Category: Fantasy
Scent of the Soul by Julie Doherty
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In twelfth century Scotland, it took a half-Gael with a Viking name to restore the clans to their rightful lands. Once an exile, Somerled the Mighty now dominates the west. He’s making alliances, expanding his territory, and proposing marriage to the Manx princess.
It’s a bad time to fall for Breagha, a torc-wearing slave with a supernatural sense of smell.
Somerled resists the intense attraction to a woman who offers no political gain, and he won’t have a mistress making demands on him while he’s negotiating a marriage his people need. Besides, Breagha belongs to a rival king, one whose fresh alliance Somerled can’t afford to lose.
It’s when Breagha vanishes that Somerled realizes just how much he needs her. He abandons his marriage plans to search for her, unprepared for the evil lurking in the shadowy recesses of Ireland—a lustful demon who will stop at nothing to keep Breagha for himself.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
Scent of the Soul is a little jarring at first because 12th century Scotland is not a setting that I and probably many other people are familiar with. Still, Julie Doherty does a good job of orienting readers and quickly captures the essence of the time. You may find yourself with your head spinning as you try to keep all of the names straight but they’re repeated often so that you get a bit of a history of each person or place. By the end of the book you’ll be a pro, trust me on this. Doherty’s world-building just sucks you into her story so quickly that you can’t help but orient yourself quickly. You’ll need to, in order to truly appreciate all that Somerled and Breagha go through.
Somerled is a warlord of sorts who went from penniless exile to mighty king, with many other kings/petty princes/warlords bowing down to him and paying him tribute. We meet him as he’s older and looking for a political marriage to cement all that he has gained, but the sort of inferiority complex he developed as a penniless exile dogs him. In particular around women. So when one of his nominal allies captures a ship with only one sailor who survived and a woman with four dogs, he’s more than ready to give Fergus his wish and grant him ownership of the woman and the dogs. Until he sees her and she sees him, that is. Breagha is not just an incredible woman because of her supernatural sense of smell (among other talents). She goes through so much in the course of this book that it’s really a testament to the strength of her character that while she doesn’t exactly forgive, she doesn’t hold grudges like many people would given the circumstances.
Thankfully, the beginning of Scent of the Soul isn’t too much excitement at once. Of course we get glimpses of the massacre with the strange shadow men and of Semjaza, the book’s villain, but it’s just glimpses as we try to orient ourselves with Somerled’s situation. After that, the pacing most definitely increases for reasons that I can’t quite fully get into without spoiling some of the cool plot points. Julie Doherty doesn’t really let up with the tension after she introduces it and you’ll most definitely find yourself flipping through page after page to learn what happens next. It’s pretty relentless, particularly toward the end.
My only real criticism of this book is that sometimes the time switches can be absolutely jarring, particularly toward the end. There’s a particular scene where Somerled finds something and then it suddenly switches to Somerled happy with Breagha. I get that sometimes a time switch like that can be great but it felt like it wasn’t made clear that Somerled had found something; his part of the story just dropped off the edge of a cliff at that point. Maybe it was the fact my review copy was very poorly formatted so I have no clue whether or not there was a clear page break or other symbol. That’s more than possible but I must admit that even with the clear point of view shifts, sometimes Julie Doherty doesn’t exactly pick the best time to do it and it’s really jarring. Not exciting jarring, but just jarring and it leaves you frantically reading to try to orient yourself again.
So in short this book has awesome characters, a lot of tension and some pretty awesome world-building. Sometimes the point of view switches are jarring and confusing but the story itself is still coherent and fairly easy to follow. If the blurb has intrigued you, go on and pick up Scent of the Soul. I certainly enjoyed it.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Seraphina took the literary world by storm with 8 starred reviews and numerous “Best of” lists. At last, her eagerly awaited sequel has arrived—and with it comes an epic battle between humans and dragons.
The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.
