Book Review: "Tides of Magic" by Andi R. Christopher

 Meet Charley Deacon. She’s failing out of uni, being near the sea makes her inexplicably ill, and now her sister has gone missing in suspicious circumstances. Her only hope of finding her may lie with an impossibly old woman who lives – you’ve guessed it – by the sea.

Welcome to Inver Aora, a tiny settlement on the coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It has a holiday park, a woman who may or may not be a witch, and not a lot else. Most people can’t find their way here, but the locals find it hard to leave. If there’s anything weird going on, they’re not in the habit of talking about it.

Charley might be the least likely person to show up in Inver Aora, but it also might just be the place she discovers new powers, her own purpose, and some people that make her want to stick around. - from Booksirens.com

This eARC was provided by Booksirens.com and I am giving an unbiased review.

As one can see from the picture of the book cover, this is a first book in a new series. From the book blurb, we find out a little about our main character, and what event(s) she will be facing. And from that point on, I was somewhat disappointed. Charley obviously has some issues if she is failing out of school. Add to that we find out she has some form of ADD/ADHD and I am not a practitioner to know the signs, but our scatter-brained, OCD main character just loses my attention. There is something about the sea that just bothers Charley, bad enough to cause nausea, but we find out that is where her power evidently lies (in some form). 

Several things about the story bothered me. It seemed to jump between events - like the author was trying to make the reader feel like they had ADD like the character, and so read the story like the character acted it. I don't know. But there wasn't much for character building going on either. Every character was.. well, just "was", with no major explanation, and no introduction except when they were needed to fulfill a portion of the story. The story is based in NZ, a place I have never been nor studied, so I do not know if this is common among story-telling there. Either way, I loved the idea behind the story, and will probably watch for a second story to see if the writing style or storyline has improved. Was a pretty quick read since it seemed to lack some content.