Tara Maya

A DETERMINED GIRL ... Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.

Initiate

Ella Dewars

Rating clarification: 2.75/5

I really, really, really, wanted to like this book. I got drawn in by one of the other covers, the one that's all rainbowy and pretty and generally amazing. Unfortunately for me, the book didn't live up to the high standards set by that (awesome!) cover. 

For the majority of the story, I was confused. In a single chapter, there could be 3 or 4 different characters all narrating different but still somewhat similar stories. If the book had been told from just Kavio and Dindi's point of view, I would have liked it more. There were just too many characters for me to keep track of. 

(The next confusion is a quick spoiler... just skip it - it doesn't mean a whole lot)(view spoiler)[Also, I didn't understand why Kavio had been exiled. I know he did a rain dance, but I don't know why, or what for. And I don't know why he said that he had something over his cousin, because there was never any possible clue as to what that could be. (hide spoiler)]

Another thing that I didn't like was that there wasn't a whole lot of description after the first few pages. The story seemed to all be set in the same general area, and it seemed very flat to me. There were a few times where I thought, "Wait, what? How did they get there? They were just there, and now they're here, and I don't even know where there or here is!" If there had been a map at the beginning of the book (which there very well may have been, as I was reading on a Kindle and I don't know if they ever put maps in the Kindle version).

If I was to read this book again, I would read it in print. When I was reading it on the Kindle, I had no idea of how long the book actually was, and if there was something I was missing because it seemed like it skipped a few spots.

Initiate

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