As Seraphina gathers this motley crew, she is pursued by humans who want to stop her. But the most terrifying is another half dragon, who can creep into people’s minds and take them over. Until now, Seraphina has kept her mind safe from intruders, but that also means she’s held back her own gift. It is time to make a choice: Cling to the safety of her old life, or embrace a powerful new destiny?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
The first book in this duet, Seraphina, holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ARCs I was ever approved for through NetGalley. It felt like a big accomplishment and I felt even better about the whole thing when I absolutely fell in love with Rachel Hartman’s world and the story of Seraphina, a half-dragon stuck between two worlds. To say that I was eagerly awaiting Shadow Scale would be an understatement but at the same time I did try to keep my expectations in check so I could give a decent review.
Sequels should improve upon the first book and in my mind, Rachel Hartman surpassed herself in world-building in her second book. Not only do we get to see a little more of Goredd and its culture we get to see the rest of her world as Seraphina travels throughout it looking for her fellow half-dragons. Hartman really does an amazing job of making each culture and country distinct, even down to its language. She relies heavily on historical influences like ancient Greece and medieval France but it’s not so obvious that it seems like she’s beating you over the head with a stick about it. No, she takes these influences and historical precedents and twists them to suit the world she has imagined. It’s done beautifully and seamlessly and her writing style is so beautiful that you’ll feel these different cultures come alive.
As with her first book, Rachel Hartman’s writing style is beautiful. Her descriptions whether long or short are poetic, with flowing language that doesn’t necessarily slow down the plot or the pacing in general. Shadow Scale is not the fastest paced book in the world by any stretch of the imagination but it really is the writing that makes you keep reading in addition to the fact the characters are very three dimensional. The writing is just fabulous and as I said in the last paragraph, it’s what really makes her world come alive. She could have had the best world-building ever but without her pure writing talent Shadow Scale would have been an awfully boring book.
The characters themselves were also very satisfying in this final book. Seraphina herself has grown so much and is finally starting to realize that no matter how much you may disagree with a person’s choices, it doesn’t give you the right to demand they change to fit your worldview. As she begins her search for the other half-dragons she realizes that not all of them are saintly, as in the case of Jannoula and that not all of them even want to come with her and see other half-dragons. Each half-dragon lives under their own particular set of circumstances and Seraphina quickly learns that no matter how hard she tries, she really can’t convince everyone. And once she learns this, she becomes so much stronger even if she makes numerous mistakes along the way. She grows so much throughout the novel that you can’t help but love her even more than you did in the first book.
Unfortunately, for all of my praise I came off of reading Shadow Scale with a real ‘meh’ feeling. Why? Unfortunately, it’s because of the ending. It seemed very rushed and very forced on Rachel Hartman’s part even though she had hinted at certain plot twists before. Really, it felt like she just didn’t spend the same amount of attention to detail on the ending as she did the rest of the book. It felt sloppily put together, forced and inconsistent with the personalities and feelings of the characters. One plot twist in particular in regards to Queen Glisselda felt super forced. I can’t go into much detail because I don’t want to give away spoilers but I just felt like both Kiggs and Seraphina completely sold themselves out at the end despite fighting for honesty and transparency throughout the novel.
So in the end, despite the fact that this book was awesome for about 90% of the time, I do have to say I was a little disappointed with it. If you loved the first book and read this one maybe you’ll feel differently but I can’t change my perception of the ending. It was just too important to do in a seemingly half-hearted manner.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
The Prophecy of Arcadia by M. H. Soars
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Would you sacrifice friendship and love in order to save your planet?
Being a teenager is tough, especially when you have to pretend to be something you’re not, and you’re in love with someone you shouldn’t. 115 years ago, a small planet called Arcadia was invaded by a vicious alien race and nearly destroyed. Cut off from their resources, the Arcadians turned to Earth for help. A group of Arcadian explorers discovered a Prophecy that claimed their salvation lay in the hands of two children from Earth. To ensure their safety, the Arcadian Council sent their most gifted youngsters to Earth to act as protectors. Samantha is one of them.
