About the Book:

Title: Tompkin’s School: For The Extraordinarily Talented (Tompkin’s School Trilogy Book 1)

Publication date: Published April 19th 2016 by Crane & Company Press

Edition: Kindle Edition, 418 pages

Blurb:

Izara Torvik thought her life was over the moment that her father sent her and her twin brother to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She soon discovers that the school is not as ordinary as she thought and finds herself thrown into a battle against her inner demons that only have one desire…the desire to kill.

Once my body stopped trembling, I picked myself up. It felt strange, my feet seemed to fall much lighter on the ground than normal. My head also felt a bit fuzzy. I turned and froze as I caught myself in the reflection of a full-length mirror. I glided forward to get a closer look. My eyelids had sunken into my skull and my eyes were red! I reached up to touch my pallid skin only to gawk at my hands. My fingernails had been replaced with dark, black claws.
“I’m a monster,” I hissed.
My eyes flashed up to meet my reflection once again and soon my clawed hands were the least of my worries. Two black, very large things were moving ever so slightly, blocking the reflection of the rest of the room. I looked over my shoulder to find large, black feathered, wings…

My Review:

A book I do not quite understand. I know it’s the first book from the series and that the story is far more complex than the first book and I know that probably book 2 is much much better than book one, but my task at the moment is to judge “Tompkin’s School: For The Extraordinarily Talented”, not the series. I will decide the rating as I go on with the review, so bear with me some more lines please.

Izara and Kain are sent away from home by a father who apparently gave more credit to his new wife than to his own children. They are sent off to Tompkin’s and this is the last we hear about the parental figures in their lives. Ok, I am ok with that… they make friends, they fall in love, they go to school, parties after and they discover a new side of their personalities. They discover they have a new type of connection, a pull towards the unnatural, even the evil. Here is where I got lost.

The story is very good, with a dose of mystery that keeps your mind connected to the twins’ story. But at some point there are so many unnecessary paragraphs that break the link with what’s really important. Just to give you an example without going into details: during the night, the twins do something unimaginable, but then they go to school and life goes on. I noticed that to the end of the book, the focus on the real action is more and more intense. And the ending? Unbelievable!!! What was that?? (Oh, I’m saying this in a good way absolutely!)

 

Except Izara and Kain, all other characters are either too normal or too mysterious. We have Lee and Kia who are in love with them; we have Amadeus and later on Chuck who are surrounded by a fog of uncertainty. I have yet to decide if these two, together with our main characters are good or bad. I am not sure who the good guys in the story are. I’d say for sure Lea and Kia, but who knows what the next book will offer?

Well, my dear reader, thank you for getting to this part with me. I’ll stick with a 4 stars rating (4 stars for the story, 4 stars for the characters and 3 stars for the writing style = 3.66 ~ 4 stars). Even if I am a bit frustrated by the ending and the fact that I don’t have the slightest clue on how the story will go on, I loved it. It made me go to the next page and then the next one, it left me hanging till part 2. Which is good, after my standards. Read it, but by the entire series. Or at least book one and 2 so you won’t feel as I did 🙂 Enjoy !

About the Author:

Tabi Slick was born in Kansas and grew up in the country where she was homeschooled for the greater part of her childhood. In middle school, her family moved to Davis Oklahoma where she attended public school for several years. Here she began her writing adventure and soon the world of Tompkin’s Academy came to life. After graduating from high school in 2008, she spent a few years in Puerto Rico and wound up in Texas where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington. She was born with an immense appreciation for literature and continues to dedicate her time to her passion of writing.

Twitter:  tabislick