Indie Author LA Jones - Tales of Aradia

If you are a fan of Twilight, you will either love Tales of Aradia The Last Witch or hate it. If you have strong negative feelings regarding Twilight, steer clear of this one. While the plot line does not follow Twilight, there are some glaring similarities.

An abandoned child is found in a cave by a loving married couple who is unable to have children of their own. They have no explanation for the crazy powers this little child has, but they know that they must protect her and raise her as their own.

Flash forward about 12 years.

Aradia is a powerful witch who is sent through time to avoid detection of a group of vampires who want her dead. Blissfully unaware of the dangerous life she is narrowly avoiding, Aradia and her parents move from Arizona to Salem so Aradia can have a fresh start after her powers and awkwardness have made her a social outcast.

Surprisingly, Aradia finds that she fits in quite well in her new school except for with a group of people who she calls the "too perfectly freaky" people. This group of people seem to hang out only with one another and stare at her as she walks through the halls on her first day of school.

Having no idea why "the too perfectly freaky people" stare at her, Aradia decides to simply ignore them. These 'perfectly freaky" people are a threat, something that Aradia never considered. The master vampire had been waiting centuries to find the last witch, the child who escaped him 300 years before, and exterminate her. Aradia was rumored to be the most powerful witch ever in existence, and she didn't even know it.

If some of the descriptions and scenarios you come across while reading don't remind you of Twilight, its only because you've never read it. The similarities were so frequent and obvious that, when telling my mother about this book, I actually face-palmed myself. Now, I'm going to make an admission here that I will never admit to again. I read Twilight. I enjoyed it. That being said, I don't want to read it again.

The basic plot of the story was good. The book could have been excellent, but the author couldn't separate her style from other, overly popular styles of writing. The author tries to sound 'older' or from another time when narrating the story and when the characters, especially the vampires, are speaking. In the end, she sounds like she is trying too hard. In just a few pages, I noticed the phrase "in such a way that" at least twice. She could have, and should have, simply said "so that" or something similar.

Another problem that I found with this book is over explanation. Lots of it. The author dedicated an entire ebook page to describing Aradia's ability to control the elements. First of all, the elements described are: earth, wind, fire, air, light, dark, metal, and wood. I think there is some overlap there. The author starts by saying that she can control and create the elements, bend them to her will. She then goes on to give examples of the depth of the powers. She then described how Aradia could find her way home in her current predicament, finally saying: "This explained Aradia's assurance of her being in the woods at night and feeling completely safe." As the reader, I had already long since figured that out.

My last complaint (that I will write about) is the use of parentheses in dialogue. I had no idea that a person could talk like this. It seemed silly. A comma would have been the proper way to separate out this text.

I will say this, I was compelled to read the story. I wanted to know what happened. It is a YA book, and if asked by a teenager (who loved the Twilight Saga) I would recommend this book. It wasn't too bad, just not written to my liking and normal standard of reading.