Title: Princess Reigns
Author: Roger Williams
Publisher: BooksGoSocial
ISBN: 9798532401693
Pages: 290
Genre: Thriller
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
Hollywood Book Reviews
One woman’s religious charlatan acts turn malicious when she discovers a means to wealth in Roger Williams’s debut, Princess Reigns.
Ava Myles-Edwards is the pastor of a small church in Del Toray, California. A beloved, charismatic speaker, her congregation knows her as Princess Ava. Although the twenty-eight-year-old is drop-dead gorgeous at the outset, she has nothing less than a vicious and vindictive Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. Driven by greed and power, Ava’s highest aspirations are to become more influential and popular than her rival reverend from the church down away, who draws in more congregants than hers. Ava also plans to become a millionaire by the time she’s thirty-four. But to accomplish the latter, she needs to find a way to accrue more money than the church rakes in for her.
Tori Edwards decides the best place to build her detective agency is in her hometown of Del Toray. But returning home after college and starting her business is bittersweet. Tori loves her father and Susy, her sweet and smart ten-year-old sister. However, the last people she wants to have anything to do with are her haughty stepmother, Ava, who is only a year older than her, and Ava’s bratty ten-year-old son, Jimmy. It was tough enough losing her mother to sickness. Still, when her spineless father decides to marry Ava, Tori fears for Susy’s life. For whatever reason, it is apparent to Tori that Ava loathes Susy. Little does Tori know that Ava has more than hatred up her sleeve, especially when she sees Susy as her best target for attaining wealth.
Rising author Roger Williams grooms his audience during the beginning pages of his debut with a clear description of the book’s antagonist, Ava Myles-Edwards. She is truly a chameleon whose changeable qualities are purely dark and evil. That said, Williams’s opening depiction sets an overarching maleficent tone to his narrative. The remainder of his cast may appear stereotypical, but don’t be fooled. Amid clichéd and quasi-hackneyed characters are numerous unanticipated scenes.
Williams’s approach to storytelling presents a well-rounded view into the world of his principal and supporting cast. To accomplish that task, Williams continually alternates character scenes. Williams maximizes the use of this literary tool to create behind-the-scene operations that, again, may appear unoriginal but only give a glimpse into an ominous prediction. As the narrative plays out, Williams ramps things up by shifting from straight-forward alternating chapter scenes to alternating scenes within each chapter. While this technique is not uncommon to building tension, Williams uses the scenes to twist his storyline and shape it into riveting action. One seriously needs to read Princess Reigns to the very end to get the full picture.
Princess Reigns offers fans another author to keep on their thriller radar.