REVIEW: Bells of Avalon by Libbet Bradstreet

Bells of Avalon
by Libbet Bradstreet

Publisher: self
Page Count: 250
Release Date: July 26, 2015
Format: Kindle

How got: personal library; via Amazon

First attention getter: synopsis; read @ author's request

Synopsis:

From GoodReads:

Hollywood--Where they'll pay a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul...

Thrust into a limelight she never chose, Katie's been paired with Danny for as long as she can remember. Films, roadshow tours, and drugstore appearances...post-war Hollywood can't seem to get enough of the sweetheart team. They'll even fall in love one day. But young love seldom survives the fog wake of Los Angeles--a place of dreams and nightmares.

My Thoughts:

Star Rating - 2

This book was ultimately disappointing to me. I looked forward to the time period and setting; I’ve read limited works from both. However, the story got very muddled very quickly and I couldn’t connect with the characters at all.

The author does put forth an effort to bring her world to life, with some success. It was interesting to see the lives of the child stars in different stages of their lives, both professionally and personally. The struggle to keep the personal as such and still put forth that “star” image that was so important in the ‘40s and ‘50s was an interesting dilemma to explore. The author does a good job in exploring this area.

However, I quickly lost all rapport I had with Katie, Daniel, or anyone. I think this is connected with how I got lost and bored in the story overall. There is a plethora of sentence fragment, run-on/complex sentences, and time jumping that left me shaking my head more than once. This is an artistic way of writing that works sometimes, but sadly in this work it didn’t work.

There are also occasions where the author will jump into and out of a character’s mind with no transition from a descriptive or action scene. Suddenly we’re exploring how the character sees something, an event or emotion, where before we were reading something completely different. Commonly, this’ll happen in mid-paragraph! Personally, I found this trait very jarring.

Ultimately, this book was a mixed bag. Effort was made to bring the book to life in setting and world-building. Yet, characters I couldn’t connect with and a jarring writing style made this book not for me. Someone else may like it better. I can’t give more than two stars personally.

Note: Book reviewed at request of author.