Kindle Spotlight -- Cameo the Assassin (Trilogy of Shadows Book One)

Today, in a first for Mirror Slide Junction, I am reviewing this blog's first fantasy novel, Dawn McCullough-White's Cameo the Assassin.

The story revolves around the titular Cameo, a mysterious woman with a shadowy past, milky white eyes, and strange powers. As you can probably guess, her job is to kill people for the infamous assassin's guild, the Association. Predictably, a twist of fate quickly forces her to sever all ties with the murderous organization, and thus she becomes their target. A few people become caught up in her plight throughout the course of the story, the most interesting being Black Opal, who is basically a more effeminate version of Jack Sparrow from the Pirates movies with a bit of Han Solo thrown in for good measure.

Cameo has an interesting story and a few compelling characters, but a number of problems bring it down. First--the dialogue is frequently awkward. Second--the pacing is bad. There are too many scenes in taverns that go on for too long and don't contribute enough to the story. Also, characters have a habit of going on and on about mundane things and, as I already stated, the dialogue is awkward (not to mention the fact that new paragraphs begin even if the same character is still speaking). Third--the revelation concerning what exactly Cameo is, which should have been a bombshell, is casually mentioned, as if the reader was supposed to already have guessed it.

While this series has definite potential, I'm just not too keen on the first book.