To succeed in her mission she must learn to control her Arcadian powers and keep her true identity from her best friend, and the girl she swore to protect, Alexia. But Samantha will soon realize that nothing is as it seems. Someone is trying to prevent the Prophecy from taking place and the prophecy boy hasn’t been found yet. There is also a new drug circulating at school that is turning students into freakishly strong menaces.
To make matters worse, distractions keep getting in her way. Such as her love/hate relationship with her “cousin” Matthew. Or her confused feelings toward popular and mysterious Julian. She wants nothing more than to be free to live her life. But the survival of Arcadia depends on her and her friends. Free will is not an option.
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by the author and received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
The only real problem that I found throughout the whole of this book is that the points of view change just a little too much. Of course Alexia is the main character but a few of the other characters get page time as well. Sometimes it can get just a bit confusing, particularly in the beginning and you’re struggling to name them, let alone identify their voices. It gets better as the story goes on but it did take me quite a bit of time to keep everyone’s names, voices and backstories straight. If you don’t have the patience for that then The Prophecy of Arcadia is definitely not for you.
But if you have the patience to let a good story unfold, you’ll be amply rewarded. Although we readers are kept in the dark about Arcadia and the mysterious prophecy for a bit because Alexia is kept in the dark, we get to see hints of it and the prophecy throughout the story. They’re tantalizing and combined with the massive cliffhanger ending they certainly want to make you read more to find out more about M. H. Soar’s world. From what I can tell in this first book, her world-building is fantastic and when she goes into even more depth in the second book I think it will reveal just how much time and effort she put into creating Arcadia. We get hints of this depth in the first book but it’s just enough to whet your appetite and make you want to read the second one even more.
Once you do get a handle on the characters and the unique world M. H. Soars has created for them, you realize that they’re actually very distinct and three dimensional. Alexia is pretty much your typical high school girl who comes from an upper class background and has been neglected by her widower father. She finds refuge in the summers when she gets to visit her cousins (who are actually her alien bodyguards but she doesn’t know that) but this time she’s here for her last year in high school. And when she gets there all of her cousins are suddenly acting weird. One cousin is off at cheer camp which is completely contrary to her personality, Matthew and Samantha are acting really weirdly toward each other and it seems like bad things keep happening whenever she’s around. Although her cousins seem to know what’s going on, they cannot divulge the truth to poor Alexia, no matter the personal cost to themselves.
The characters are all three dimensional and that’s in part why they drive the action of the entire plot. This is a character-driven book so there’s more drama and a little less action than you might expect but it really does work. I was never really bored by the plot and although I could predict some of the major twists, there were some that completely blindsided me. The ending in particular was surprising and pretty terrifying for poor Alexia and her cousins/bodyguards. I can’t really talk much about the plot without spoiling some of the twists but suffice it to say that while you’ll see some coming, some will completely broadside you. They make sense when you look back at the plot but they’ll certainly surprise you at the time.
If you’re looking for some YA that’s a little different from what’s generally out there, I’d recommend The Prophecy of Arcadia. Although it deals with the whole prophecy vs. free will it does it in a very unique way, particularly when the actions of one character seem to throw a wrench into the whole works. And also: aliens! That’s not something as common and overdone as vampires, werewolves and fairies. If you can orient yourself in the beginning and pick out the voices of the different characters and how they feel about each other, you’re in for a good read.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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The Shadow Soul by Kaitlyn Davis
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
GAME OF THRONES meets GRACELING in a new fantasy adventure by bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis. Told in alternating male and female perspectives, THE SHADOW SOUL has been hailed as “an amazing start to a new series that is going to have people of all ages wanting so much more.” (Happy Tails & Tales Reviews)
When Jinji’s home is destroyed, she is left with nowhere to run and no one to run to–until she meets Rhen, a prince chasing rumors that foreign enemies have landed on his shores. Masquerading as a boy, Jinji joins Rhen with vengeance in her heart. But traveling together doesn’t mean trusting one another, and both are keeping a deep secret–magic. Jinji can weave the elements to create master illusions and Rhen can pull burning flames into his flesh.
