Sparrow Man

Sparrow Man is a dark romantic fantasy by M. R. Pritchard, due to be released next month. I had the honor of beta reading this novel, and was pretty much blown away!


THE BLURB:

Meg Clark has turned out to be everything her father and the people of her little North Country town of Gouvernour, NY, have been saying her whole life: nothin’ but a piece of white trash. And that’s how she lives; she’s even got the tattoos to prove it. Well that’s how she was living, until she got knocked up and engaged. In an effort to hide her past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her fiancé, Jim, wouldn’t have to. 

And then everyone started waking up…dead. 

Good thing escaping from County wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route Thirty-Seven with a snowy owl in its rafters. 

Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes, crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow. He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened that day she killed those seven men.

MY THOUGHTS:

The first two thirds or so of this book was a-freaking-mazing. Tantalizingly suspenseful, sending delicious shivers down the readers' spine! Not only are you engrossed in the story, but you really love both Meg and Sparrow Man. Meg isn't a simply an empty vehicle of a main character, a host for the reader's experiences and reactions to everything going on in the book. She is her own person, clearly defined, and we respect her strong will and her grit. 

You're probably wondering why I said only the first two-thirds of the book was amazing. It's not to say that the last third is bad, by any means. It's only that when certain revelations are made, the thrilling sense of suspense is gone. That fact is likely unavoidable. Now we know what's really going on here, we know all the players in the game and their motives, and our heroes must actually deal with the truths that have been  revealed. It's still a fun story being told, it's just that the feel of it is different.

An author's writing matures as they continue in their field, and I am really impressed with the evolution I've seen in Pritchard's work. I am very excited to see where her books take us next!

MY RATING:

4.5 booksies!

Author's website: http://mrpritchard.com/

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