Friday Memes: Heir of Light by Michelle Sagara

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

The Academia required students. Apparently, it also required vast quantities of paperwork, much of which appeared to be stacked in teetering piles on the chancellor's desk.

Friday 56:

"Teela believes that the current activities--or the activities that involve you and your family--are tied in some fashion to the Barrani court. If this is true, it might possibly work to my advantage in the long run."

This week I am spotlighting Heir of Light by Michelle Sagara. I am a fan of her complex fantasies. Here is the description from Amazon:

There is always a price to be paid for power and justice.

With the Academia now awakened from its centuries-long slumber, Robin, a student who hails from a prestigious family, must own up to his destiny. As heir to the Gardianno seat, a highly coveted position within the human caste court, Robin stands to inherit great power when he assumes his birthright—but at what cost?

Under the guidance of a formidable Barrani lord named Teela, Robin wrestles with his newfound duties and the societal complexities that come with the privilege. Soon, however, it’s apparent that others feel entitled to the seat…and they’re willing to do the unthinkable in order to get it.

With Teela and his best friend, Raven, at his side, Robin is ready to battle for what is rightfully his. But when the Halls of Law consider reopening the investigation into the baffling murder of his parents, the truth could lead Robin right to the heart of danger.

Book Review: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

When Women Were Dragons
Author: Kelly Barnhill
Publication: Anchor (May 3, 2022)

Description: In the first adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Ogress and The Orphans, Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.

My Thoughts: WHEN WOMEN WERE DRAGONS was a fascinating story of our recent past with one significant change. On April 25, 1955, there was a mass dragoning when more than 600,000 women spontaneously turned into dragons and the government instituted a massive coverup to hide dragoning.

Alex Green was a young girl when the dragoning took place. She was four when she saw her first dragon who happened to be a neighbor who had been kind to her. Alex's mother had cancer and was away for treatment during that same time period. Alex was cared for by her Aunt Marla, her mother's older sister. She was eight when the mass dragoning happened and her Aunt Marla was one of those women who dragoned. 

It was a repressive time. No one ever talked about dragoning or cancer or women's health issues. But Alex tried to stifle her curiosity but had many questions. She didn't know how to feel when her mother brought Marla's infant daughter home and declared that Bea had always been her sister and that Aunt Marla had never existed. Alex quickly became Bea's greatest protector which didn't change when her mother died of cancer when Alex was in eighth grade and when her father remarried and established Alex and Bea in an apartment and sent financial support but never visited his daughters again. 

Alex was left alone with responsibilities that should never have been placed on a child's shoulders, but she was determined to study and even attend college one day despite her father's refusal to support that dream. She did have a friend and supporter in Mrs. Gyzinska who was the head librarian at the local Carnegie Library. 

The story is told not only in Alex's voice but through newspaper articles and excerpts from the work of Dr. H. N. Gantz who had lost his positions as a university professor and doctor of medicine when he refused to stop researching and writing about dragons. 

This was an intriguing story. I enjoyed the rich language and deep emotions. Alex was a character who wasn't going to let the common values of the day stop her from becoming who she was meant to be. I liked the whole underground rebellion against the repression of facts in which Mrs. Gyzinska and Professor Gantz were deeply involved. 

Favorite Quote:

There cannot be science without the free and unfettered dissemination of truth. When you, as the creators of policy, seek to use your power to curtail understanding and thwart the free exchange of knowledge and ideas, it is not I who will suffer the consequences of this, but rather the whole nation, and, indeed, the entire world. 

I bought this one July 24. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 was hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Greetings, Mother --

I do not have much time. This change (this wonderous, wondrous change) is at this very moment upon me. I could not stop it if I tried. And I have no interest in trying.

Friday 56:

In those first chaotic weeks after the Mass Dragoning, Sister Margareta, my third-grade teacher, taught us the earliest accepted explanation: that dragons, either escaped from Hell or intentionally released its Demon Gate by sinister forces in the hidden global war between good and evil (Russian, presumably), had devoured a certain subset of the nation's mothers, for reasons unknown. And likely reasons unknowable. After all, who can reason with a dragon?

Thie week I am spotlighting When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. I have read some of her young adult books and enjoyed them. Here is the description from Amazon:

In the first adult novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Ogress and The Orphans, Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.

Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.

In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.

Audiobook Review: Bastion by Mercedes Lackey

Bastion
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Nick Podehl
Series: Collegium Chronicles (Book 5)
Publication: Audible Studios (October 1, 2013)
Length: 11 hours and 13 minutes

Description: Mags returns to the Collegium, but there are mixed feelings--his included--about him actually remaining there. No one doubts that he is and should be a Herald, but he is afraid that his mere presence is going to incite more danger right in the heart of Valdemar. The heads of the Collegia are afraid that coming back to his known haunt is going to give him less protection than if he went into hiding. Everyone decides that going elsewhere is the solution for now. So since he is going elsewhere--why not return to the place he was found in the first place and look for clues? And those who are closest to him, and might provide secondary targets, are going along.

With Herald Jadrek, Herald Kylan (the Weaponsmaster's chosen successor), and his friends Bear, Lena, and Amily, they head for the Bastion, the hidden spot in the hills that had once been the headquarters of a powerful band of raiders that had held him and his parents prisoner. But what they find is not what anyone expected.

My Thoughts: BASTION ends the five-book story arc that tells Mags' story. From abused mine slave to Herald of Valdemar is quite a journey and it was fascinating watching him grow up and come into his own. Throughout the whole series we have watched Mags search for his history. In this episode we finally find out about his people.

Mags has escaped from the people who kidnapped him, but he is afraid that he brought trouble back with him to the Collegium in Valdemar. He is very worried about Amily, the young woman he loves, and his friends becoming targets. He did gain a promise from his kidnappers to stop trying to assassinate the Crown that Mags is sworn to protect. 

So a plot is hatched. Mags will go out on circuit with a mentor as most young heralds do and along the way he will "die." His friends will also get out of town for various reasons of their own. They will meet up and hope to elude the assassins. They will be patrolling the north of Valdemar including the Bastion which used to be a bandit hide-out. The same bandits who killed his parents. Mags is hoping to find some clues about them. 

He and his mentor weren't expecting to find an area that was hostile to heralds and many problems to solve. Nor was he expecting to find the family that he had wondered about for years. His cousin Bey is a fascinating character who tries to convince Mags to come "home" with him and be part of the assassin's guild that Bey hopes to take over. 

This story had romance as Mags and Amily finally get together. It had danger as Mags and company had to fight off assassins who also wanted to take Mags home with them. It was a nice conclusion to a story arc.

I bought this one at Audible. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey

Redoubt
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Nick Podehl
Series: Collegium Chronicles (Book 4)
Publication: Audible Studios (June 3, 2013)
Length: 10 hours and 44 minutes

Description: Life at the Heralds' Collegium in Haven has definitely improved for Mags. He's even become something of a hero since risking his own life to rescue Amily--daughter of Nikolas, the King's Own Herald--from Karsite kidnappers. But Mags still doesn't know who his parents were, and Bear, Mags' Trainee friend, was not one to let him forget: "You gotta deal with your past Mags, you have to. If you don't, it'll just keep coming back to haunt you, and one day it'll do something to you that you can't get out of."

Mags began his special training as Nikolas' undercover partner and future spy for the crown. Disguised, they work at night in one of the seedier parts of Haven, where Nikolas had set up a false identity as a pawnbroker and fence. Mags poses as his deaf-mute nephew, covertly watching and listening from behind the desk. He was especially good at the trait that had kept him alive as a child laborer in the gem mine--ferreting out hidden motives.

Now Mags has graduated to a new role: Nikolas' partner and information broker. Mags channels his old cunning self from the mines and discovers that he's quite good at his new job. So good, in fact, that Nikolas decides to let him open the shop alone one hot, summer night. Mags has barely unlocked the shop when everything goes black in a blinding flash of pain.

He wakes with an agonizing headache, bound, blindfolded, in a conveyance of some kind. But worst of all, he's head-blind. No Mindspeech--he can't even sense Dallen. And if he can't sense or hear Dallen, then no one can sense him. And if no one can sense him, no one can come to his rescue.

