Review of The Allure of the Gypsies by Charles Yallowitz.

Overview.

An excellent continuation of the story begun in The Beginning of a Hero and The Prodigy of Rainbow Tower. It held my interest throughout. In this book, we learn the reason for Luke’s reluctance to return to his home town of Haven.

Characters.

We meet a new character in this book–a gypsy girl called Sari. She is very much a free spirit, and brings a new dimension to the characters we are already familiar with.

Luke continues to evolve. He gains new powers, but only after a difficult training. He learns much in this book, as does Nyx, his friend, and a powerful caster of magic.

I love Mr Yallowitz’s strong female characters. None of them are weak, simpering girls expecting the men to look after them. They are both physically and mentally strong.

The antagonists are equally complex. For example, Trinity, the Chaos Elf queen, has an ambiguous relationship with both Nyx and Sari. I look forward to learning more about her in the later books.

Writing.

Sadly, as with the previous two books, there are a lot of typos, incorrect grammar and a couple of wrongly used words. Or rather, the wrong word used. This, fortunately, is offset by a strong plot and interesting characters. This means that I can only give an otherwise excellent book 4*.

My ranking of books. In order to get a particular number of stars, it is not necessary to meet all the criteria. This is a guide only.

5* Exceptional. Wonderful story. Setting well drawn, and characters believable. Not perfect, but with flaws. Will keep you up all night. No typos or grammatical errors.

4* A thoroughly enjoyable read. Great and original story. Believable setting and characters. Very few grammatical errors or typos.

3* I enjoyed it. Good story. Characters need some development. Some typos or grammatical errors.

2* Not for me. Story not very strong. Unbelievable and flat characters. Setting not clearly defined. Many typos or grammatical errors.

1* I hated it. Story almost non-existent. Setting poor. Possibly couldn’t finish it.

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6 thoughts on “Review of The Allure of the Gypsies by Charles Yallowitz.”

  1. Thanks for the review of Charles’ book, Viv. The Legends of Windemere is a long series and it sounds like it has strong characters. I hope eventually he can address the technical aspects and earn the book the five stars the story deserves.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. I think that some people don’t read the advice of other writers, nor join a critique group of mainly writers. The book I’m currently reading has many things that I’ve been told by more experienced writers are not good writing. Such as using too many pronouns so it’s confusing who is doing what to whom. And also prepositions. While not intrinsically wrong, I was told to cut them, such as sit down. Warm up, and look down at the floor etc.

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