Review – Feast by Merrie Destefano

Publisher: Avon
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: NetGalley

Madeline MacFadden (“Mad Mac” to fans of her bestselling magical stories) spent blissful childhood summers in Ticonderoga Falls. And this is where she wants to be now that her adult life is falling apart. The dense surrounding forest holds many memories, some joyous, some tantalizingly only half-remembered. And she’s always believed there was something living in these wooded hills.

But Maddie doesn’t remember the dark parts — and knows nothing of the mountain legend that holds the area’s terrified residents captive. She has no recollection of Ash, the strange and magnificent creature who once saved her life as a child, even though it is the destiny of his kind to prey upon humanity. And soon it will be the Harvest. . . the time to feast.

Once again Maddie’s dreams — and her soul — are in grave danger. But magic runs deep during Harvest. Even a spinner of enchanted tales has wondrous powers of her own.
*Blurb from Goodreads*

Let me start by saying that Destefano has some of the most amazing ideas. Her concepts for both Feast and her Sci-Fi Series The Resurrection Chronicles blow my mind. For me though, the execution just didn’t work.

Feast follows the story of a small town set in the mountains. The locals are aware of the legend of the shape shifters that come out to hunt and harvest once a year. Those towns folk with vivid dreams and nightmares are the most sought after by the creatures, and Maddie has some of the most intense dreams anyone has ever seen.

But Ash runs the mountain, and he isn’t about to let someone else get their hands on Maddie. From the moment she was a child he was fascinated with her, and now that she is back he isn’t prepared to let her go. But nefarious forces are in the works, and someone is out to show Ash that he can’t be in charge for ever…

This book was very, very hard for me to get into. Told from about 5 different points of view, I never felt like I was able to relate to any of the characters. Each “chapter” averaged only a few short pages, so by the time I got into the character and felt like I could relate, we immediately switched to another character. It chopped up the book and had me feeling as if I was watching a tennis match, my head constantly bobbing to and fro.

The premise of the story was very different and dark and exciting, but again I had a hard time getting into it. While we really got to see the full spectrum of what happened in the time line, the constant jumping around almost had me loosing some of the details. I found myself scratching my head at times, wondering why certain character POV’s were included and/or necessary, and it really took away from the story in my opinion.

There was a small romantic element between Maddie and Ash, but it didn’t come out until the very end, and to me felt sudden and forced. Sure Ash had always cared about her, even when she was a young girl, but his pain from a previous loss made his sudden love for Maddie seem hollow. For Maddie, it seem to come out of nowhere. One moment she is in the middle of a divorce, not wanting to even think about love and the next she is putting her life at risk for Ash, a man she has only known for a couple days? It just didn’t feel right to me.

All in all, Destefano has an incredible imagination. Her story ideas and descriptions continue to absolutely blow me away. However, I have a hard time enjoying her books with her specific style of writing.

I give Feast a D.

Barnes & Noble | Book Depository