My Thoughts: This fourth book of the Collegium Chronicles starts out as one sort of book and then turns into something else. When the story begins, Mags and the rest of Haven are preparing for the wedding of Crown Prince Sedric and his bride Lydia. So the story begins with a romance that turns other characters' thoughts to romance too. Mags questions the consequences of his feelings for his mentor's daughter Amily and Bear and Lena run off to get married which solves some major problems for both of them that were begun in earlier books in this series. It was a good story about growing up and forming adult relationships. But there was more...

We also get to see Mags playing his beloved game of Kirball and learning in every situation not excluding watching rope walkers entertain at the wedding. Mags is constantly observing everything which is a large part of why he is being trained by the King's Own to be a spy. But the one thing that he is willing to overlook is the mystery of his own beginnings. He has done some research and learned that his parents where well-dressed foreigners who died when he was two or three. He has come to a dead end in his search to learn more.

It looks like they mystery is coming to him when he is kidnapped, drugged and dragged into Karse by the same assassins who have been attempting to kill or kidnap other Valdemarans and who have attempted to kidnap him before. 

The sections of the story where he is experiencing drugged hallucinations about the terrible time he spent as a small child in the mines were very moving. (As was the description of his life there that he was finally able to share with his mentor Nikolas and a Healer.) Gradually, he gains control of his mind and manages to escape his captors in a raging thunderstorm. 

Then we have a survival story of a young man who isn't trained in wilderness survival and has few assets but who has a strong will and desire to survive and return home. After being attacked by demons, Mags is rescued by a hermit Karsite priest and his suncat. He learns that life isn't good for anyone is Karse because of the abuse of the black robed priests who control the demons. He is recaptured, drugged again by the assassins, and gets some information about his past that he will still need to sort out since it came as a series of drug-induced visions. 

Beginning with romance and ending with heart-pounding danger, REDOUBT moves the story of Mags along. I look forward to more volumes so that more of the mysteries will be solved.

I bought this one from Audible. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Changes by Mercedes Lackey

Changes
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Nick Podehl
Series: Collegium Chronicles (Book 3)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (October 4, 2011)
Length: 10 hours and 48 minutes

Description: Mags was a Trainee in the Heraldic Collegium in Haven, Valdemar’s capital city. Though his background of poverty and abuse at Cole Pieters’ gem mine set him apart from most other trainees, nonetheless he had found his own group of friends. Bear, Lena, and Amily were all students whose situations in life set them apart from more usual Trainees. The four of them had found mutual support in their shared misfortunes, and together struggled to help one another find solutions to their individual problems

But Mags’ friendship with Amily brought him to the attention of the King’s Own. The seemingly immortal Companion Rolan had Chosen Nikolas to suit the specific needs of the current monarch, and those needs were for an agent who could collect information surreptitiously. Nikolas recognized the same traits in Mags that Rolan had recognized in him, and because of Mags’ friendship with Amily, no one would think twice about seeing her overprotective father spending time with Amily’s “suitor”. So Mags began training as Nikolas’ partner.

They worked in disguise at night with Mags as Nikolas’ deaf and mute helper, where his extensive knowledge of gems - especially his skill at separating the real from the fake - would be an added benefit. Hiding in the shadows behind the desk, pretending to neither hear nor speak, Mags could better “observe” the clients, and even the surrounding neighborhood. And Nikolas could send him out on “errands” to chase down leads.

But this new job was far more dangerous than Mags had ever considered. For there were mysterious agents in the city - agents who sought to bring down the kingdom, and no one knew where they came from or who they worked for. They were smart, talented, and preternaturally fast. And most of all they were willing to do anything - anything - to bring Valdemar to ruin.

My Thoughts: In the third book of the Collegium Chronicles, Mags is beginning his career as the King's spy by working with his mentor King's Own Nikolas in a pawn shop down in the town with is Nikolas's cover to find out things happening. Mags is playing a deaf mute boy with a talent for knowing gems and the ability to separate the fake and the real.

But there are still agents in town who want to bring Valdemar down and finding them soon becomes the focus of their work. Though Mags can't penetrate their shields, he is able to locate them if they get near enough to him. However, they are smart and talented and have an agenda that is still hidden from the Heralds. 

