Roger’s gift, or curse, is to be able to cross over and visit the Land of the Dead. For most of his life, his cruel uncle has used Roger to prey on the hopes of simple common folk who want to speak to their lost loved ones. But when his uncle is killed in part of a failed attempt to wreck and rob a ship, innocent Roger falls on the mercy of the ship captain’s widow. She grudgingly writes a letter of recommendation for Roger and the hapless, naive teen finds himself as a laundress in the palace of one of the country’s rival Queens. When his gift comes to the younger Queen’s attention, his life changes as she begins to use him to gain information on her rival Queen. Once part of the court, Roger falls in love with the bewitching Lady Cecilia and with every step he makes towards her, he’s drawn in deeper to the politics and intrigue of court life. Soon Roger is trapped by the web of courtly politics in a Queendom on the brink of war, bound by secrets he’s too naive to understand, and torn apart by love and lust. And all the while the foreboding, frightening mystery of Soulvine Moor and his mother’s death haunts him. Roger eventually realizes he has the power to set things right but only by performing a deed so unthinkable that the worlds of living and the dead will never be the same again.
While the initial idea behind Anna Kendall’s Crossing Over is intriguing, the execution gets bogged down in a slow pace, flat characters, and meandering plot that isn’t very compelling or engaging. Palace intrigue and court politics make up the largest part of this supernatural coming-of-age story, and there are too many loose tangents and unfulfilled ideas floating around that the reader has to be committed to both the narrative and to the characters to make it through to the lackluster ending. Roger is naive, obtuse, and stubborn and he’s prone to fits of lust that are unnecessary to both the plot and the attempts at character development. Kendall leaves a lot of unanswered questions and loose ends which she may plan to resolve or flush out in the next 2 proposed books, but it may not be worth it to wait for them.
- Posted by Cori