But while they struggle to hide the truth, a shadow lurks in the night. An ancient evil has reawakened, and unbeknownst to them, these two unlikely companions hold the key to its defeat. Because their meeting was not coincidence–it was fate. And their story has played out before, in a long forgotten time, an age of myth that is about to be reborn…
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
Normally I’m extremely skeptical of any book hailed as similar to “Game of Thrones” or “Graceling” but to be compared to both in the same sentence? I was pretty skeptical. But I set that skepticism aside when I read the blurb because despite the overly aggrandizing opening the rest of it sounded pretty good. I will clear up one thing first: The Shadow Soul is not really like A Game of Thrones or Graceling. However, it is still a good story in its own right.
The thing that really stood out to me is Jinji, the female main character. She sees her whole tribe wiped out by the man she loves (who was possessed by what she calls the shadow) and then is nearly killed in an attack later. Thankfully, she’s saved by Rhen and thankfully for Rhen, she then saves his life in turn. Both of these characters get page time in their respective points of view. The chapters tend to alternate but it never really feels confusing since both of them have very, very different voices. Jinji is more reserved and quiet in part because that’s how she was raised but also because she’s still processing the grief associated with being the literal last member of your culture after seeing the others brutally wiped out. Rhen is more brash and loud but you can really tell he has the best interests of his family in his heart the whole time. Having them travel together was a good idea because it forced two very different personalities to get along, all the while holding back secrets from the other person. Jinji is hiding the fact that she is a girl while Rhen is hiding the fact that he’s actually a good guy, not the hedonistic playboy the kingdom seems to think he is.
The world-building was good but it never really had that wow factor. It was refreshing to see a Native American-like culture depicted, particularly since in the kingdom it is struggling against the ‘modernizing’ forces of invaders and the fact that its territory has been severely limited. And it was nice to see Jinji struggle to keep some of her traditions alive, even if the rest of the people in the kingdom frown upon her culture. Seeing Rhen’s reaction to some of her cultural practices was nice as well because it reveals that mixture of guilt he has for being a part of the family that committed an effective cultural genocide against her people but also the respect he has for those people. In essence, it reveals a lot of the modern attitudes toward native peoples and one of the great things about fantasy is that it can hold a mirror up to our own world for us to examine. My only real criticism about the world-building is that I would have liked the politics to be a little more subtle than “that other kingdom is jealous of us”. That is certainly a factor in many wars and in politics in general but it isn’t the only one as is really depicted in The Shadow Soul.
I must admit that despite all of the deserved praise of this book, there was one part that I had to struggle through immensely: the pacing. The plot itself was not bad even if it was a little predictable because Kaitlyn Davis used pretty familiar fantasy tropes. However, the pacing was brutal in the beginning. I don’t mind slow pacing but for some reason I really had to force myself to keep reading until the story really got going about 30% of the way in. It’s not that the plot it self was boring but rather that Davis just doesn’t have that flair for description that some authors have. Some authors could describe a peanut butter sandwich to you and it would be fascinating (see: M.J. Rose, Kristin Cashore, George R. R. Martin) but Davis’ longer descriptions were, well, boring. Her writing in general is excellent but I just wasn’t sucked into the story as I should have been, considering that there is quite a bit of action in the beginning. It’s hard to explain as you can tell from my rambling, but it felt like The Shadow Soul lacked excitement until about a third of the way in. After that it was pretty exciting and I had to keep reading to find out what would happen next, but the beginning was quite hard to get through.
So while the book has a great premise, decent enough world-building and vivid character, the beginning of it definitely lacks “oomph” (for lack of a better word). Would I recommend it to most fantasy-lovers? Probably because there were some interesting plot twists, particularly toward the end. But it’s getting past the beginning that is the real hurdle to reading this book. If you can get past the beginning, you’re in for a treat because the pacing significantly improves but if you aren’t one for sticking it out you’ll be sorely disappointed. By the end of the book you’ll be just as eager as I am to read the next book but the beginning, for whatever reason, was the hardest part of the book to read. It doesn’t lack action but it does lack excitement, if that makes any sense at all.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Silver Pear by Michelle Diener
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
An unlikely princess . . .
