OASIS IN THE CLOUDS REVIEW



Oasis in the Clouds (When Worlds Collide #1)
by C. Esther
Self-Published | July 19, 2016
Status: Completed
       Niri wakes up in a beautiful garden, and finds that she has no memories. She is sure she will spend the remainder of her days there, until an unknown friend comes to her aide and reveals the truth about her personal paradise. Discovering that she is Wicca, she embarks on a journey to learn about her powers, the extent of which surprises her at every turn. She must ultimately retrieve her memories and help the higher order of witches imprison the Wicca who stole her memories before she takes the kingdom for herself. A mighty task for a woman of only twenty.
I really don't know how to start this review.

I'm not the biggest fan of this cover. I'm not big on the font, art and title choice. Not trying to throw shade or be offensive, but it just screams Indie. The art feels like it belongs in a book about a really old magic cult. Everyone is underground, very secretive, but someone infiltrated the cult and is trying to escape this weird labyrinth. Or maybe a hunt for gold in this place called The Oasis in the Clouds. The person on the cover looks like Shan Yu in Mulan. But, the title sounds like a make-believe land I used to play in-like Candy Land. It clashes and doesn't really exemplify the book, so it's misleading in a sense.

The audience for this book also confuses me. The elements in this book can be found in Middle Grade. However, the protagonist is not a teenager-she's 20 years old. So, NA? I think the author should have brought down the age range to 14-18. I feel (YA) readers will relate to character more, plus YA novels center around teen characters. It just makes sense to have some grow physically while their magic grows. Magic and Puberty coincide.

Once I started reading, I became absorbed with the lyrical writing in the very first chapter. It was like liquid and "dreamy". It had a really nice flow and I could see the author's meticulous word choice. Great attention to the writing in the first chapter. After that chapter, I think it went away. The plot was very leveled and didn't go anywhere, rather slow paced for 200-something pages. Along with the dragged out pace, the plot was predictable. Not sure why some things didn't click as fast as they should... The way this book ends doesn't really warrant a series either.

I really do commend the author for helping readers understand how Niri accesses her power. It really helped me visualize the story. It just went into to much details and repeated. That scene with the "force-field" was very interesting. It was great that Niri learned how to disconnect her magic after creating the shield, but reading it over and over was boring and wasted time. If it was stated a few sentences prior, it's not necessary to repeat the process more than twice.

Overall: Decent story and writing. Formatting is bad.

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