Iluminati by P.J. Webb

**** I received this e-book as a giveaway from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review****
I am a Bibliophile and always loose my mind over the essence of a crisp book. It was love at first sight with the beautiful 542 page book, packed in a soft cardboard box and my name & address printed on top. Who doesn't like a new book to review!! 

The Book Cover: A beautiful blue lotus blooming with magical light flowing around it was a fascinating idea for this book. I am always excited about the book covers to such an extent that no matter what rating the book has I don't mind picking it up if the cover grabs my attention. 
Cover ratings: 3.5 stars (beautiful)

About the Book: Aedan is an 11 year old boy who lost his parents in an attack by masked soldiers. In an attempt to protect their child, Aedan's parents never disclosed him about their true identity and who Aedan himself was.  
After the death of Aedan's parents, he is taken care by Artenius and Fabian. Both being reckless in their own ways fall in love with the boy and change as a person. 

While Aedan struggles to hide his identity while discovering himself, he encounters numerous problems both physically and mentally. The pain of loosing his parents over a secret he wasn't even aware still having the desire to avenge the sinners is portrayed through this book.

This book doesn't only talk about Aedan but also talks about the pasts and hidden secrets of people surrounding him. With multiple twisted plots and hidden lives of the characters it was a thrilling experience hoping to find answers one by one till the end of the book. 

The fascinating thing about this book were the transitions among the stories; each chapter of this book was talking about three different situations happening at the same time and the transition was interesting. They were crisp and concise which I feel was the best part about the book.

The emotions of an 11 year-old boy who lost his parents, Artenius struggling with his drinking problems, Nyra stuck between the royalty of her family and her feelings, and many more... characterisation of each and every character was  realistic.

Yet, I feel Iluminati was a very complicated book. There were lots of instances where unanswered questions worked against the reader (Me). I believe while reading a series with multiple plots and characters involved (with past & secrets) at-least a proper ending is required to leave the reader satisfied yet hungry for more. I am not saying it the book was incomplete, but I felt the book was left in the middle of nowhere and in the quest to leave the readers asking for more a 542 page book created frustration & didn't well-justify the patience of a reader to finish the book.


My Review:  In-spite of having read the book a long time back, I did take months to write this review and choose my words carefully. I am not sure if I did justice to the book by writing this review but, well is what I felt after reading this book. And it is about writing an honest review, right!!


Illuminati is the first book of the series yet to be published, and this is perhaps the major reason for my disappointment in the book. The author has immense potential, vast level of imagination and amazing writing skills, what I felt lacked in this book was little more structure.

My personal opinion, this book was incomplete at every level ever possible while writing a book in a series. I understand that while an author writes one needs numerous number of plots, unanswered questions, story behind a story, a theory related to every occurrence and so on... and once the reader is pre-occupied with numerous number of questions, boom!! the book ends leaving the reader satisfied yet dis-satisfied with certain degree of a complete-incomplete chapters. I hope I am making sense! 

There were too many plots in this book, too many complicated plots, characters with a painful past that required explanation, reading all this really demanded a lot of patience to reach to the end and then... you don't even realise and you have the answer to the question in two sentence. A plot that dragged you throughout the book was answered in two lines. WHAT!!???!! What was that? I mean, one scenario/two scenario I understand but every plot was answered in a rush, as if it was obvious to turn out that way! I expect more while reading. If I have been patient with a question throughout 500 or more pages, I need justified answers not a one-liner. SOooo frustrating that was!! 

Yet I would say, it would have been an exciting venture if the second book in the series was either on its way or already published. Metaphorically explaining this book was like having an entire chocolate cake with molten chocolate filling inside waiting for you, yet the only thing you can do is lick the cream once, why? Isn't it that you have to have atleast one piece of cake (one plot resolved in this case to begin with the another one in the next one).

Illuminati has a strong plot, well-developed characters, great emotions and action inside the book, brilliant writing skills (the molten chocolate of the cake) yet it lacked a little more structure. The level of confusion, excitement, thrill, etc. etc. needed a balance to keep going and finally willing to grab the next one.  

I am very disappointed with this book. C'mon its a 542 page book, I deserve a justified ending... 

I rate this book 1.5 stars.

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