Malaika

A man running away from his problems runs to Kenya and develops an unlikely friendship with Malaika the Lioness.
She is a real lion peeps. This is a sweet story but it dragged a bit. I'm not sure if I was just really tired or what but it took me a while to get through this short story. It was well written I just felt it was a bit slow at times. It read as a memoir. I came to love the characters in the book. I have to say that the one thing the author was on point with was to capture the spiritual feeling, understanding and connection between Malaika and this man who is rather lost. This story can be intense and emotionally charged which is great because it adds to the realness of the story.

I think its an enjoyable read and think that it was pretty cool for a Kindle FREEBIE! Pick it up and read read read!

For some reason, I expected more from this story. Maybe I was just drawn in by the cover art. In any case, the story, about a man befriended by a lioness, didn't satisfy me. It wasn't a particularly new concept, and ended just as one would expect. The human protagonist changes very little, and to be frank, I never got very interested in him. A number of resonances and metaphors are set up, but I found I just didn't much care.

I did like the concept - friendship with a lioness despite outside pressures - but there wasn't much more there. I was disappointed that the story didn't really go anywhere. With some minor exceptions, Heerling does capture the feeling of East Africa with some accuracy, which was nice.

The language somewhat ponderous, especially in the prologue. Even within those few pages, I wondered whether I'd make it through the book, and was pleased to find it quite short. The prose improved with the main story, but never reached the level of fluidity that would have allowed me to ignore it completely.

All in all, moderately interesting, but never really engaging story.