Category: Fantasy
The Shattered Court by M. J. Scott
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…
The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.
Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.
Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.…
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
It was the cover that attracted my attention and the blurb that piqued my interest but in the end it was M. J. Scott’s amazing writing that made me fall in love with the book.
In The Shattered Court, Scott has created a beautiful fantasy world full of mystery and magic, intrigue and innocence, loyalty and betrayal. It’s definitely a world of duality where nothing is as it seems, particularly toward the end of the novel. The way Scott set up the whole magic system in Anglion is just brilliant. There are four known types of magic, you see, but women (especially royal women) are only allowed to practice earth magic, which seems to be one of the weaker magics in general. Air magic and especially water magic are forbidden and knowledge of them is extremely limited. In the neighbouring kingdom of Illvya things are quite different but the royal family restricts knowledge of the other kingdom almost as much as they restrict the trade with it.
Enter into this world our protagonist Lady Sophia, who prefers the name Sophie. She’s about to turn 21, the age when all witches’ powers will manifest or not when there is an attack on the royal castle in Anglion. Since she was in the lower town gathering magical supplies with the Crown Princess’ own bodyguard, Cameron Mackenzie, she is whisked away to the country where it’s safer. So not only does she not have the proper Ais-Seann ceremony on her 21st birthday, she does something rather unconventional that really is problematic when you consider the fact that she’s supposed to be properly bound in a marriage ceremony instead of on a ley line with a mere third son (the aforementioned Cameron). When she gets back to court and discovers who lived and who died in the vicious attack that destroyed much of the palace, her life is forever changed. Suddenly, Sophie isn’t sure who to trust, even though she was utterly devoted to Eloisa, the Crown Princess. Now that she’s manifested and moved up in the line of succession due to a number of deaths it seems that everyone at court wants a piece of her. And trust me when I say that things quickly get complicated.
Although Sophie is sort of the main focus of the story we also get to see things from Cameron’s point of view. Of all the characters I think it’s Cameron that undergoes the biggest change throughout the story. He goes from being Eloisa’s lover to being a sort of outcast in court for his actions. He also loses his overbearing father who constantly pushed him to take advantage of his role as Eloisa’s lover to advance in court. But when Sophie and he are accidentally and inextricably bound, things get a heck of a lot more complicated than he would have liked. Cameron moves up in the world but learns that he and the woman he loves are in more danger than he ever dreamed possible. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but let’s just say his new love leads him to change his loyalties pretty quickly and make some very hard decisions, particularly toward the end of the book.
The plot is quite fast-paced. We’re introduced to Anglion and the two main characters and then the attack on the castle happens just as we’re getting our bearings. While there are some slower parts, Scott never really lets up with the tension because there’s always a sort of unseen threat lurking in the background. Who was behind the attacks? And who is unhappy enough with Sophie’s unconventional bonding that they would actually threaten her life? As Sophie and Cameron struggle to unravel the mystery of who essentially bombed the castle, they’re faced with a whole host of other dilemmas as they start to make certain powerful people uncomfortable with all of their digging. Again, I don’t want to give away some of the plot twists because they’re awesome but let’s just say that more than one person would happily silence Sophie or Cameron (or both) in a heartbeat.
So here we have a vivid, rich fantasy world populated by complex and interesting characters. If The Shattered Court just had that going for it I would have fallen in love with it but with the plot twists and the constant tension throughout the narrative there was no doubt that I would love this book. The cliffhanger ending was good because it resolved some of the initial questions in the story but left a lot of new questions to be answered in the second book. And believe me when I say that I’m very eagerly awaiting the next book even though this first book won’t actually be published until April 28th of this year. Yes, it was just that good.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.
Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who’s determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She’s not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.
But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process?
[Full disclosure: I asked for and received a free ebook copy from Amanda Hocking’s publicist after I realized I had been approved for the second book on NetGalley without reading the first. This is, as always, an honest review.]
One of the things that really intrigued me in the Trylle series was the trackers. More specifically, why the lowborn trolls with few talents would ever want to protect the rich and ungrateful nobles of their world and bring back their changeling offspring. What drives them to become trackers when they could probably quite easily assimilate into the human world? And what about the inner workings of tracking? How does one go about it? What’s a good success rate? What is the training like? These weren’t questions that made the ending of the Trylle series unsatisfying but they did leave Amanda Hocking a lot more room for expansion, which is how this spin-off series came about.