Foreseers have dreamed that they would like to disrupt the kingdom by kidnapping the King's Own's daughter Amily who is crippled after an accident she had as a small child. Amily and Mags are courting and Mags is very determined to keep Amily safe.

Bear and some other healers have come up with a procedure to fix Amily's damaged leg but the threat from the agents has made them put off the procedure which Amily hates. It is especially bad because no one is telling her or Mags or any but a small circle why the procedure is being delayed. 

And tempers are rising even as the summer heat does. There are so many fights and arguments breaking out that no one knows what to do. Mags, Lena, Amily and Bear aren't spared the arguments either. Lena and Bear are falling in love but both have unresolved parent issues. Lena's is a bard who only notices her when he wants something from her and Bear's family has no respect for his talents since he doesn't have the healing gift. 

This was another excellent episode in the Collegium Chronicles. The worldbuilding is great. I am enjoying watching Mags and his friends grow up and claim their new adult responsibilities. 

I bought this one from Chirp Audiobooks. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

The Golden Enclaves
Author: Naomi Novik
Series: The Scholomance (Book 3)
Publication: Del Rey (June 27, 2023)

Description: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

FINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Paste, Publishers Weekly

The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.

And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out—and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me and Orion and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: We saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere.

Ha, only joking! Actually, it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in.

My Thoughts: In this finale to the Scholomance trilogy we learn what happens after El, Orion, and her colleagues manage to get everyone out of the Scholomance. Well, almost everyone, Orion stayed behind which makes El determined to find a way back in to get him.

There are some problems to overcome first. Something is killing enclaves, and the various enclaves are on the brink of war. Looking for help uncovers all sorts of secrets. Secrets that could bring the whole system of enclaves tumbling down. 

El's plans for the escape from the Scholomance did manage to cut the number of mals in half but didn't do anything for the most awful of all the mals. The maw-mouth doesn't just kill wizards. It keeps them alive inside it in such a way that they can't die. And killing them has been a task that requires a large group of adult wizards working together. At least it did until El. 

This was an excellent conclusion to a very good series. I loved the worldbuilding. I loved the way El grew through the trilogy. She had so many decisions to make. 

Favorite Quote:

I imagine it's always easier to do something monstrous if you can convince yourself you aren't going to, up to the last minute, when you do. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Intrigues by Mercedes Lackey

Intrigues
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Nick Podehl
Series: Collegium Chronicles (Book 2)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (October 11, 2010)
Length: 10 hours and 9 minutes

Description: Mags was an orphan and slave of ‘bad blood’ who toiled in a gem mine all his young life. He would have died before adulthood, had he not been Chosen and taken to Haven to be trained in the new Herald Collegium.

Now, Mags was never hungry and never cold. He slept in a real bed in his own room and, most importantly, he had Dallen, who was like another part of himself. And yet, aside from Lena and Bear, both loners like he was, he couldn’t relate to most of the Herald, Healer, or Bard trainees. He was the only trainee who came from what - to the others - was unimaginable poverty.

There was another factor that contributed to Mag’s isolation. Foreign assassins, masquerading at court as envoys, were discovered. As they fled from the Guard, one of them seemed to “recognize” Mags. Now, Mags was an object of suspicion.

He had always been curious about his parents, but after the incident it became urgent for Mags to discover exactly who his parents were. And at Haven, he had access to the extensive Archives. Poring through the Archives, he got only incomplete information: his parents, found dead in a bandit camp, had been two of a number of hostages, some of whom had survived. The survivors had told the Guard that Mags’ parents spoke a language that no one understood or recognized.

This information did not help, for the ForeSeers had been having visions of the king’s assassination by “one of the foreign blood”. Some had even Seen Mags with blood on his hands. How could Mags defend himself against a crime that hadn’t yet been committed?

My Thoughts: The second of the Collegium Chronicles sees Mags beginning to fit in at the Collegium. While still mainly a loner who feels he has nothing in common with most of the other students, he has made some friends with Lena and Bear and Amily. Each of them are different than the other students too. 

When Lena's father comes to the Collegium, Mags learns that he is a famous bard who had ignored Lena all her life. He is totally self-centered, but Lena wants his love and approval. He can only see her if there is some way he can use her like when Mags becomes a champion at a new sport being developed and when Mags becomes a hero for saving Bear's life when he's kidnapped.

