Visions Awakeby Dawn Hullender

per Amazon.com

Visions Awake
Dawn Hullender
Black Rose Writing
August 19, 2010
212 pages
Book provided by publisher in expectation of a fair review.




Description
Two thousand years ago, in ancient Ireland, a great evil has inadvertently been freed from its prison. Grace Monroe, a reluctant modern day witch, must embrace her extraordinary gifts and learn to master time travel in order to save the past and preserve the present. With the help of a wizard of the highest order, she must go back in time and conquer the ultimate evil. She has the blossoming love and protection of the warrior Lochlyn, but will it be enough? Having been dishonored by the beast at a young age, Lochlyn is torn between fighting the battle himself or placing his fate and that of his land in the hands of a witch whose powers are not yet fully developed. The survival of an ancient land hangs in the balance and Grace is their only hope. 
 

Dawn Hullender is a writer, a first-time novelist who has imagined an interesting, exciting story with great twists that take it out of the ordinary.  The themes are the oldest, most primal of all: good versus evil, love versus hate, the villain/ess versus hero/ine.  I found the first few pages hard to understand but chalked up to a poetic nature.  The novel got better as it progressed, it seemed as if the writer loosened up a bit.

The characters were lovely or evil,  and bar a couple characters were involved in simple archetypal relationships. But I would like to have gotten to know them better through  evidence of it rather than being told about who they were.  

While I found the story very interesting my chief complaint was in the near totality of being told what was happening rather than seeing Grace discover she loved Lochlyn.  We are told of Grace's shock on learning a family secret; we don't hear about her eyes opening wide in surprise. We are told Ireland is pretty, we don't see Grace walking through the dewy green ground. 

While I  enjoyed the story, I found the expository writing a real detractor.  I cannot help but blame the editorial staff for not suggesting the author revisit this aspect of the story or assisting, even, with this change in style. An editor can be the real difference between an intriguing story and a good novel.

The story is very complex.  I was confused at the start about whose body was where when.  Dawn has drawn a very intricate story of both events and complex questions about time, and  relationships.  If an evil entity takes over the body of someone you love is it still that person? That is really interesting to think about There was good continuity.  A little more foreshadowing would make some events less abrupt for the read without affecting the abruptness of the change on  the character. There could be a bit of a continuity problem at the very end, but Dawn is working on a sequel so it is probably an intended event. 

One thing I would suggest, and Hullender is not the not the first to succumb to the temptation of odd and hard to pronounce names. They are a pet peeve.  When I cannot pronounce something it makes me feel stupid. If you want to use an odd name spell it in a modern way that is sensible to your readers. 

I think we'll hear from Ms. Hullender again, she is a fine, developing writer with a promising future.