, struggled through each page.  The writing style, the characters, the world, I just didn’t like any of it.  I won’t be picking up any more books by Shearin.  If you want a good fantasy with that urban fantasy mystery and flare I would recommend The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara over this one; that one’s very well written and an overall great series.