Faces in the Water (The Shades of Venice, #1) by Tonya Macalino

Amazon/Barnes&Noble

Published by: Crystal Mosaic Books

Review by: Dani Hoots

ho created that slide of silk across your skin as you reached for your cinematic lover?Who recorded the crushing weight of the grizzly as you fought for your life in the fictional wilderness? It is Lone Pine Pictures’ Alyse Kate Bryant who wraps your body in the story only your mind was privy to before.

A brilliant sensory immersion artist and a wild daredevil, Alyse will do almost anything for the perfect sensory file, but the violent death of her father has her teetering on the very edge of reckless sanity.

For just one night, Alyse seeks refuge in the arms of a beautiful stranger.

And her recklessness finally has consequences.

Now Alyse finds herself trapped in the flooded ruins of Venice, a quarantine camp for the carriers of Sleepers’ Syndrome. But it can never be that simple. Because the Sleepers’ Syndrome carriers who populate the camp are no longer as human as they seem.

The city of legend is bringing its legends back to life.

They come now, Alyse.

Run.

*Back Cover taken from Amazon*

Set in the future, this story’s world is very well developed and fascinating. Macalino did a great job establishing her world and let the reader get the information they needed to understand what’s going on. There were only a few areas where I was sort of confused, especially as to what exactly the main character was. It took a little bit to wrap my head around, but in the end I was able to understand the world.

The main character Alyse was pretty interesting, although I got confused as to what was going on with her near the end. There are a lot of questions not answered and I want to know what was going to happen to Alyse. She was pretty entertaining, although I was getting a little bored in the second half of the book as most of it was her trying to escape. I think it could have happened a little faster and given the character a little more depth.

The story itself was written really well and the world very well thought out. It wasn’t my sort of story, though, as it was sort of a medical, futuristic, paranormal thriller, and that isn’t quite my genre. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was still entertaining. If you like that genre, do check it out. You will not be disappointed.

I give this novel a 4/5, as there was a bit of a slow patch near the three-quarter mark, but it was really well developed. I could have had a bit more of an arc for the character, as I don’t feel she changed that much, but more just discovered something. If you like paranormal, medical thrillers, or futuristic stories, this is definitely a story to check out.