Review: Purgatory Reign

Purgatory Reign by L.M. Preston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Purgatory Reign was an interesting read, although it wasn’t quite everything I had expected it to be.

The premise of Purgatory Reign really grabbed my attention – it’s exactly the kind of book I love to read. I love a good paranormal read, especially when there is a good bit of mystery thrown in. Such is what Purgatory Reign promised, and for the most part such is what it gave us. However, I feel as though the story wasn’t as well done as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments where I considered giving four stars – however, as a whole I felt as though two things prevented me from falling as deep into the book as I’d wanted to.

The first issue I had was the predictability. Whilst there were some nice twists thrown into the story, certain aspects were far too predictable. Select things had me wanting to grab the main characters and shake them for their inability to see what was before them. I’m not going to say what these things are (as nobody wishes to go into a book with complete knowledge of what happens), yet I feel as though they were far too obvious and the characters far too oblivious. It was just hard to believe that the characters were so unaware of things.

The second issue I had was with the pacing. This issue is more complicated than a mere pacing issue, but I’ll address it as such to make reviewing easier. For me, things were either too fast or too slow. The romance, for example, was much too fast. I failed to feel any real emotion in regards to this part of the story – it simply seemed to pop up out of nowhere. On the other hand, certain factors seemed to be moving much too slowly. There was so much time spent on the run that when it came to facing the evil at the end, things seemed to be skimmed over. We’d spent so much time on the build-up, that when the big events at the end came about they were glossed over.

What this amounts to is the book having the potential for amazing things, but not quite reaching it.

Because, honestly, there were some amazing aspects to this book. Mainly, it was a very original take on an overused trope. It was refreshing to see the new spins that the author added; it was nice to experience something new. Moreover, the characters were really refreshing. Rather than the too perfect characters you usually see in these types of stories, characters who only have one flaw that most wouldn’t consider a flaw, the characters in this story are more multidimensional. You see real change throughout the story, and it’s a lot of fun to watch the characters grow.

Plus, the end of the book was a lot of fun. It really left me curious as to what happens next. In fact, the end of the book left me sure the next book in the series would be much stronger.

Overall, a decent enough read, but it wasn’t quite everything I’d hope for.

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