If you’re expecting to see lots of the characters from the original trilogy, you’ll probably be disappointed. We meet Flinn briefly and there are mentions of the reforms of Loki and Wendy in their tribe but they don’t feature at all. Instead, we focus on the Kanin tribe of trolls which are of course the same species but have a very different culture while keeping the same essential troll traits: changeling children and a ridiculously rigid societal hierarchy. Trackers are employed to find changeling children once they come of age and yet they’re still looked down upon. The only real difference in Kanin society is that there’s an elite group of trackers called the Hogdragen that guard the royal family specifically. It’s a great honour to become one and that’s really where our story begins.
Bryn wants nothing more than to become a member of the Hogdragen. She always has to work extra hard to prove she’s worthy not only because she’s a female tracker (and that’s exceptionally rare) but also because she’s half Skojare, a more water-loving breed of troll. Even amongst the lowly trackers there’s a hierarchy and half-breeds are definitely at the low end of it, even if her parents were both high-ranking members of society who gave up the titles of Markis and Marksinna out of love. When the tracker she admires, Konstantin, tries to kill her father the Chancellor quite randomly and then disappears. Several years later, Bryn meets Konstantin while out to bring back another changeling. He’s not quite the villain she always thought he was but she’s still hungry for vengeance. And that’s really what I love about her character: even when she is attracted to someone she doesn’t let it get in the way of her mission. Yes, she does start to doubt whether or not Konstantin is the awful traitor that everyone (including her) thinks he is, but that’s because she’s never blind to reason and she’s very good at reading people. Konstantin is ambiguous, not evil and it’s really that mystery about him that sets the events of the story in motion.
What I really loved about Bryn as a female lead is that she’s capable of lying and of actually keeping her mouth shut. Sometimes her emotions overrule her but in general she actually keeps her mouth in check when it’s necessary. No popping off state secrets willy-nilly or anything like that, as some YA heroines seem to do with alarming regularity. She’s so focused on being professional that even when she’s attracted to her boss Ridley she tries her best to keep things platonic. Of course it doesn’t always work but she recognizes that any relationship between them would be stupid and improper and so she really does struggle to keep her feelings in check. What a novel, mature idea! She actually acts like she’s a 19 year old, not a 13 year old.
The pacing isn’t always the most fast-paced but in general the intrigue within the different courts and between different people is more than enough to make you keep turning the pages. And when there’s not intrigue, there’s plenty of action. Although Frostfire isn’t constantly exciting in an action movie way, it is always interesting. So much so that this “I’ll just read a couple of chapters” book became a one-sitting book. At just over 300 pages it’s not a particularly long book but it suits Amanda Hocking’s relatively fast pace quite well. When you think about it, she does pack a lot into this little book and the cliffhanger at the ending is satisfying but definitely leaves you wanting the next book, Ice Kissed.
Even if you haven’t read the Trylle trilogy, you will enjoy Frostfire if you’re intrigued by the blurb or this review. I’m not a big fan of some of Amanda Hocking’s other series, but when it comes to trolls she’s definitely a master. She’s clearly put quite a bit of effort into world-building and that really shows in the Kanin Chronicles even more so than it does in the Trylle series. I really can’t wait to see what happens when Bryn encounters some of the other tribes of trolls in the second book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Tale of the Vampire Bride by Rhiannon Frater
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Set in the 1820s, The Tale of the Vampire Bride is sure to thrill fans of vampires of literary past with its lush, gothic atmosphere and terrifying spectacle.
All Lady Glynis Wright ever wanted was the freedom to live life as she pleased, despite her aristocratic parents’ wishes for her to marry into wealth. But her fate is far more terrible than an arranged marriage when her family becomes prisoners to one of the most fearsome and powerful vampires of all time, Count Vlad Dracula.
Imprisoned in the decrepit castle in the Carpathian Mountains, Glynis’s new life as a Bride of Dracula is filled with bloody feasts, cruel beatings, and sexual depravity. There is no hope for escape. Vlad Dracula has elaborate plans to use her familial connections in England and she has become his favored pawn. Even more terrible is the bond of blood between them that keeps Glynis tethered to his side despite her deep hatred of him.
