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Book Review: Find Me If You Dare

FIND ME IF YOU DARE by Vicki Leigh  (Dreamwalker #2) 
3 Stars 
Verdict: An action romance. Not bad. 

As Kayla’s father plots to bring on the apocalypse, the Protectors join forces with a coven in order to take down her father before it’s too late.

This book has a lot of things I love – protective characters, thrilling action, magical powers – yet I don’t think it was quite as good as the first book in the series.

As before, Daniel leads the narration. Usually I love a protective character, but in this book I found Daniel overbearing. Poor Kayla proved her strength over and over, but Daniel still saw her as weak.

On the other hand, I liked how much Kayla developed in this book, both in her powers and her ability to take on anything that came her way whilst remaining sweet at heart.

The story seemed to lunge over a few weeks, tumbling head first into action – but with context and characters I couldn’t place. Too many names were listed for me to check off my memory, and because of that, I struggled to understand the implications of those lost and those surviving, even towards the end of the book.

Daniel leads his team on several... missions in order to stop Kayla’s father. Sometimes I wondered what their actual plan was. They seem to head to locations only to be slaughtered, but I couldn’t work out what they were trying to achieve.

Towards the end, the close-knit team of friends managed to plan intelligent operations which made the action a lot more engaging. On that note, there was a little bit too much action in this book for me. I’d have preferred a little more plot and a few more striking moments, rather than fight scenes and deaths. I also wish it relied a little more on the unique concepts which made me love book one, rather than turning to bible verses and long fight scenes.

A few sections felt inappropriate considering the context. For example, the party. So after a mission flooded with peril to gather food - and, erm, DVDs – I assumed they were low on supplies and unable to leave their safe haven. Perfect time for a ball! Well, probably not. I did wonder where Kayla managed to find a beautiful dress. Or why this was a thing. Is it a good time for a ball when you’re under attack? It’s not an utter impossibility, but I’d have liked a better reason.

Vampires were introduced at once point. They were never mentioned again.

Another strange and rather short-lived section was the tournament. This was explained in detail but, as far as I can tell, never actually happened. Much of the training was also describe in detail which can be skimmed over.

I’m quite surprised by some of the character’s lack of common knowledge, too. A witch who hasn’t heard of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Okay, maybe. But a few other ‘twists’ were thrust upon the characters which were very predictable and made the characters look quite slow.

It’s still exciting to read and dull moments are rare (you can always speed up your reading pace until the good bits come back around). I’d like to read the next in the series as it ended in an intriguing place. I recommend reading it directly after book one as it races off the start line with or without you!

Source: Thanks to Curiosity Quills for providing a free kindle version via Netgalley.com.

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