An Indie Review: Izared, Queen of the Elephant Riders

I'm a compulsive buyer when it comes to Amazon's  Best 100 free e-books.  I check weekly daily to see if anything appeals. Given my rather eclectic reading habits, something usually catches my eye and ends up in my shopping cart.  For this reason, I have added more freebies to my account than I will ever be able to read.  However, that doesn't mean I won't read any of them.  

This year I'm going to make more of an effort, though, to read some of these self-published freebies. As an indie author myself, I want to support my fellow writers who are putting their art out there for consumption without the aid of agents, editors, or a well-established publishing house with marketing funds.  

This is my first Indie review of 2015.  It will not be the last. 

Book Info:

Title:  Izared, Queen of the Elephant Riders

Author: L. Leander

Author's Website: http://www.lleander.com/

Author's Facebook Account:  https://www.facebook.com/lleanderbooks

My Review (copied and pasted from Goodreads): 

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I had vowed to read more self-published or indie published books this year and Inzared, Queen of the Elephant Riders caught my eye when I went browsing through my rather out-of-control e-book collection. I made a quick visit to the author's website to confirm my suspicion that this was self-published through Amazon and came away satisfied that this was the case. Setting aside some of the traditionally published books in my TBR, I started reading Inzared's story. I must admit the first-person narration was initially very charming. Inzared is not well schooled and she tells her story in a rather rough dialect. There were many incomplete sentences, but they were understandable in their consistency. For example, instead of saying "I saw a horse", Inzared would simply say "Saw a horse." This speech habit was, as I said, rather charming in its novelty. Unfortunately, as the chapters passed, I began to notice inconsistencies that would throw me out of the story. Inzared's grammar would get suddenly better and then worse. I really did try to ignore my inner grammar police. Truly. I ignored misplaced commas with rather impressive diligence, if I say so myself. Instead of getting out the proverbial red pen, I tried to focus on the story. I wanted to connect with Inzared and Paytre, and for the most part I did. I found their relationship believable. They met, they fell in love, and things happened because of it. Outside of their relationship, Inzared made friends with humans and animals alike. She became a part of the circus in more ways than one. Of course, without conflict, there is no story, so Inzared's adventures included disgruntled and sinister people who were determined to take what was hers. Overall, I liked the story, but I did not love it and, for that reason, I probably will not be reading about Inzared again. (I think I remember that there is at least one more book about Inzared.)

My Rating:
Two stars, meaning it just just okay.