Meanwhile Bear is facing his own problems. He comes from a family of healers, but he doesn't have the magical gift of healing. However, he is an excellent herbalist consulted by everyone including senior healers at his school. And he is good at surgery and other healing too. But his family wants him to come home, get married, and sire children who might have the healing gift. He's under constant pressure because of their demands.

Then Mags comes in for his share of pressure when those who can see the future predict that someone foreign born will assassinate the king. Mags has just learned that his parents were captives of bandits and were from some unknown country. That makes Mags immediately an object of suspicion. And since part of his heraldic gifts includes a touch of empathy, Mags is totally aware of the suspicions which feed into his own insecurity about his right to be a Herald. 

This was an emotional story with Mags and his friends all dealing with deep personal issues. But there is also the problem of the foreign envoys who disappeared from the palace and have some sort of hidden agenda. They seem to have some mind gifts to go along with their agenda and only Mags is able to tune into them. 

This was a fun story with great worldbuilding. I'm enjoying watching Mags build confidence and become a Herald of Valdemar. 

I bought this one from Chirp Audiobooks. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

The Last Graduate
Author: Naomi Novik
Series: Scholomance (Book 2)
Publication: Del Rey (September 28, 2021)

Description: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education.

“The climactic graduation-day battle will bring cheers, tears, and gasps as the second of the Scholomance trilogy closes with a breathtaking cliff-hanger.”—Booklist (starred review)

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Polygon, Thrillist, She Reads

In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true—only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant.

Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students—but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive.

Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely.

But I’m not giving in—not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good—even if it’s the last thing I do.

With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules—sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook.

The magic of the Scholomance trilogy continues in The Golden Enclaves

My Thoughts: This middle book of the Scholomance trilogy concerns El's Senior year. She begins the year being the target of the Scholomance and honing her fighting skills. She has managed to make some friends and build some alliances but is separated from them for most of her classmates and when she is put in a seminar with assorted Freshman.

She is determined first to find a way to get her friends through to graduation and through the fight that is necessary if they are to leave the Scholomance behind. But gradually, she determines that she won't be satisfied until she gets all of the Seniors out alive. Since many of them don't trust her and even more don't know her, this is going to be a difficult task. Luckily, she is befriended by the class's valedictorian who has more than enough ideas of ways to make El's task possible even if she is a difficult person and not El's friend.

As the training goes on, El realizes that the only way she will be satisfied is if she manages to get all of the students out of the Scholomance - Freshman to Seniors. To do this she is going to have to depend on most of the other students to help and to put aside the rivalries and self-centered behavior that were the skills that got them out before.

This wouldn't seem like a good time to fall in love but El manages to fit it in. She and Orion Lake have been rivals since their first days in the Scholomance. He's the popular Enclaver who has become the school hero by saving countless lives including El's. He's also the only one other than El who is almost certain to be able to win their way out of the Scholomance. 

The worldbuilding in this story is fantastic. From a complex political system and magical system to a wide variety of evil creatures determined to eat the young wizards, the story is packed with intriguing ideas. It is also packed full of adventure. But even more it is packed with ethical dilemmas and the need to make the right choices. 

Fans of epic fantasy will enjoy this one - but read A DEADLY EDUCATION first. 

Favorite Quote:

"There's no such thing as normal people," I said, a desperate flailing. "There's just people, and some of them are miserable, and some of them are happy, and you've the same right to be happy as any of them -- no more and no less."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Keep far away from Orion Lake.

Friday 56:

The cushion-monster was lumping straight towards her back: it would get her before she got ten steps onto the walkway. 

This week I am spotlighting The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. This is the second book in the Scholomance Trilogy. I recently read the first in the series. Here is the description from Amazon:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education.

“The climactic graduation-day battle will bring cheers, tears, and gasps as the second of the Scholomance trilogy closes with a breathtaking cliff-hanger.”—Booklist (starred review)

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Polygon, Thrillist, She Reads

In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true—only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter's rather scant.

Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students—but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive

Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely.

But I’m not giving in—not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance. I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good—even if it’s the last thing I do.

With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules—sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook.

