Comments from my Readers

Its so awful when your book is published and you enter a period of intense trepidation wondering if any one will read it, and then as soon as the sales start flooding in you worry about if anyone will actually enjoy it. Finally the comments and reviews arrive and this is the point I am at now.  I am overwhelmed by the positive comments I am getting from readers and the joyous feeling of realising that many months of hard work has been worth it. People are enjoying my creation and it makes me happy!  Now I have to deal with the pressure from readers who want the next book to read NOW.  I guess I better get on with it then.

Comments so far:

Comments from reader S.D.

Just butting in here to say that I've just finished the book :D I got to the end and tried desperately to make the next page appear. PLEASE let me know when the next one is out I neeeeeeed to read it. 

It flows so well and I couldn't stop reading!

Comment from reader L.C.

Chilling out in bed reading my new book written by the fab Karen Wrighton. Really enjoying it so far only started yesterday and hooked in already!

Comments from reader D.D.

Hey Karen Wrighton, finished it today. I was engrossed throughout much if yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it! You've created an excellent universe and there's loads of potential for the storyline! Some really interesting mechanics were explored and I like the history of the afterlands.

I'd love to see more character development. You've got some great characters but I'd like to see more interaction with one another so I can see how the relationships change and develop over time. I picked up on some hints that Arjan and Rose might have had something blossoming but nothing overtly told me so. Plus other than being older and a bit more knowledgeable about the afterlands, I don't think I got to know Arjan very well. I got the feeling that Auriel and Rose were close friends but there wasn't much interaction to tell me that either. Lee and Ash's friendship would have been cool to see develop too since they are such contrasting characters-they started off not really liking one another and then they seemed to be good friends within the space of a chapter.

Most first books struggle to get the right amount of set up and action, but I think yours had a nice mix. I expected the whole book to be at the Oratory as set up for the next book, but things escalated much faster than anticipated! (Readers not being able to anticipate a book is pretty important; a part of the reason game of thrones does so well!) I look forward to the twists and turns of the next episodes :)

It was nice to see some motivations for the 'bad characters'. Racial inequity being an actual problem in the after lands, you can almost sympathise with Ka's cause...well..before the assimilation anyway. I hope that you'll return to those motivations and give us some interesting dillemas for Rose :)

Don't be afraid to 'not answer' or resolve some plot points from one book to another. The intrigue will lead us readers to become more engrossed. Roses lack of power at the beginning or Kas resurrection could have been stretched out further so as to develop this intrigue and also develop the characters. 

That's it from me. Really well done on a really promising first book! The obvious comparison would be to Harry Potter, and I enjoyed this more than philosophers stone or chamber of secrets! So you're ahead of the game ;)

The big question being...how long until the next one? ;)

Amazon Review

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely promising start to what's likely to be an addictive series, 22 Jun 2014

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This review is from: Ascension of the Whyte (The Afterland Chronicles Book 1) (Kindle Edition)

I thought I'd read this book over the summer in a tidbit fashion...ended up engrossed and finishing it off in a frantic weekend of book reading!

The author has created a great universe and has a set of interesting characters that I look forward to seeing develop over the series (there better be more books after this one! I need more!) From my limited experience of fantasy literature I thought I detected some influences from J.K.Rowling and Robert Jordan style fantasies.

Fast paced and fun. 4\5 and not 5\5 merely because I wanted more character development. I imagine future books will explore the relationships between the core 4 characters more, as well as the motivations of other characters, including the supporting 'evil' and 'good' characters.

Looking forward to the next installment!