[Review] Katana by Cole Gibson

Katana
Katana #1
Cole Gibson
March 8th, 2012
Flux
375 pages

Amazon/Book Depository/B&N

Skater girl or supernatural samurai? Rileigh Martin wants to believe that adrenaline gave her the strength to fend off three muggers in the mall parking lot. But adrenaline doesn't explain the voice in her head giving her battle tips and warnings.

While worrying that she's going crazy (always a reputation ruiner), Rileigh gets a visit from Kim, a handsome martial arts instructor, who tells Rileigh she's harboring the spirit of a five-hundred-year-old samurai warrior.

Relentlessly attacked by ninjas, Rileigh has no choice but to master the katana--a deadly Japanese sword that's also the key to her past. As the spirit grows stronger and her feelings for Kim intensify, Rileigh is torn between continuing as the girl she's always been and embracing the warrior inside her.

 So, I'm reading along and about 100 pages from the end, things go down.

 Most of the book is spent with the hero fighting an internal battle. She's supposed to be this reincarnated magical force manipulating samurai. She just want's to continue on with her normal life. Both lives collide with interesting results and even though I'd encountered this trope before, I didn't see the bad guy coming.

The only reason this book is higher than two lazer pistols for me is that the last hundred or so pages coalesced into something very fun and interesting. The three hundred pages prior, while full of random flashbacks, attacks and revelations is somehow dull. It must be the teenage apathy leaking through. Nothing seemed urgent. The main character struggled to form reality back to what it was, even though it that was moving farther from the truth.

This book has a love triangle, which is somewhat daunting because it keeps getting brought up. Obviously, she didn't have time for romance at that point in time. It seem hoisted upon us, and what could have been an interesting meeting between two souls from a past life turned into something cheap because the girl had gone on one date with a guy a couple days prior and it caused her to have a constant internal struggle. Coffee doesn't mean you have to marry him, girl.

I'm sure that now that Rileigh has merged with her samurai self (Senshi, really? Her name is warrior? Did she change her name to that or did her concubine mother come up with that?) that the next book will be full of less teenage angst. It will perhaps explain the few inconsistencies with actual confidence instead of meandering around a premise and winging it.