Enchantment by Pati Nagle

I received this book in ebook format from the Author, through LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Enchantment

Holly Parker’s life changes forever when she visits Enchantment Spring with her older sister Madison. They hike through the woods, and when they reach the spring, Holly’s disappointed. A concrete coffin full of water? She expected a pool surrounded by flowers, birds, dancing dragonflies.

But fine. They eat the lunch they packed, and lounge around in the sunshine a while. As they get ready to leave, Holly dabbles her fingers in the water.

And sees a face beneath the surface.

The joy of first love fills her, but Holly’s happiness turns to horror when she learns that the government plans to demolish Enchantment Spring. Her passion for Ohlan — the beautiful water spirit who inhabits the spring — is so strong that she’ll gladly risk her life, standing between the spring and the backhoes, to save him.


The description does tell what happens in this book – at least until the part I gave up on it.

And why did I give up, you would ask. For starters, I didn't really like Holly, the main character. Was she a bad girl? No, of course not. But she never left the page – she was just words, and never made me believe she was real. The pacing of the beginning had a lot to do with it – it doesn't take long for the face to appear in the spring – it must have been one or two pages, just slightly longer than in the description. But that would have been fine, if the main character wasn't suddenly head over heels over this face – before she even establishes he is real.

From then on it was hard to take anything seriously in this book. There was much of Holly's research that felt badly organized, and a tad bit too easy. And then the girl goes on jumping into conclusions that were 99% wishful thinking (just not to call it delusion) on her part, and 1% logic.

I got to the point where I asked myself “Do you care about the main character?” The answer was no. “Do you want to know if Ohlan is real or not?” Not really. “Do you want to know why he is weak?” Couldn't care less. “Do you want to read about Holly's first love?” Love? That's not love. “Do you care at all about what is going to happen next?” No, not really. So that's why I gave up on the book, even though I tried, for the sake of making a proper review. I just didn't care enough about any of it.


Rating: 1 out of 5 - Did not Finish


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