Veiled Review

I received this book for free from Provided for review through Audiobook Blast/Boom in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Veiled by S. B. Niccum
Narrator: Andrea Emmes
Series: Veiled #1
Published by TreasureLine Publishing on 2011
Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
Genres: Paranormal
Format: Audiobook
Source: Provided for review through Audiobook Blast/Boom
Goodreads

"I have always existed, not just me but all of us, the un-embodied spirits who wait to live.”

Tess is an unborn spirit, who is about to embark on a much awaited journey into mortality to a brand new planet called Earth. She is chosen by the Eternals for an important mission, and is put under a rigorous training by a half-human, half-lion Seraph. This training exposes Tess to some of her darkest fears and insecurities. These experiences force Tess to work on her gift as a discerner of thoughts and reader of auras—thus helping her become one of Heaven’s most powerful angels. But even angels falter, and deep inside her a gnawing fear is growing. Will she meet her soul mate in life? Will their love be strong enough to overcome the forgetting effects of the Veil? And, is she prepared to take on the responsibility of keeping the most dangerous renegade and leader of the Fallen Angels at bay during mortality?

 Julie’s Review:

Unfortunately, Veiled did not work for me. I almost DNF’d this book twice (but instead took a break and listened to something else and then came back to it to try again).

The idea was an interesting one – a story of the Earth’s creation from the perspective of the spirit world. From the casting out of the “Second one” to the training and guardian angel projects, to finally the spirits being born as mortal beings. The fallen angels subplot was curious, but there was very little about it. I was interested in seeing the conflict between Tess and Agatha, but it really didn’t get fleshed out very much.

These are the issues I had with the book in general:
1. For the most part, the world building is infodump rather than “showing”. The book reads like a historical text rather than a fictional novel, and that is a boring style.
2. It mostly feels like an outline rather than a developed novel. There are too many things happening, but they happen quickly, now you read about it, now it is resolved.
3. Too many characters but none of them developed enough to get attached to.

Here is what I liked:
1. The scenes where our characters were guardian angels were really interesting. I liked how they influenced and helped their charges to shape the lives they needed to live. I enjoyed those stories, but they were short.

As far as the audio narration, I have mixed feelings there as well. The narrator is really good at various voices and accents, and I did like that. However, her normal narration voice is really dull and monotone. Kind of like listening to a news bulletin. Maybe that is part of my issue raised above.

Overall, I was not impressed with the style or execution of this story, even if the premise intrigued me.

 

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