Official Review: Levi's Trail by Ar'Triel Askew Kirchner

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 31 Aug 2016, 23:14

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Levi's Trail" by Ar'Triel Askew Kirchner.]

3 out of 4 stars

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Levi’s Trail by Ar’Triel Askew Kirchner is a romantic story about a biracial couple with an unusual romance. The main character, Levi Squair, is a black woman with a sad past. Her mother left her father when she was a small child, and ever since, she has been raised by her father. Levi begins attending a new school, with a new teacher, and new students. She notices that she is the only black girl there, and from the first day of school, it is obvious that there is some racial tension between her and her peers. Nobody wants to sit next to her, talk to her, or be her friend. She sits in a corner by herself trying to make herself invisible.

Eventually, a student walks in late. He is a white boy, and he seems to be a class clown. When the teacher tells him to take a seat, he purposely sits next to Levi and tries to befriend her. Initially, Levi wants him to leave her alone, but she ends up trusting him despite herself, and wants to get to know him. He introduces himself as Cameron Moore, and they become best friends. They remain friends for years, until he leaves one day and never comes back.

Many years later, Levi works as an assistant at a construction company. Surprisingly, she learns that Cameron’s father owns the company, and a now adult Cameron works there as chief operating officer. When she reunites with Cameron, sparks fly and there is an instant attraction. However, there are secrets and lies that need to be unearthed.

I was really intrigued by the storyline. I don’t generally read heavy romance or erotica, but I thought this story sounded really interesting because it was about a biracial couple who had to fight through prejudice and racism to be together. This book seemed to have an element of depth that I usually find lacking in other romance books.

However, this book needs to be professionally edited. There are many typos, grammar errors, and punctuation mistakes throughout the novel. Commas are not added where they should be, past and present tenses are inconsistent and sometimes mixed up, words are plural when they should be singular and vice versa, etc. There are misspelled words like “mummer” when it should be murmur, and typos like the word “site” when the word should be “sight.”

I was initially torn between giving this book a 2 star rating or a 3 star rating. The grammar and spelling mistakes were quite rampant, and I was thinking about giving this book 2 stars. However, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I was extremely impressed with the character development throughout the novel. Levi started out as a very sweet, naive girl with no backbone. She constantly let people walk all over her and always apologized for things that weren’t her fault. It was really frustrating to read, but throughout the book, she grew as a person and eventually started standing up for herself and made her voice heard. I wasn’t expecting that, and it was so satisfying to read that it was enough to make me want to bump up the rating.

As typical with romance novels, there is angst between Levi and Cameron in the early stages of their relationship. This book also does have quite a few explicit and descriptive sex scenes, so I do not recommend this book to younger readers or people who don’t like romance or erotica. The pacing of the book is very well done. The story is not rushed or lagging at any point and does constantly move forward. I really enjoy the premise of the book and the storyline, but it can be much better when the editing mistakes are cleared up.

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Levi's Trail
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Post by **Annelore Trujillo** » 09 Sep 2016, 08:54

Thanks for the great review. This sounds like a really good book. It's always hard when there are grammar errors. I'm interested in reading this book!

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 09 Sep 2016, 10:38

anneloretrujillo wrote:Thanks for the great review. This sounds like a really good book. It's always hard when there are grammar errors. I'm interested in reading this book!

Thank you anneloretrujillo! This was definitely a good read despite the errors

kimmyschemy06 · Post by **kimmyschemy06** » 13 Sep 2016, 01:38

Sounds like a very interesting book. I am so intrigued as to how the characters will make it through the prejudice and racism. Too bad, though, about the errors. Great job on the review.

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 13 Sep 2016, 15:47

kimmyschemy06 wrote:Sounds like a very interesting book. I am so intrigued as to how the characters will make it through the prejudice and racism. Too bad, though, about the errors. Great job on the review.

Thank you kimmyschemy06. This was definitely a good read despite the errors

AA1495 · Post by **AA1495** » 15 Sep 2016, 15:12

Great review. Wish the editing was better! Thank you for sharing!

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 15 Sep 2016, 17:08

AA1495 wrote:Great review. Wish the editing was better! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you AA1495! I wish the editing was better too, but other than that it was a good book

Heidi M Simone · Post by **Heidi M Simone** » 19 Sep 2016, 16:10

Wonderful review, CrescentMoon! It stinks that this book needs more editing. However, I am happy that you were able to enjoy the book's character development so much that it pushed to a 3.

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 19 Sep 2016, 17:49

hsimone wrote:Wonderful review, CrescentMoon! It stinks that this book needs more editing. However, I am happy that you were able to enjoy the book's character development so much that it pushed to a 3.

Thank you hsimone! Yeah this definitely needs more editing but the character development was awesome

Kia · Post by **Kia** » 22 Sep 2016, 18:09

It's such a shame about all the errors. Hopefully the author can find a good editor to fix those up, because the book actually sounds really interesting. Great job on the review!

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 22 Sep 2016, 20:06

Kia wrote:It's such a shame about all the errors. Hopefully the author can find a good editor to fix those up, because the book actually sounds really interesting. Great job on the review!

I agree. Once the errors are fixed the story has so much potential to be a great book. Thank you for the kind words

bluemel4 · Post by **bluemel4** » 24 Sep 2016, 09:55

Great review! I am drawn to character driven stories and this sounds like it has a lot of potential. The errors are frustrating! I don't think I could read it in its current state.

CrescentMoon · Post by **CrescentMoon** » 24 Sep 2016, 12:06

bluemel4 wrote:Great review! I am drawn to character driven stories and this sounds like it has a lot of potential. The errors are frustrating! I don't think I could read it in its current state.

Thank you bluemel4! This was definitely a good story despite the errors.