The magic of the Scholomance trilogy continues in The Golden Enclaves

Book Review: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

A Deadly Education
Author: Naomi Novik
Series: The Scholomance (Book 1)
Publication: Del Rey (September 29, 2020)

Description: I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

My Thoughts: This story is told by Galadriel, call her El, about her time at the Scolomance, a school for budding magicians. El has a difficult time there because prophecy has said that she will become an evil sorcerer. But El was raised by her flowers and butterflies and positive thinking mother and knows that she can fight her destiny and become the sort of sorcerer she wants to be. 

El's nemesis is Orion Lake. He's the school hero and has single-handedly saved a quarter of their class from being devoured by the many monsters that haunt the school. El doesn't want his help. She's determined to survive the school on her own. But Orion keeps turning up and saving the day. 

There are two kinds of magic in El's world: mana and malia. Mana is positive magic created by effort; malia is negative and stolen from other lives. The school is determined to make El into the sort of sorcerer who pulls and uses malia and turn her out into the world as a maleficer. She's determined not to be turned into one.

There is wonderful and complex worldbuilding in the story. It is filled with magnificent and hungry creatures of all kinds. It is also filled with engaging and well-rounded human characters. I especially liked that El gradually makes friends with some of her human classmates including the dreaded Orion Lake. 

Favorite Quote:

Some sorcerers get an affinity for weather magic, or transformation spells, or fantastic combat magics like dear Orion, I got an affinity for mass destruction. 

I bought this one September 29, 2020. You can buy your copy here.

Book Beginnings: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place.

Beginning:

I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life. I hadn't really cared much about him before then one way or the other, but I had limits.

Friday 56:

Most people get alchemy assignments to produce antidotes or preventative elixirs, or the good old standby of producing gold out of cheaper elements. I'm never set recipes for anything useful; I've got to trade for them.

This week I am spotlighting A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. This one has been on my TBR pile since September 29, 2020. Somehow it got lost on my TBR mountain. Now, there are three books in the series, and I have all of them.

Here's the description from Amazon:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Uprooted and Spinning Silver comes the first book of the Scholomance trilogy, the story of an unwilling dark sorceress who is destined to rewrite the rules of magic.

FINALIST FOR THE LODESTAR AWARD • “The dark school of magic I’ve been waiting for.”—Katherine Arden, author of the Winternight Trilogy

I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.

Audiobook Review: The Sorcery Trial by J. A. Armitage & Claire Luana

The Sorcery Trial
Author: J. A. Armitage & Claire Luana
Narrator: Ann Marie Gideon
Series: Faerie Race (Book 1)
Publication: Live Edge Publishing (July 1, 2019); Tantor Audio (November 26, 2019
Length: 252 p.; 6 hours and 2 minutes

Description: Welcome to The Faerie Race—an epic adventure through a realm as compelling as it is deadly…

Fame. Fortune. Your most extravagant wish granted. These are the prizes promised to the team that wins The Faerie Race, the first and only reality television show to venture into the dangerous realm of the fae. But that’s not why Jacqueline Cunningham wants in. She’s after any sign of her sister—who vanished without a trace into the faerie world two years ago. Jacq thought getting into the race would be the hard part. But she didn’t count on the other competitors—who will stop at nothing to finish first. Or her distractingly-handsome jerk of a partner, who seems to be hiding secrets of his own.

Plunged into a world where everything wants to kill her, what starts as a hunt for the truth turns into a desperate contest for survival. Now that Jacq’s in the race, it will take all her wits to make it to the finish line alive.

My Thoughts: This is the start of an urban fantasy trilogy. Faerie has announced itself but getting into the fae lands isn't easy. That is why Jacqueline Cunningham decides that her best chance to find out what happened when her sister disappeared into faerie lands is to join the Faerie Trial - a reality TV show that pairs a human with one of the fae and sends them into the faerie land to perform feats. The winners will get fame, fortune, and their greatest wish granted. 

Jacq has been working as a gofer in Hollywood but she really wants to be a stuntwoman. At first she's denied the opportunity to try out for the Faerie Trial but a daring rescue gives her a chance. She can do the physical stuff easily enough. But performing magic? Not so much. 