It’s only when Vlad Dracula takes Glynis to the picturesque city of Buda on the Danube River and she meets a mysterious vampire in the darkened city streets, does she dare hope to find love and freedom.
Rhiannon Frater sure wasn’t kidding when she said that this book was ‘gothic horror’ on Goodreads. It’s pretty bloody and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart but at the same time none of the violence is really unnecessary. There’s always a point to it; none of it is gratuitous. And the most important part is that it really jars the reader in the same manner that poor Glynis herself is jarred as she’s thrown into the life of an unwilling wife to one of the most famous psychopaths in history: Vlad the Impaler.
Glynis is a pretty extraordinary woman for her time. She really doesn’t want to get married; she really just wants to be her own woman, independent and free. In her time that’s certainly unconventional but not an impossibility when you have wealth on your side so it’s not like she’s a stand-in for a modern woman. No, she definitely tries to rebel within the narrow confines of society and that’s part of the reason why she runs afoul of Count Dracula and his brides once her family is killed and she is turned. Glynis loves her independence and being raped and controlled by Dracula isn’t exactly being independent. So as she suffers, Glynis begins to plot to gain her freedom by any means possible. I don’t want to give too much away but let’s just say that when Dracula begins to love her in his manner (because realistically he is not the sort of man to fall in real love) it’s the beginning of the end of his reign of terror over poor Glynis and the other brides.
One of the things that struck me the in the first novel I read by Rhiannon Frater, The Last Bastion of the Living, was the complex psychology involved. The Tale of the Vampire Bride is really no different in that it presents some pretty abnormal psychology without condoning or condemning it. She simply portrays the characters without judgment and leaves it up to the reader to figure things out. Is it a result of all of the trauma she’s gone through that Glynis starts to actually feel something (not love) for Dracula? Or is it that she’s finally accepting her vampire life? I personally think it’s a result of the trauma combined with an acceptance of her vampire life but Rhiannon Frater smartly leaves things up to the reader for them to figure out themselves. She’s not one of these authors that tries to beat her readers over the head with the obvious stick. Her writing is subtle and ambiguous, which is perfect for this kind of gothic tale.
I was a little hesitant about this book in the beginning because it starts off relatively slow with Glynis and her family travelling around in Transylvania to try yet again to find Glynis a husband. But things pick up pretty quickly when they get mysteriously diverted to Dracula’s castle and meet the count himself. After that the story involves a lot of the push-pull dynamic between Vlad and Glynis as both of them try to assert their authority. Sometimes Dracula wins, sometimes (particularly toward the end) Glynis wins. She learns to survive and there’s another level of intrigue dropped in when the two of them go to Buda and find that humans aren’t the only things they need to worry about. Glynis’ journey is one of sorrow, torture and strife while at the same time it’s a story of hope, redemption and even love. Even when the pacing itself is slow, it’s hard not to be captivated by the story itself and the amazing, memorable characters.
That’s why even if you’re not a big fan of gothic horror novels, The Tale of the Vampire Bride is worth a try. I certainly didn’t expect to love it as much as I did and maybe you’ll surprise yourself as well.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Éire’s Devil King by Sandi Layne
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
A man of ability and ambition, Tuirgeis Erlingrson has nurtured the desire to carve a place of leadership for himself on the Green Island, Éire, that he has raided multiple times. After the death of his wife in Nordweg, he takes his surviving son to Éire. Having connections with his adopted brother, Cowan, and Agnarr, his former countryman, Tuirgeis feels he has the support he needs to make his claims strong.
Agnarr is torn. His promise to Aislinn to remain with her on Éire is still in force, and he resists Tuirgeis’s requests to join the conquering forces from Nordweg. He desires above all things to maintain a safe home for his wife and children in Dal Fíatach. Charis encourages Cowan to do the same, though this makes for tense moments between them.
After initial disastrous attempts to achieve his ambition, Tuirgeis comes to learn that there is more to claiming a kingship than merely overpowering the locals. Tuirgeis finds himself at odds with the very people he had hoped would reinforce him. In addition, he wants to establish his father-line. He has one son; he wants another to be born of Éire. Will the woman of his choice accept and support him?
At length, Agnarr and Aislinn—though she is heavy with child—sail with Cowan and Charis to join Tuirgeis as he battles over one final summer to attain the High Kingship of the island.
