AS ABOVE,SO BELOW by Maria Isabel Pita

Publisher: Cerridwen Press
Date published: November 2009
ISBN: 9781419922152
Fantasy Romance
E-book
Reviewed by Dawn
Obtained by Author


CLICK TO PURCHASE! On a distant world, great stone castles dot the landscape and ancient lords are worshipped by the people. One such lord falls for a local woman and between them a child is born….a child destined to bridge both dimensions that separate the lords from the people. Mirabel is that child and when her mother disappears, she finds her entire world turned upside down even as she finds secrets of her father and a past that keeps giving her more questions than answers. When she falls for the Prince of Visioncrest, events happen that will change the course of the world she lives in and the world.

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW sounded like a really cool story but it was very hard to get into. Told in first person, which normally doesn’t bother me, but this had me confused and scratching my head many times, especially as the characters Mirabel and Loric felt one-dimensional and flat. It was hard to get invested into the characters which was a disappointment. The writing was tight though the pace of the story dragged a bit at times and got very confusing at times.

Mirabel grew up isolated on the top of the mountain with her mother, a famed seamstress. She is full of questions about her father that are not answered by her mother. Mirabel finally gets off the mountain when her mother disappears and she is brought to the Prince of Visioncrest. Then her strange powers manifest and questions swirl around Mirabel even as she craves the dark desire the prince invokes within her with his touch. First off, I just could not get into Mirabel and her reasons for doing some of the things she did. It was hard to even like her half the time. The characters felt very off-putting, one-dimensional and flat. It was very hard to read as there were many characters to keep track of and it felt like I needed a score card for them. The Prince of Visioncrest, Loric, was a hero I hated. He came off as a stern alpha male with very little redeeming qualities to my liking. Some secondary characters felt like they were there just for window dressing and to keep the story rolling along though even they were flat as well.

Overall, the author started with a great premise but fell far from the bar with this one. AS ABOVE, SO BELOW had potential to be a really good fantasy story but fell well below the mark. I was very disappointed in this one though the writing tried to save the story itself to no avail. If you enjoy this type of fantasy romance, then I suggest you run over and grab it.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.