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Scribes Wet Ink Book One
Zane Cooper never imagined he possessed the power to step inside the pages of the books he read. But his carefully planned future is upended when he discovers this extraordinary gift. However, this remarkable power comes at a great cost—Zane is thrust into a centuries-old conflict that threatens everything and everyone he holds dear.
Now hunted by Die Vater, a ruthless organization bent on eradicating those with his gift and using them to reshape the world, Zane is forced to leave behind his old life and seek refuge in a hidden sanctuary where magic, wonder, and friendship intertwine.
As the world around him teeters on the brink of destruction, Zane must learn to control his powers in this strange new mystical reality, where danger and betrayal lurk at every corner. To protect those he loves and the ideals he believes in, Zane must navigate a labyrinth of mysticism and peril. With the help of the enigmatic Scribes, he vows to fight for justice and rewrite his destiny.
Can Zane rise above the darkness and fulfill his dream of helping others, or will he be consumed by the very forces he seeks to defeat?
Now hunted by Die Vater, a ruthless organization bent on eradicating those with his gift and using them to reshape the world, Zane is forced to leave behind his old life and seek refuge in a hidden sanctuary where magic, wonder, and friendship intertwine.
As the world around him teeters on the brink of destruction, Zane must learn to control his powers in this strange new mystical reality, where danger and betrayal lurk at every corner. To protect those he loves and the ideals he believes in, Zane must navigate a labyrinth of mysticism and peril. With the help of the enigmatic Scribes, he vows to fight for justice and rewrite his destiny.
Can Zane rise above the darkness and fulfill his dream of helping others, or will he be consumed by the very forces he seeks to defeat?
414 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 24, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 10, 2025
1.5 stars rounded up.
I really really really wanted to like this book.
This was one of my top anticipated ARCs for this month, and I'm really sad that it didn't live up to the expectations and hopes I had for it. When I read the blurb for this one, it seemed like a really interesting concept, and that paired with the cover art made a really positive impression on me. I still think the concept has a lot of potential, and I can tell that the author has a powerful imagination that can create fun and interesting ideas and settings. I just wish the execution had been better.
There were a lot of weaknesses with this book. First of all, the plot used "telling" almost exclusively instead of "showing." As the reader, I was informed of characters' decisions, motivations, and experiences without being able to experience those things for myself or live through the character's thought process and development that led to their changes in opinions and motivations. I think I could have handled the "telling" a lot better if the characterization was more consistent. In many ways, it felt like the author wrote the story by imagining individual scenes and then pulling them together to make a novel. The characters' decisions made sense within the individual scenes, but the necessities of any given scene seemed to outweigh the character's overall personality and arc. The same character would be sassy and smart, cute and funny, or stoic and reserved based on the tropes and atmosphere of a given scene, which meant that the characters' personalities seemed to be in a constant state of flux. For me, that made it hard to relate to or connect with the individual characters since they never felt like fully formed people. In addition the macro level worldbuilding could have used more nuancing. I never felt like I ever fully understood the stakes or why the villains would choose to pursue the course of action that they did. The stated reason for the villains' actions seemed much more like a way to create a big evil entity for the characters to fight against than a real and present evil that I could see real people choosing to support in the real world, and that made it harder for me to take the villains seriously as threats to the characters. Finally, this book would have benefitted from more editing. The pacing was strange, and there were a pretty high number of spelling mistakes, line breaks in the middle of sentences or words, and randomly hyphenated words ("camp-us," "express-ions, "mat-erialized," etc.) that were confusing and distracting.
I am unlikely to continue reading this series, but I might try this author again in a few years when he's had a chance to better hone his technical writing to more powerfully communicate his ideas.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really really really wanted to like this book.
This was one of my top anticipated ARCs for this month, and I'm really sad that it didn't live up to the expectations and hopes I had for it. When I read the blurb for this one, it seemed like a really interesting concept, and that paired with the cover art made a really positive impression on me. I still think the concept has a lot of potential, and I can tell that the author has a powerful imagination that can create fun and interesting ideas and settings. I just wish the execution had been better.
