Alinora by Kara Lockley

Back Cover

Lily had almost everything she ever wanted. Good friends, a nice house, a thriving career. The only thing missing was love. Until she started dreaming of a carefree romance every night. Her dreams were so vivid they made her doubt her sanity. Was too much time at the office forcing her stressed-out mind to create a retreat at night? Or were her dreams somehow... real? 

While ransacking the B&N Free NOOKbook section, for my second book in the 2011 Show Me The Free Challenge, I found this lovely looking book Alinora. The synopsis sounded very romantic and fairy tailed based...which I love! So needless to say I downloaded this book FREE! (making any book sweeter) and dove right in.

Sadly, that's were my excitement ended with this short story. The form of writing is very brutal and choppy. The element of surprise and build up of suspense are destroyed by the lack of variety in sentence structure. I quickly became bored with reading certain sections of Alinora because it was simple to predict where the story would lead.

There is minimal character building, just enough to be able to identify a character and what their purpose is.Your thrown directly into Lily's confusingly sad life with very little backing to give you any feelings for her. Personally, when reading any story I like to be able to relate, like, or cheer for the main characters. 

I would love to read this story as a full novel with more of a substance to everything mentioned. The story line is fun and magical. Who wouldn't love to be transported to a world you can only dream of? I have to say though I would not recommend this book as a short story for others to read, and this is not something I like to say...I would recommend it only if it was potentially to become a novel in the future.