A Book Lover's Dream Book Blog

Zed by M.V. Ellis

Zed (Rough Ink, #1) (ARC) was graciously provided to me by Hot Tree Promotions for an honest review. I have voluntarily read and reviewed this book and have provided my honest opinion.

“An emotionally powerful and gripping read”     

An absolutely heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, life-altering, emotionally-desperate kind-of-story, a story about love, devotion, sacrifice, and, redemption in the face of such a profound and immense tragedy, one that affects the lives of numerous individuals in more ways than one.  The story was massive in its deeply-rooted grief, heartache and reasoned pain of understandably such a devastation that had this reader soaking in all of the emotions as they poured right off of the pages throughout this addicting read.  It was a story that had this reader desperate to provide such an enveloped sense of nurturing for such pain and need.  It was quite the read.

Zed, by M.V. Ellis, was a lengthy, and, nail-biting read with suspenseful and gripping moments, greatly developed characters, realistic settings and a detailed plot.  Its storyline is one that seemed to have humanistic qualities in being able to entice and grab a hold of this reader through the unfolding of the story.  The plot, despite having a somewhat slower pace, was filled with meaningful moments that sucked a roller-coaster ride of emotions right out of this reader as I sat and read my way through this story.  With its varied abilities of enticement, an almost languid sense of understanding and comfort was had by this reader right up until…BAMMM!  Hello twist of all twists.  Yes, prior to this moment in which I had proceeded to sit mouth-agape with eyes glued to the pages, a moment that may have produced a high-pitched scream, I had been quite comfortable with this languid state, to an extent, and for this began to develop various theories, anticipatory premonitions if you will, but then, then…*pfft* I was totally wrong..WRONG!  I-never-saw-it-coming.  It was this moment that was the most amazing, and, emotional moment that had this reader bawling buckets of tears.  The moment was priceless..

Gah..how I loved Zed!  As one of the main characters, I thought he was one of the best alpha males I have ever read.  He had this no holds barred mentality with such a delicate, tortured, and needy undertone that had me grasping desperately at my kindle as I read his story.  I cheered and fist pumped right into the air for him..and, I also bawled like a baby for his pain.  Octavia, the second main character, was a slightly different kind of entity.  Meaning well, she came into Zed’s life like a bull with intentions of improving Zed’s life but also for improving society as well.  While she had the bull-like tenacity, she also actually learned from her mistakes, which I found to be a breath of fresh air that, as it is also in this reader’s opinion, was quite the rare quality to have for a character in stories.

As mentioned briefly, there were plentiful secondary characters, who I LOVED, many of which had already developing story lines within this particular story, and, the others were already primed for future stories within this series.  And..there were also a select few who just got on my last nerve, therefore, a whole lot of patience was involved with their development as their overall purpose to the storyline was..necessary and beautiful.

I loved the writing of this new-to-me author, as there were clearly many different types of thoughts and emotions as a result of this read.  Moments of intensity paved the way for realistic bantering interspersed with delicate humor that brought a needed levity into such a heavy topic, all which enabled various thoughts to come to fruition.  In addition, the descriptive undertone of the necessary outlet for one of the characters, was developed perfectly.  I loved how the tattoo business was described which enabled the reader to envision the actual beauty of such a talent by all of the artists.

That all being said, however..with its lengthy and somewhat slower pace, I really needed more development in various areas and less in others.  Unless some of the areas will be addressed further in future books, I also felt some of the major areas were either glanced over or touched upon briefly in the epilogue.  Speaking for this reader, I needed to read about all of the developed characters and their placement within the storyline, including events, in order to have a sense of closure for them and the story. Despite a rushed sense of an ending, a smattering of typos, some confusing moments, and a need for more depth and development, in various areas, it was still such a great story that I highly-recommend for all to read.  I really enjoyed it.. 🙂

*star rating: 4.40 ‘I really liked it’ stars*