Shanti is a songstress with a curse to remain faceless, so she hides behind a mask. There are so many questions that surround her and the primary one is “What is your first memory?” Easy enough right? Except it isn’t. She is living and yet isn’t alive. No feeling, no memory, no pulse. She is a mysterious being.

Reno is the counterpart to this story and he is a florist with a similar mystery surrounding him, he has no recollection of his first memory and when he’s approached and prodded into recalling what that first memory is it begins to set things in motion.

Soon events transpire and it all makes you think.

Woodson does well to create this world by way of description. Perhaps a little too much at times, and not just the world but when emoting, there tends to be too much.

“Situated over the river, flowing into the heart of the city, groups of tourist piled near the maroon railings in hopes of capturing the perfect photo, while locals tried their best to worm their way around them.”

And there is…

“Be careful of the words you say and what you think. Flowers, especially the one you have in your possession, are a lot like humans. They need love to grow.”

While there were absolute moments of beauty I found it easy to grow lost amidst the book in both good and bad ways, initially, it was I was able to dive into the story, but when too many instances of flowery wordsmithing began to creep in I found myself getting lost in the words and not so much the plot or the characters. It became more of a distraction than a tool to help me engage. For this reason, the book dropped down two ratings to become a 3.

Edit: Allow me to elaborate! I feel as though I should clarify my critique, which I believe to be more of a personal preference. Woodson’s writing is absolutely beautiful and more like reading poetry, which offered distraction [for me,] from the story. I’d get lost in his beautiful lines which, hey, to be driven to distraction by bewitching wordsmithing is not particularly a bad thing, unless it detracts from the story and in this case, it did that for me.

I do believe Woodson is an author to be on the look out for, though.He’s certainly on my radar.

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J.D. Woodson was born Chicago, Illinois in 1992. He grew up in Palos Park, a quiet suburb southwest of Chicago. During his early years, J.D. gained a fondness towards poetry and continued to writing it through primary school and high school, winning small awards for his work. He would attend Columbia College Chicago with intent to major in poetry, however he shifted his focus and major to Fiction Writing due to his love for storytelling. After his sophomore year, he would take a leave of absence to study outside of the workshop method he was taught and gained experience as a ghostwriter which his projects spanned from fiction to non-fiction. To read more about J.D., you can visit him on his website.

Click here  or visit Royal James Publishing’s Facebook page to enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card and a signed copy of  A Space Between Worlds Vol.1: Conception by J.D. Woodson.

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