Review: Seeker

Seeker (Seeker #1)
by Arwen Elys Dayton
YA Fantasy
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Plot Summary:

Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.

Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin's new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.

Review:

This book seemed like a promising exploration of an interesting new fantasy world - with the idea of a mysterious 'seeker' and what that means.  But I was sadly disappointed that this novel focused much more on the character drama and a hunt for the power of the seeker, than to really flesh out what everything means.  I would have ideally loved this book if it had balanced those two aspects well, but I didn't really get a strong sense of the world, and only kept reading because I did feel interested in what would happen to the characters.

John, Quin and Shinobu make up the main character cast - if that makes you think there would be a love triangle - then you are right.  Although there's really not much of a push and pull between the three since Quin sees Shinobu like the cousin he is (although he's a third cousin kinda?)  I don't know that part was a bit confusing for me and I didn't like that aspect- I feel like the story could have easily just made Shinobu a close family friend and functioned the same without the rationalizations that he's related, but far enough removed to be okay to date.  And John was an intriguingly flawed character at first, but I quickly became very frustrated with his many excuses and rationalizations.  The story is also told through each of their POV's, with each chapter one of the character's POV.  I'm not really a fan of multiple POV stories, but this book didn't make me dislike it as much as I normally would.

The story moves around a bit in time too - there are flashbacks in the middle, after a major event has occurred, which was an interesting way to tell the story.  And a bit frustrating too, since I really wanted to know what happened next after the major event.  If the purpose was to build suspense, I think I just felt more annoyed than anything, unfortunately.  I was still invested enough in the story to want to know where it was going, and how the main conflict would be resolved.   And the glimpse of Hong Kong was interesting to me as well - it was very vividly described, and I found it fascinating to see this darker side to a foreign city.  I don't think that was enough to make me love this book though.  It felt very lackluster overall, although the idea of the 'seeker' is promising, and I hope that the next book in the series will expound a bit more on that.

(I received this book from the publisher or author for a fair and honest review.  I was not compensated for this review.)