“Stars. Bright and shiny. Falling from above to crash and burn”

Unveiled is a YA Fantasy filled with mystery, deception and has that eerie small town quality throughout. This is a self-published first book to a series, and I was kindly invited by the author to review the book in exchange for an honest review.

Luxor Everstone wakes up from a coma after nearly killing her best friend in a fit of rage. She feels not quite herself. Everything is different and Luxor is trying to adjust. Moved to a small town for rehabilitation, Luxor starts afresh at a new school. But, trouble looms as mystery and strange events surround Luxor, and things are not as they appear.

This book definitely has an eerie, mysterious quality right from the get-go. For me, this constant mystery that doesn’t unravel until the very end is the strongest part of the book. Even from the earliest chapters you can tell that all the characters know more about Luxor than they let on, and seeing Luxor puzzle this out is intriguing.

Bearing in mind to all potential readers, Unveiled is very strongly suited to the YA Fantasy genre and reminded me of books like Twilight and Fallen. As I’ve always been a fan of Twilight in particular this wasn’t a problem for me, but, I acknowledge the tropes found in YA are not for everyone. I enjoyed the book, but I can also see I’m not the exact target audience. Rather, I was just reading to enjoy the ride, and I did enjoy the twists and turns.

Luxor was probably the most interesting character for me. I liked the situation she was in and how she was trying to figure things out, while being increasingly freaked out about what was happening around her. She is angry, conflicted and second guessing who she trusts. Admittedly, it took me some time to warm to Hunter and found his early dialogue difficult, but then, I’m not normally one for the bad boy – I tend to go for the sweeter ones. 

The main issues I found in Unveiled were not the story itself. The problem was – and this is true for many self published books – there needed to be a stronger beta reading and editing phase to pick up errors and inconsistencies. Unveiled is a large manuscript and there were numerous errors and typos that could’ve been better picked up, and the timeline that Luxor was in from start to finish of the book was not immediately clear to me as a reader. I hope there’s a revised edition in the future that straightens this out.

I am, for the most part, someone who likes to read a mixture of traditional and self published books. I like that self published books aren’t afraid to deviate from accepted story styles and may also tell stories in different ways. The plot structure of Unveiled is a little like a gradually uncoiling rope, and I liked that I kept trying to guess when the big reveal was going to happen.

Unveiled is a strong story and has the potential to be an interesting series. I would definitely encourage the author to strengthen the beta reading and editing phase in the subsequent books, as that will only add to the series’ strength. I will keep an eye out for the next book in the series, Betrayed to see where Luxor goes next.