Tuirgeis knows he doesn’t have long to make his claims; the Danes are coming in greater numbers than before. As he wins men of Éire to his cause, he has to maintain the relationships he has already fostered with Agnarr and Cowan. Charis finds that her Otherworldly gifts are needed by a man she considers her enemy.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’m always a little nervous starting the last book in a series that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. Why? It’s usually because I’m worried that the author isn’t able to wrap things up in a satisfying manner, answering most (if not all) questions that arose throughout the series. Sometimes my nervousness is justified and other times it’s not. Éire’s Devil King is most definitely the latter. I didn’t need to be nervous at all when it comes to the last Éire’s Viking book.
In the first book I always favoured Turgeis above Agnarr, maybe in part because Turgeis was not the one actively raping Charis and humiliating her. Agnarr reformed himself in the second book but I still was generally more interested in Turgeis’ story. In the beginning I’ll admit I was a little disappointed in how slow the book started out but once things got going, they really did get going. Turgeis is a man who is already quite mature but throughout the story he does come to see things in a much different light. Instead of burning and pillaging he wants to assimilate to a certain extent and rule over the locals. He won’t give up his precious Norse gods and convert to Christianity like Cowan and Agnarr but he at least tolerates Christianity and doesn’t impose religion on anyone. As you can probably guess, his hands are far from clean but I definitely like this new Turgeis better than the old one.
Turgeis is definitely the main focus of this last story but we also see some incredible glimpses into the lives of Charis, Cowan, Agnarr and Aislinn on occasion. Charis and Cowan aren’t getting any younger (well, Cowan sure isn’t whereas Charis is her same ageless self) and Aislinn and Agnarr are still working on having some more children. Things don’t always go smoothly in the village because the Danes are coming to raid their land but overall there’s much more peace on the island than there was when we first met Charis. This is in part due to Cowan being Turgeis’ adopted brother but also because the men from Nordweg are more interested in immigration and assimilate than conquest. They want to be a part of the great island instead of just plundering its riches. I really liked how Sandi Layne showed that gradual change that comes over decades while at the same time introducing the new threat of the Danes to help move the plot along.
Charis, as always, stole the story for me. She’s an incredible woman with possibly Otherworldly powers but she also doesn’t have her head in the clouds like you’d expect from someone like her. There are times she can be very stubborn but she’s at heart a pragmatic woman and will ally with people she dislikes, such as Turgeis, in order to achieve her own ends. In this book it’s peace on her island and a home from her adopted daughter’s children and grandchildren. There’s an interesting little epilogue that brings her incredible story to an end and it’s really quite satisfying even if we don’t know exactly what she is and where her powers truly come from. It’s sort of left to the reader to figure things out and draw their own conclusions.
So while the plot wasn’t fast-paced in the beginning things quickly got exciting and through it all the incredible characters Sandi Layne has created over three books really shone through. Charis in particular stands out to me but all of the characters were very well developed; there’s a character for everyone here. From the author’s note I believe the little historical details within the story are true as are the broader strokes like the migration of the Danes but Sandi Layne does admit to changing around Turgeis’ story just a little bit. And that’s fine because it really works well for this story. I’m sad to see the trilogy end but it was done in a way that really satisfied me as a reader so I have no problem with that. It’s a great ending to a good trilogy.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Dragonfriend by Marc Secchia
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Stabbed. Burned by a dragon. Abandoned for the windrocs to pick over. The traitor Ra’aba tried to silence Hualiama forever. But he reckoned without the strength of a dragonet’s paw, and the courage of a girl who refused to die.
Only an extraordinary friendship will save Hualiama’s beloved kingdom of Fra’anior and restore the King to the Onyx Throne. Flicker, the valiant dragonet. Hualiama, a foundling, adopted into the royal family. The power of a friendship which paid the ultimate price.
This is the tale of Hualiama Dragonfriend, and a love which became legend.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received an ebook ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.]
Beautiful. Enchanting. Hilarious. Tragic. Touching. Empowering.
You could use any of those words to describe Dragonfriend but in truth to do this book justice you’d have to use them all. It is so many different things woven together into one book that you can’t help but fall in love with Hualiama as well as her companions Flicker (the dragonet) and Grandion (the dragon).
