Book Review: “Beyond The Fortuneteller’s Tent” (Beyond #1) by Kristy Tate
FTC Disclosure: I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Genre: Romance, YA, Fantasy
Page Length: (electronic copy)
Synopsis:
When Petra Baron goes into the fortuneteller’s tent at a Renaissance fair, she expects to leave with a date to prom. Instead, she walks out into Elizabethan England, where she meets gypsies, a demon dog, and a kindred spirit in Emory Ravenswood.
Emory must thwart the plans of religious zealots. His mission is dangerous, his enemies are fanatical, and Petra Baron is a complication that Heaven only knows he does not need. Or does he? Although Emory is on Heaven’s errand, he learned long ago that Heaven does not always play fair.
As Petra slowly falls for Emory, she wonders if he really is who he seems, or if he is just as lost as she is. How can they have a future while trapped in the past? Or is anything possible Beyond the Fortuneteller’s Tent? (description from Goodreads)
Review:
Beyond the Fortuneteller’s Tent takes readers on a time travelling adventure from modern day America back to the English Renaissance. We follow our main character, Petra, as she is whisked into a foreign place and time, and tries to figure our her main “quest” for being sent back to this period. Along her journey, she meets friends and foe, as well as encounters many dangers, giving the novel its “thrill” factor.
I love reading historical fiction, time-travelling adventures, and fantasy stories, but this novel fell flat for me. The main problem was not the story itself, but the main character Petra. From the very first page, Petra immediately rubbed me the wrong way. She came off as selfish, snotty, and high maintenance.
As most readers will say, having some kind of connection or being drawn to the main character of a story leads to a positive reading experience. For this novel, this I couldn’t find any sort of connection with Petra, mainly because her attitude annoyed me. It wasn’t until the latter part of the book that I actually feel sorry for her being stuck in the English Renaissance. I did, however, enjoy the rest of the the characters featured in this novel (both the heroes and villains) and how they developed over the course of the story.
Other than that aspect, I really enjoyed the detailed scenery, the climatic action scenes, and the overall story.
Final Verdict:
A nice start to a time-travelling adventure series, but the lack of connection to the main character, spoiled the reading experience for me.
