Kat Richardson: Greywalker

In the first novel in her Greywalker series, Kat Richardson explores the world of the Grey, where everything that goes bump in the night and more reside.

Harper Blaine is a private investigator and that role may sound sexier than it is, Harper knows that the main part of her job is a lot o research and paper shuffling but she loves her job. Every once in awhile though her job will take her into the world to arrest or track down a bad guy. This is how Harper ended up in the hospital and some broken bones and bruised skin is not all that happened to her, she actually died for two minutes and that death has caused her to come back as a Greywalker. Able to cross over into the grey and with this new curse (as Harper sees it), she feels she is no longer in control of some of the aspects in her life as she is unwilling to give herself over to the Grey. As Harper struggles to come to terms with being a Greywalker, she finds that she is being drawn into the Grey world, whether she likes it or not and she is going to have to concur her fear soon if she has any hope of surviving. 

I have such mixed feelings about this book. I really loved the premise and idea around the Grey (I mean something new in the paranormal genre is awesome), I also really like Harper as a main character and her struggles to comprehend a world and new abilities (or curse) that she never would have dreamed of; however, I found this book painfully slow and forcing myself to read it (it basically became a chore).

I think that Richardson just took things too slowly with all aspects of the plot. The novel starts off with a bang with the assault on Harper, but then the book drastically slows down after that. Part of this was to be expected while Harper tries to figure out what is wrong with her, and how much the assault really affected and changed her, but it just seemed like it was a never-ending process. I am not saying that Harper should just accept things right away, actually opposite to that, but I think that Richardson needed to pair the slow process of Harper developing her "powers", with more action and fast moving pace within in her two ongoing investigations. Needless to say, everything was just overall slow and I felt more often than not that I just wanted to stop reading this book and move onto something better (but I did stick it out, just took awhile to read). If you need a book to grab your attention right away then I do not think this is a book for you. While the first few pages are action packed as Harper attempts to get away from her attacker, the next 150 pages are fairly slow and at times it was a struggle for me to pick the book up to read it. Within the last 50 pages the book does attempt to redeem itself but in 350 page book only the last 50 are fast moving, I do not think it will hold too many readers' attention.

I was super excited to read about the Grey, a different world that exist inside our own, where all the things of the paranormal reside and that some are able to cross over into our world and some are not. When Richardson would describe the grey I was actually able to picture it on more of a grey scale look to it and you were able to feel that it was a darker place for darker being. It was the Grey and the Greywalker aspect that originally attracted me to this book. I think as the series progresses more and Harper becomes more comfortable with what she is there will be more and more interaction with the Grey and what that world is like. I think Richardson did a good job of keeping the reader interested in this aspect but just showing a peek into that world.

I really liked Harper as a character, I think that the reader gets a real sense of her struggle, her fear of the Grey and everything that it stands for, but at the same time willing to risk her life to help others out; now that is the stuff of a true heroine.

I was excited that Richardson wanted to introduce something new into the paranormal genre but overall this book fell below my expectations. It has an interesting idea but I felt like I just kept waiting for something interesting to happen with the characters, the plot, the Grey anything really and with all this waiting reading this book became more of a chore. I really don't know if I will pick up the next book in the series, this book had such promise, right now i'm just disappointed that Richardson could not follow through.

Cheers!!!

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