Review: Colorworld by Rachel E Kelly

Hey all, Dani here.

So I feel like I need to review this book…again. Why? A) Because it is the start to one of my favorite book series and B) the review I had up online was on my old blog which was deleted.

I’ve talked about Colorworld Books before, but I decided that for the next few weeks I would go back and review the series once again in the hopes that more people would be intrigued by the story and go pick up a copy.

This series is to have seven books in total; four have been published so far and book five is supposed to be out sometime in 2016, and boy am I looking forward to the release of Dreamworld. But today is not about book five in this awesome series. No, it is about the one that started it all.

Welcome to Colorworld.

Summary

Wen knows what love looks like. Since her mom died over a year ago, she’s seen it every day on her orphaned younger brother’s face. Wen’s made good on her promise to her mom that she’d take care of Ezra, even quitting her carefree party-girl ways to become a hard-working college student so she can provide for him.

Wen knows what love feels like, too. Because when she touches people, she feels what they do. “Uniquely perceptive” is what her mom called it, and Wen’s not going to argue; she doesn’t know any different.

But an energy therapy study changes not only what Wen knows about her unusual gift; it also changes her. Now, instead of feeling emotions, her touch brings death to others. No one is safe around her, especially Ezra.

Wen turns to energy healers for help. And that’s where she meets him: Mr. Tenacious and Audacious, Gabe Dumas. He knows about love, too; he speaks it in ways Wen has never experienced. And he’s never even touched her.

With her heart unravelling, Wen discovers a world only she can see. It may offer hope for her condition… or it may be better left hidden. *Intended for 16 and up

My Thoughts

This is the book series I recommend to just about everyone I meet, provided I can tell that they are a reader, or if they just ask for recommendations. I first learned of this series at Wizard World Ohio Comic Con in 2014, when the first two books were out and the third was scheduled for release at the end of the year.

Now, I’ll say that it’s pretty easy for authors to sell books to me at signings or conventions, because I love to read. But what first caught my attention for this series, was that classic Colorworld bubble cover. It’s just so incredibly eye-catching and it made me walk over to the table. (And now I also have a Colorworld bubble poster and bookmark. It is just such an awesome image. In fact all of the cover photos are photos of soap bubbles, which is just fantastic and stunning).

When I then learned that the book was about this girl who has empathic abilities who went in for an energy therapy study to earn some extra cash and walked out with lethal touch, I knew I had to at least try it. So I bought the first three books in a bundle package, getting the first two that day with the third to be mailed to me.

I read Colorworld really quickly. The characters were interesting and the story was compelling. Yes, I will admit that I caught a few spelling and grammar issues, things like typing heroine instead of heroin, but that didn’t really distract me from the story too much.

Also, I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a fan of insta-love because it seems a tad unrealistic. Insta-attraction I can understand. However, I think that in the case of this book I’m okay with the insta-love because Wendy is an empath and feels the emotions of those around her. So when Gabe is standing there projecting his feelings about and towards her, it’s only natural that Wendy almost instantly reciprocates.

And Gabe is an attractive and intelligent young man.

My favorite part of this series, though he is slightly a minor character in this first book, is Wendy’s brother, Ezra. He is such a wonderful fanboy and I love his excitement of things. The fact that he so easily gets behind the fact that his sister is now basically a superhero is just so fun to watch.

Most of the story has a sort of slow pace, as Wendy tries to figure out how to live without being able to have skin-to-skin contact with anyone. In the last third or so of the book the pace really picks up as Wendy really starts putting together the pieces and everything becomes more complicated.

Colorworld absolutely sets up the premise and idea for what will happen in the rest of the series, and it’s fun to think of where her journey continues in the next three books already released, and then to imagine just what awesome twists, turns, and revelations will happen in the remaining three books.

Oh, did I also mention that an Illustrated version has been released as well? No, well, I’ll do that now. It still contains the same text from the original version, but spaced throughout the book there are illustrated pages that show important scenes. Each book has a different artist working on it, so each book has a different art style. So far the first three books have been released in Illustrated Editions and the fourth book should be coming very soon. I’m very much looking to a re-read of Shadoworld when I get my Illustrated Edition.

Team Colorworld is also working on bringing Colorworld to life as a comic series, so that should be really awesome as well.

Basically if you were a fan of the TV show Heroes (primarily the first season or two), and if you like complex characters with a multitude of layers, and the idea of superpowers that have a fairly strong basis in science and theory, then I very much recommend that you pick up a copy of Colorworld today.

Overall I ended up giving Colorworld a 4.5 star rating.

Where to Buy

You can pick this book up at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, but I highly highly recommend that you go straight to the source, and get a signed copy from the Colorworld store. You can also check out some amazing art prints, metal prints, bookmarks, and more.

Stop back next week when I post my review of the second book in the series, Teleworld.