Dimension Shifter

This book is easily one of the most amazing series I have ever read! I still cannot believe that this book was free (as cliche as that sounds).

The story line is amazing as a feral and somewhat violently heroine stumbles upon a dimension free of her ill-willed pursuers. From there she meets the kind king of the fair dimension and begins to thaw bit by microscopic bit of her icy hardened exterior. Her innate evil quirks will bring smiles to your face. Even with many survival skills, including crushing a man's jewels, she is still surprisingly naive and childlike in her ignorance. With her warped ideas on even the simplest customs of everyday life, villagers find her presence evil and threatening (I mean she hates children and thinks women should die before marriage!). Through the series you will see this battle toughened young lady grow into a wise, albeit still wild, and loving woman.

Lemme just say I am an AVID reader of free books. I have read over twenty free books recently, all in the YA fiction/paranormal/science fiction category. NEVER have I bought an ebook (much preferring the feel of a real book), I am proud to say I have purchased every single part to this series and am eagerly awaiting more.

The plot moved in jumps and starts as if it too were dimension shifting. There is a philosophical question over the necessity of evil for greater goodness to exist, but it falls flat for what I will describe below. More importantly, the main character is an emotionally scarred orphan female mage raised to worship a blood hungry demon. This is actually not as bad as it might sound--it's actually the "good" people in the novella that make it troublesome. The orphan girl is noted early on as beautiful. The king falls in love with her and to help her overcome her natural distrust of people, forces kisses on her. Repeatedly... And with increasing passion. She allows it at first because she considers herself to be his indentured servant with no rights of her own. The author makes a big show of trying to demonstrate the king's desire only to help save her from her status as "an evil", but his methods would quickly get him arrested in the U.S., particularly since one includes forcibly kissing her and pulling her to him after effectively ordering her to skinny dip with him. He doesn't rape her at this point--this happens later after they are forced to marry by their respective deities. In the end, they have sex without it being rape and she decides she is comfortable with it after all. There's nothing graphic, but it certainly isn't appropriate and I shudder to think of anyone believing this method might actually help an abuse victim know what "real love" is. As intriguing as the philosophical question of evil as necessary for true good is, the presentation of romance as a series of forced events has me dropping the rest of the series in the virtual trash heap unread.

To sum it up, the book actually seems more like a teen fantasy in print written by someone who has taken his cues from popular movie depictions of romance.

An enjoyable fantasy that's a little on the unbelievable side at times, but the action is well-paced and the primary characters of Kyrin and Alric are nicely developed. I would classify this novel as science-fantasy because it combines the concepts of alternate dimensions and traveling between them via portals with an fashioned conflict between Good and Evil, which are ably represented by their gods Daemionis and Sithias. This is also a traditional reluctant love story that ends predictably, but is still consistent with the plot and world building. Dimension Shifter is not bad at all, and I am interested enough in this milieu to read one of the other books in this series.