The Prophecy: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 4)

The Healer needs to repair the vail between the worlds of darkness and light but she has to be able to see it first. The Prophecy concerns her but the modern translation of it is incorrect. This last book of The Healer has Hope and her followers seeking the scroll that contains the true translation. A very surprising twist in the story will have you taking a 360 degree turn trying to figure out what will happen next. I appreciated all the background information Ms Anaya had to have studied in order to provide some authenticity to The Healer’s supporting group and the scenes she described. I loved her characters as they were described. They were very well fleshed out. Some had significant roles to play. In their search to find the scroll with they correct translation, they had to face many dangerous situations. At just the right times there would be some comic relief, and at other times there would be some sweet moments. This book was also terribly romantic. Lots of angst and slow burn with a certain couple, while another couple would be off and on in a blink. Many heart-wrenching experiences made me do some serious introspection. However, I loved the ending! A very satisfying HEA. This is a series I can definitely highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of the entire healer series for free to give a voluntary honest review. This is the review of the fourth book in the series and contains only my own thoughts and opinions of The Prophecy.

I don’t understand. What happened and how it could differ so so much? The second and third book of the Healer series, that takes place in feudal Japan, are absolutely beautifully perfect and intensely addictive. But as soon as the storyline takes us back to real time and the modern world the story just falls apart. Yeah, you can already tell where this review is going, considering that this entire book took place in the modern world.

I think the thing that disappointed me most was how good the first chapter was. I got exactly what I have obsessively waited for through the series as I’ve read. Tie and Hope (or Musubi and Mikomi as I prefer. They were more likable in historical Japan) could finally be together as they wanted and I got to see the romantic and also the flirting and teasing side of their relationship play out, as it had before as well … until the next chapter, and the rest of the book. It was like the author just gave up on them and finished their protagonist roles in the series, but weirdly enough kept Hope as the narrator. Instead she started throwing in Angie of all people and her love problems and love triangle of cat and warrior in my face. In. Every. Single. Page. Excuse me, but I read this series for Mikomi and Musubi. I kept reading because I wanted to find out and follow them to their happy ending. Do not waste my time by just dropping them and making Angie (the most unlikable, trying-too-to-hard-to-be-funny, getting-in-peoples-businesses and interrupting-good-scenes,character) the protagonist out of nowhere. Every time Hope observed or spied on Angie’s love affairs (unrealistically all the time) this mantra of “I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care” was going on repeat in my head.

All I wanted was to read about the actual main couple and there were were so few moments of them together and when they were together it was rushed with no flirting or good dialogue. Basically, zero passion I could feel between them. The effort meant for their relationship was instead directed on Angie, Victor and Bishu. I swear there were more scenes about them than the actual main couple and that just made me so angry. This entire series until now had been about Hope and Tie so why would I suddenly give a damn about those three, one who was barely in the series before and the other not at all? I get that C.J. Anaya is using this book as an opportunity to introduce and lead her readers to the next book about Angie and It’s fine to hint at it, but this was not hinting. No, what happened was that the other three characters took over the story entirely and left the real relationship I was invested in behind in the dumpster.

There is a phrase, “too good to be true”, and in books that is “too good to be believable”. That is perfectly implied for this book. Everyone miraculously overcomes everything and conveniently get their perfect endings. Even the villain suddenly is the good guy and get his perfect ending. For spouting about to love is to sacrifice and having love and sacrifice as a main subject there is very little sacrifice actually happening, since the sacrifices that are made becomes unmade unrealistically and looses all its value. No one died in the past and no one dies now because they were given life back. The unloving mother is suddenly loving. The warrior who lost his soul mate is suddenly, without pain or complaints, okay with that and starts pining for annoying Angie and acting like Hope was never his love interest. Every past life is way to conveniently present in this life. It is literally too good to be true and therefore way way too unrealistic. The worst part is how rushed everything becomes just for the fact that the author strife too hard to make it unrealistically perfect for everyone involved. There is no feeling behind it, no real struggle or bad consequences they have to deal with even. Sacrifice is misused because no one sacrifices anything.

If the entire series were the second and third book only I would not hesitate to give the series five stars. But for the fact of the first and fourth book I can only place it at around three stars. I am however very grateful to CJ Anaya for the opportunity and I do not regret reading the series. It was an amazing experience and though things could be improved and worked on, I enjoyed the journey for the most part. Thank you CJ Anaya!