Official Review: Harvest of Souls Crossover Part II Battl...

[Julehart1]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Harvest of Souls Crossover Part II Battles Continues" by VA McCloud.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Harvest of Souls Crossover Part 2 is a fantasy book for young adults written by VA McCloud. It’s the second part of a larger book series. In the book, evil Shuby rules over the dark world and also wants to take over the world of light. Shuby is extremely powerful, and mostly everyone cowers in fear of him. Many surrender to Shuby without a fight. Grandpa Howdy, Granny P, and their grandchildren know that people need to stand up to Shuby and battle him. Only their bravery and belief in God can save them. At the beginning of the second part, Grandpa Howdy is down after a battle with Shuby, and it’s up to his grandchildren, including young Songbird, to continue to try and defeat him. At first, it looks like the grandchildren will have help from a very brave woman, but not everything is as it seems. Who is this mysterious stranger, and is she really on the side of light? Is there anything that can be done to defeat Shuby, or is the fight already lost? Find out in this exciting and suspenseful second installment of a classic battle between good and evil.

I enjoyed the premise of the book. I was immediately drawn into the mystique of the story and the fight between the light and the dark forces. I wanted to find out what made Shuby so incredibly powerful and learn more about all of the young grandchildren and their newfound supernatural powers. The old woman was a mysterious character, and I was curious about who she actually was and whose side she was really on. Shuby was also not just a typical villain, and there seemed to be an untold reason as to why he turned evil. I wanted to dig deeper into his backstory. I kept waiting until some of the mysteries were revealed, so the book kept my interest.

Unfortunately, none of the characters really became more fleshed out as the book went on. While all the mysteries were maintained, character development was sacrificed. I was waiting to get to know more about the characters, but it never really happened. I might have felt differently if I read the first book of the series prior to reading the second part. It's possible that there was a lot more character development in the first installment of the series, so the author felt she didn’t need to focus on it as much in the second part.

Another issue that I had with the book was the very sudden cliffhanger ending. The end was so unexpected and jarring that I thought that there had to be more on the next page. To my surprise, however, there was nothing else there. I understand that the author wanted to captivate the readers to make sure that they read the next installment, but I felt that the book should have stood on its own a bit more.

I’m rating this book 2 out of 4 stars. I was intrigued by the premise of the novel and felt like the author did a good job of giving out bits and pieces of information for the reader to want to learn more. Unfortunately, while the mystery was maintained, the character development was lacking. The ending was also problematic because it was so sudden. It felt like there was a deliberate cliffhanger to hook readers in for the next installment. The editing was professional, but I did find five small errors. I would recommend this book to young teen readers who enjoy fantasy books that contain mysterious characters and also don’t mind cliffhanger endings.

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Harvest of Souls Crossover Part II Battles Continues
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[Joseph_ngaruiya]

I presume from your review that the book is quite intriguing. I understand your frustration when it comes to the completion of such a book. It's the same feeling you get when a good book is interrupted by grammatical errors. I hope the author works on the few changes required.

[djr6090]

A good warning for parents who want to buy this for their young adult might be to get the whole set at one time. Then the cliffhanger ending would not be so annoying, My own reaction to that kind of an abrupt ending is to avoid the author completely.

[Yere123]

The idea book seems to have originated from a good place but it is a problem with execution that was its downfall. Personally I also did not like the cover art but I appreciate your review.

[Carennkemdiala]

Great review there Julehart1. From your review, the book seems interesting. I totally agree with you on the part where you mentioned that the book ended abruptly, this is so because it could piss a new reader off when he/she finds out that there isn’t a note indicating that there would be a further sequel.

However, I still feel that the author could have appended on the book somewhere if there were other parts of the book connecting to this one so that a reader is not left wandering why the lack of character development.

[Usma Khann]

Looks like the plot is filled with mysteries but a cliffhanger ending isn't something I'm comfortable with. Appreciate the honest review though.

[Priyanka2304]

The story was interesting, sad to know about the ending. Thanks for the review.

[Zainabreadsnow]

Sad to see that it didn't reach its potential. Thank you for the honest review!