Kayla is determined to master her new-found abilities as a wild magic witch. She’s learning everything she can so she and her betrothed, Rane, can put a stop to the sorcerers who are recklessly gathering their power, building up their magic to take each other on in a war that will destroy the countries of Middleland.
An even more unlikely sorcerer . . .
Mirabelle’s father was one of the greatest sorcerers in Middleland, but when he used the magic in the silver pear to bespell his pregnant wife to give birth to the greatest sorcerer who would ever live, he never thought that child would be a girl. Mirabelle is nothing like a usual sorcerer, confounding every expectation, and when she comes to the rescue of Rane’s brother, Soren, she makes a decision few sorcerers would. She saves him, rather than herself, losing the silver pear in the process.
And using magic always exacts a price . . .
With war not just a possibility but simply a matter of time, there are no neutral parties and no fence-sitters in Kayla and Mirabelle’s new world. Everyone is either an ally or an enemy and there is a price to pay for everything. The question is, how high will it be?
[Full disclosure: Michelle Diener gave me a pre-approval widget for NetGalley so I could receive an ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
I must admit that while I downloaded The Silver Pear in fall 2014, I was so busy that I didn’t have time to re-read the first book, The Golden Apple and so I didn’t actually get to read it until a couple weeks ago in February 2015. So by the time I finally got to read this book, I was more than ready to slip back into Michelle Diener’s awesome fantasy world to learn Kayla and Rane’s fates.
What makes this book different from the first one is that it’s told from four different perspectives grouped into two main sections: Kayla and Rane get alternating chapters before the viewpoint switches to Soren and Mirabelle for alternating chapters before switching back to the first pair. In the hands of some authors this would never work but Michelle Diener makes each character’s voice so distinct that it would be very hard to confuse the points of view of the four different main characters. And the alternating points of view sometimes overlap but they’re never just a recap of what happened in the head of another character just one chapter ago. That makes the plot move forward constantly at a really unrelenting pace; it’s part of the reason why I stayed up to read this book until way too early in the morning.
As with the first book, the characters are amazing. Kayla still remains my favourite because I love seeing her grow into her power as a wild magic witch but Mirabelle is an interesting new addition to our unlikely quartet. She has a fantastic backstory that’s filled with both tragedy and privilege and once she learns to trust Soren she reveals it bit by bit in a natural, very organic way that never slows down the plot. Both Rane and his wayward brother Soren were excellent characters as well and you can tell that both of them care very much for not only their sibling but for the amazing women they travel with for a large chunk of the novel. All four main characters are well fleshed-out but Michelle Diener also never neglects her secondary characters, particularly Ylana, the earth witch Kayla froze in The Golden Apple. Ylana is not all that she appears to be and she definitely plays her cards close to her chest. At the end of the day, you never really know what side she’s going to choose and that kept me in suspense for a fair bit of the novel.
So here we have a great plot and very believable, realistic characters, but how was the world-building? Like with the first book, I was blown away by Michelle Diener’s world-building. Only this time our adventures are not confined to the Great Forest! We get to see many of the kingdoms that make up the world of The Silver Pear and the toll the feuding sorcerers have taken on those kingdoms. Battles between sorcerers can get very, very nasty and the politics behind which king backs which sorcerer are complex and often fraught with danger. Will Kayla and the gang be able to corner the worst sorcerer, Eric the Bold and his companion before they both destroy the kingdoms? I’ll leave it up to you to figure that part out when you read the book.
Really, if you read and loved The Golden Apple, you’re going to love the second installment in the Dark Forest set. If you haven’t picked up the first book I would definitely recommend reading it before tackling The Silver Pear but it’s not totally necessary because of the handy summary of events Michelle Diener has at the beginning of the novel. I can’t recommend both books enough so if you like unique fantasy with three dimensional characters and fascinating worlds, you can’t go wrong with either this book or the first book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.