Publishers Weekly review for SEIZED

The prize for quarterfinalists in the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards is a review by a Publishers Weekly reviewer.  Here's their review of Seized: Book One of the Pipe Woman Chronicles. I think they pretty much nailed it.


ABNA Publishers Weekly Reviewer

Set in contemporary Colorado, this rollicking supernatural tale is a light but enjoyable read. When Naomi Witherspoon and best friend Shannon McDonough attend an Indian sweat lodge ceremony on Armageddon Day, Naomi learns in a vision that the gods have chosen her to help inspire people to renounce greed and hatred and to repudiate the self-serving Christian God. As her involvement mounts, Naomi finds tension in a challenge to her Methodist upbringing and a contrast between her fiancee, amoral lawyer Brock Holt, and Joseph Curtis, a shape-shifter. The land dispute between developer Leo Durant and medicine man Looks Far Guzman seems cast in stereotypical and overdone good-bad patterns, and Naomi's intervention to mediate between them compels her to take sides and proves convenient during the final showdown among the gods. The gradual unfolding of uncanny events surrounding Naomi is formulaically suspenseful, and Shannon's insights on the supernatural seem an awkwardly obvious tip-off to what lies ahead. However, the development of Naomi's ethical and romantic conflicts evolves logically and sweeps the reader along, even if the resolution is predictable. Her discovery of her partial Indian background and her childhood encounters with Looks Far and Joseph suggest that she has been a pawn in the workings of the gods; hence, perhaps, the title. A mixing of lite supernatural with a situation comedy, perhaps, but this tale succeeds in providing the mirthful happy ending it clearly intended to deliver.

4 comments:

Laurie Boris said...

Hmm....I disagree with some points, but not bad!

Lynne Cantwell said...

Thanks! Yeah, I was like, "Sitcom? Really?" But overall, it's pretty okay. :D

Mel said...

I think it's pretty darned good for a first Publishers Weekly review! But then, what do I know? Of course I was offended by the words "formulaic" and "sitcom", but I really liked the book.

Lynne Cantwell said...

Thanks! I'll put up with "formulaic" as long as I get to keep "rollicking supernatural tale." LOL!