There were a lot of weaknesses with this book. First of all, the plot used "telling" almost exclusively instead of "showing." As the reader, I was informed of characters' decisions, motivations, and experiences without being able to experience those things for myself or live through the character's thought process and development that led to their changes in opinions and motivations. I think I could have handled the "telling" a lot better if the characterization was more consistent. In many ways, it felt like the author wrote the story by imagining individual scenes and then pulling them together to make a novel. The characters' decisions made sense within the individual scenes, but the necessities of any given scene seemed to outweigh the character's overall personality and arc. The same character would be sassy and smart, cute and funny, or stoic and reserved based on the tropes and atmosphere of a given scene, which meant that the characters' personalities seemed to be in a constant state of flux. For me, that made it hard to relate to or connect with the individual characters since they never felt like fully formed people. In addition the macro level worldbuilding could have used more nuancing. I never felt like I ever fully understood the stakes or why the villains would choose to pursue the course of action that they did. The stated reason for the villains' actions seemed much more like a way to create a big evil entity for the characters to fight against than a real and present evil that I could see real people choosing to support in the real world, and that made it harder for me to take the villains seriously as threats to the characters. Finally, this book would have benefitted from more editing. The pacing was strange, and there were a pretty high number of spelling mistakes, line breaks in the middle of sentences or words, and randomly hyphenated words ("camp-us," "express-ions, "mat-erialized," etc.) that were confusing and distracting.
I am unlikely to continue reading this series, but I might try this author again in a few years when he's had a chance to better hone his technical writing to more powerfully communicate his ideas.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
May 8, 2025
What a breath of fresh air. As the first instalment, Scribes Wet Ink is paving the way to becoming a fantastical book series. With adrenaline-inducing action sequences, to provocative language perfectly setting up the scene to create an atmosphere of trepidation & anticipation of the future.
I love how Zane, our MMC, is a brainy guy and he has been caught up in a situation where he has no choice in the matter. He is authentically himself and is as loyal as they come. He is awkward at first but once he finds his footing, it is a treasure to watch him form into a strong, confident individual 🏹.
I actually cannot put into words the intricacies of the thought gone into the plot specifics, changes in POV, and the twists-and-turns in this book. A real gem is the sporadic use of personal monologue, allowing us a better insight into the internal processing of events from the characters perspective 📖.
These are the types of stories that make reading enjoyable and keep us, the reader, on our toes 😊 I can’t wait for the next instalment.
Many thanks to Victory Editing & NetGalley for a copy. All above opinions are uniquely my own.
I love how Zane, our MMC, is a brainy guy and he has been caught up in a situation where he has no choice in the matter. He is authentically himself and is as loyal as they come. He is awkward at first but once he finds his footing, it is a treasure to watch him form into a strong, confident individual 🏹.
I actually cannot put into words the intricacies of the thought gone into the plot specifics, changes in POV, and the twists-and-turns in this book. A real gem is the sporadic use of personal monologue, allowing us a better insight into the internal processing of events from the characters perspective 📖.
These are the types of stories that make reading enjoyable and keep us, the reader, on our toes 😊 I can’t wait for the next instalment.
Many thanks to Victory Editing & NetGalley for a copy. All above opinions are uniquely my own.
July 20, 2025
The way i did not want this book to end!!!! wow, this blew my mind! it has an incredible plot, interesting characters, amazing world building, & phenomenal adventures! It's a great book for all ages. This book has amazing friendships and betrayal that leave them vulnerable to who they could really trust. the best way to describe this would be chronicles of Narnia, meets Harry Potter, meets, Ready Player One, and then throw in a little hunger games for some mini heart-attacks!. this story will forever live rent-free in my mind! ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL! I wish this could be a movie!
June 10, 2025
Unfortunately, Scribes Wet Ink just didn’t work for me. I struggled to connect with the characters—they felt distant and underdeveloped, which made it hard to stay invested in the story. On top of that, the writing style wasn’t to my taste. It felt overly stylized at times, which pulled me out of the narrative rather than drawing me in. While the premise had potential, the execution left me disengaged. Just not a good fit for my reading preferences.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews