Review: The Forbidden (The Ancestors Saga #1) by Lori Holmes

MY ⭐️ RATING: 2.75/5

Format: Kindle Whispersync

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The unforgettable story of one woman’s perilous journey to save, The Forbidden. Rebaa’s adopted tribe lies slaughtered behind her. Rebaa’s lover,
Juran, lays down his life for hers and now she must use all of her cunning and extraordinary powers to survive the inhospitable wilderness alone, ensuring that Juran’s sacrifice was not in vain. But Rebaa’s battle for survival has only just begun … Hunted by savage predators and more terrifying still, the nightmarish Eldrax, a murderous chieftain who will stop at nothing to possess Rebaa’s mysterious powers for his own, her very existence becomes a life or death chase in the pursuit and quest to reach the one place that surely offers salvation and a safe haven she can call home. But what haven could possibly exist for one who bears … The Forbidden?
Will Rebaa find her salvation, or will crushing loss, hardship and the burden of carrying The Forbidden, first destroy her from the inside out?

MY REVIEW

There’s just something about this cover that drew me to this novel, and then reading the blurb of it being set 4,000 years in our own dark forgotten past drew me in even more. There’s something that I find very interesting about stories of early-mankind, unfortunately, while that brought me in, the story and the characters, just weren’t captivating or memorable enough for me.

The author jumps right into action from chapter 1 with what seemed to be a great setup for the rest of the story, but it soon hits a lull that it just couldn’t break out of. It’s the story of a mother’s survival to protect her forbidden child, a child of mixed clans, from people wanting to kill or take advantage of them. Around 20% I had thought about moving on, but decided to stay with it, despite how I felt. It did get a little better later on, but it just never got to that point where I was excited to see what would happen next.

The other issue I had was that I never really cared about the characters, Rebaa started out as an interesting character with what she had to go through, but just never made me latch on. Other characters like Nen and Eldrax were interesting but could’ve used a bit more development than what they got to make their part in the story better. The world-building also wasn’t very strong, but it really didn’t need much based on the environment of the story.

The one thing that I did enjoy was the narration by Billie Fulford-Brown. I thought she did a great job, especially when she was able to show emotion! She poured her heart out into the pages and probably made it better for me. Also, stay tuned after the epilogue for the short story, The Forbidden Son, which is just a continuation of the end of The Forbidden which I thought was much more interesting than book 1. Maybe that means book 2 will be better, but I’m not sure I want to continue.