Hualiama is one of those characters that you’ll never forget after finishing the book. In the beginning she’s nothing but a royal bastard, the half-daughter of the king who stands up to his captain-of-the-guard, the usurper of the Onyx Throne. She doesn’t even particularly like her father but she likes Ra’aba even less and for her trouble she gets her back and stomach sliced open before being tossed off the Dragonship to die. But thanks to Flicker breaking her fall, carrying her to safety and patching her up, Hualiama isn’t so easy to get rid of. (If you don’t know, dragonets aren’t much bigger than a couple of feet long and just a little bigger in wingspan so for Flicker to carry a human, even a tiny one, it was a huge sacrifice on his part.) As Flicker nurses her back to health and teaches her to speak in a civilized manner—Dragonish, of course—she grows stronger and more and more determined to seek revenge against the man who deposed her family. No one in her family save for her adoptive mother may like her, but Hualiama loves them with a fierce, protective sort of love that leads her to the gates of hell and back in her quest.
What I found really interesting about Dragonfriend is that it’s set 425 years before the ‘main series’, Shapeshifter Dragons. It’s set almost 275 years before the spin-off series, Shapeshifter Dragon Legends. So all of the technology that’s introduced first in Legends and then in the main series is just in its infancy. There are no meriatite-fuelled Dragonships; they’re powered by the back-breaker, the machine that soldiers have to pedal in order to keep the ship moving. Dragons and humans have no contact with one another whereas in Legends it’s the peak of Dragon Riders and in the main series the Dragon Rider era has waned and dragons are hunted. You really don’t have to read Aranya and Shadow Dragon from the main series or The Pygmy Dragon from the spin-off in order to appreciate Dragonfriend, but it does make the whole experience more enjoyable. However, if you start with Dragonfriend, go to The Pygmy Dragon and then move on to Aranya and Shadow Dragon, you’ll actually be reading the series in the in-universe chronological order. So really, either way works and whether this is your first Marc Secchia book or not, you’ll really appreciate the sheer amount of detail he puts into all of his world-building.
One of the things that constantly surprises me is Marc Secchia’s ability to write from a female perspective so believably. He creates these amazingly strong characters but they’re not all Action Girls! Hualiama tries to fight but is hopelessly clumsy and has to really, really work at it. Pip from The Pygmy Dragon was born gifted at fighting but is at a huge disadvantage because of her small size. Aranya is better than Hualiama but that’s because her father made absolutely sure she became good at fighting whereas Hualiama’s father the king actively discouraged Hualiama’s more masculine pursuits. Each female main character has her own journey to womanhood in unique ways and Hualiama’s is just so amazing. She goes through so much in order to achieve her goals and even though she tries her hardest, sometimes (much like in the real world) things don’t work out. Her life is one of pure happiness and pure tragedy and even though I’m not a very emotional reader I must admit I balled my eyes out at the ending of this book. I defy anyone not to become attached to Hualiama throughout this book. It’s impossible because Marc Secchia not only writes believable and diverse female characters, his writing has such an emotional quality that you won’t be able to remain impassive during their struggles. You’ll really be rooting for Hualiama, trust me. Even when she makes mistakes, you’ll root for her.
The plot starts off pretty fast-paced compared to the other three books in the Island World and although it does slow down in terms of action, it always remains interesting. There’s always that undercurrent of tension as Hualiama is rehabilitated and learns from Flicker and it helps that the point of view changes quite naturally between the two friends. With any other characters I’d say changing points of view with no clear page break would be nothing but trouble but the points of view of Flicker and Hualiama are so different that you’ll never get confused. There’s a tremendous difference between a dragonet and a human being and the difference is even more pronounced when our dragon, Grandion, joins the story. The point of view switches definitely keep things interesting but in reality you could have had the whole book from Hualiama’s point of view and it would still be able to keep readers’ attention. It really is just a fascinating story with so many plot twists your head will spin.
If you haven’t already guessed, I really did love this book. This is definitely one of my top 10 favourites of all time and considering I read on average 200 books per year, that’s really saying something. It’s an incredible book and everyone should buy it. It will make you laugh, cry and just generally have an amazing time. The cliffhanger will also make you as eager as I am for the next book. If my review has intrigued you at all, please go and pre-order Dragonfriend on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It’s only $3.20 and $3.49 respectively and you absolutely won’t regret it.
I give this book 5/5 stars.