Week 38 Review: Orenda

From Goodreads:
Join forces with a parallel universe. 

Dark forces, magical creatures, and the world Lil thought she knew collide when a dream transports her to the strange world of Orenda. Stunned and terrified, Lil comes face to face with her doppelganger, Willow, who possesses the ability to travel between the two worlds. Everything Lil knows logically says that Orenda can’t exist, but a small clue may be proof that it was more than an ordinary dream. With the threat of her sister in danger, Lil crosses dimensions but it may cost her even more than she bargained for. 

A sword wielding girl, the eternal suit, and a parallel universe come together in this action- packed Young Adult fantasy adventure that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages. Orenda is the first novel in the Orenda series.

My Review:
This was a pretty good book. I had issues with it, like sometimes the phrasing felt off, or things were explained in a way that I could understand, like I'd have some questions and it felt like I shouldn't have them, or the characters spoke weird for their ages, or for the times, though admittedly, it is a mulitverse series, with differences, but it was still annoying! My problem, is that I wanted to know what was going to happen next, but I didn't want to read it. I just wanted, like, a summary.

The bad guy, Eilith, which sounds a lot like Lilith, which could be something, seeing as they're parallel universes, was a sorceress, and then was it was thought, cursed to be at least part demoness, opened Pandora's box, which in Orenda, all the bad stuff was put back in it.

Speaking of Orenda, who names their world the same thing as a continent, or the other way around? And while naming a world/I think they really mean universe, is weird, I can see it happening in one where travel to others is possible. It's still weird!

Lil was a bit inconsistent. She was leaving, and then she was staying, and before, she didn't want to be trapped, to be able to chose what she was going to do, and then yeah, just because somebody says, and says pretty rudely and not actually answering her question, she goes off to prepare for a sword fight, which is a bit out of left field, especially for a universe that says it's more advanced their ours, you'd think they'd have better weapons, because that's what grows in ability to kill with technology!

Favourite lines: "You have a remote control in your hand." Like, not holding in your hand, but embedded in your had! Is that too cool, or what? "I am one hundred percent capable of beating Eilith in an arm-wrestling contest." Yeah, like she's going to propose that! "You want something to keep the castle warm? Try the head coming from the hell you're spawned from." That'd keep the place toasty warm! "It has wings and is flying at me. I'd say it's different!" Me, too, the weird dragons are different from humans! "Great, there were two of them now." Yeah, more trouble for them to cause!

OK, I know most of this review wasn't the most positive. I did enjoy it, it was just a bit harder to get through, and it pushed some of my "this book is annoying" buttons, of which I only have a few, which just makes the annoyance worse. Yesyes. It really was a good book!

Author: Ruth Silver
Series: Orenda #1
Read: September 19th, 2014
Source: YA Bound Book Tours Review Copy
Reason Why: Sounded good, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book!
Publisher: Patchwork Press
Published: April 13th 2014

4/5 Hearts

2/5 Books

3/5 Stars