Blah Blah Blah Books (Feedback on Bick's Shadows)

In Ilsa J. Bick's The Ashes Trilogy, Ashes, the first book was fast-paced, engaging, conflict-ridden. I'm sorry to say, that Shadows, is well, not so much. The second book in the trilogy is what I personally call a Blah, Blah, Blah Book.

There are way too many character's views featured, so many that the book feels overcrowded and as a reader there's too many voices jabbering away at the same time, that I was unable to connect with or care about any of the characters.

The book lacks the oomph that the first book delivered because there's so much exposition and telling from some of the characters that the book slogs to a halt during certain character's story lines.

For me as a reader, Shadows was a disappointment. I doubt I will read book three of the trilogy because Ms. Bick failed to deliver in the second.

For me as a writer, the comparison of the books serves as an example of what to and not to do. My goal is to write books that are as captivating, if not more so, as Ms. Bick's first book in the trilogy, and not to write books like the second that will disappoint and turn away readers.

As a reader, I do not enjoy Blah, Blah, Blah Books. As a writer, I strive not to write them.