She does manage to get into the trial by squeaking in. She's in last place. That means she is left with the one fae partner she didn't want. He's dark, brooding, and doesn't want her as a partner either. However, she and her partner will have to work together if they want to survive. Because the other teams would like to see them dead.

There are lots of quests, lots of handsome boys who may or may not be working in Jacq's best interests, and there is a hidden agenda that is just barely revealed in this episode. 

I enjoyed the worldbuilding. I liked the characters especially Jacq and her partner. My only complaint is that there were lots of loose ends left at the end of this episode which makes reading the rest required to find out what happens. 

I bought this one as Kindle and Audiobook February 5, 2021. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: First Truth by Dawn Cook

First Truth
Author: Dawn Cook
Narrator: Marguerite Gavin
Series: Truth (Book 1)
Publication: Ace; Reissue edition (May 28, 2002); Blackstone Audio (April 23, 2010)
Length: 356 p.; 13 hours and 21 minutes

Description: Alissa doesn't believe in magic. Her father's stories about the Hold, a legendary fortress where human Keepers learn magic from the enigmatic Masters, are just that stories. But her mother insists Alissa has inherited her father's magical ability, so she must go to the Hold to be trained. On her way, she crosses paths with Strell, a wandering musician from the plains. Though Alissa is not sure she can trust a plainsman, Strell has something Alissa needs one of her father's old maps. Traveling together, they can reach the Hold before the snow sets in. But they don't know that the Hold is nearly empty. The Keeper Bailic has sent the Masters on a fool's errand and systematically killed the other Keepers in his search for the First Truth, a book of magic that will give him ultimate power. And he believes that Alissa and Strell hold the secret of the book's hiding place.

My Thoughts: This epic fantasy/coming of age novel follows the adventure of Alissa and Strell. Alissa is the daughter of a Keeper but her father has been missing for years. She is also a half-breed. She's not accepted by the local villagers. When her mother determines that she has inherited her father's magic, she insists that Alissa travel to the Hold for training. 

Along the way she meets Strell who is a Plainsman who has been sent away from his family to work as a bard. He has just learned that his whole family was lost in a flood and is wondering what to do with the rest of his life. He was given a map by Alissa's mother in a trade. Alissa wants that map since she knows it was made by her father and she is able to read it. 

The two team up to find their way to the Hold before winter overtakes them. There they learn that the sole inhabitant is Bailic who has killed or imprisoned the rest of the Keepers and has been searching for a magical book for many years. Alissa's father had the book but hid it before entering the Hold and being murdered by Bailic. Now Alissa wants to find his book at least as much a Bailic wants it.

This was an entertaining story with lots of magic and adventure. I liked the growing relationship between Strell and Alissa. I liked the worldbuilding. My only complaint is that this is the first of four books and thus leaves all sorts of plot threads hanging. 

I bought this one as a paperback July 5, 2009. The Audible copy was available to me as a part of my subscription. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

What Have We Done
Author: Alex Finlay
Publication: Minotaur Books (March 7, 2023)

Description: A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down―after the disappearance of several kids―the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished―if troubled―lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past―a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for . . . or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.

What Have We Done is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and a gut-wrenching coming-of-age story. And it cements Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in thrillers today.

My Thoughts: I enjoyed this thriller which brings together people who spent time in Savior House as parentless teens twenty-five years earlier. After the home was closed in part due to the disappearance of the director, the teens were split up to live their own lives.

Jenna found herself in Savior House after the death of her parents in a car accident. She wasn't their long when she was plucked out by a representative of The Corporation and trained to be an assassin. She's left that life behind, married, and is the stepmother to two girls. But then she gets called in to do one last assassination. Only she finds that her supposed target is another one of the kids from Savior House who has become a tech billionaire. After purposely missing the shot, she finds herself the target of killers who want to kill her to clear up loose ends. 

Donnie is a has-been rock star with a drug and alcohol habit who is performing with the remnants of his old band on a cruise ship. He is attacked and thrown off the ship but is picked up by a fishing boat and rescued. His manager makes a deal with a writer for a tell-all book which forces Donnie to look back on those years spent at Savior House even though he doesn't want them to be any part of his story. 

Nico is a television producer for a reality show set in the West Virginia coal mines. He has a major gambling habit and is deep in debt to some criminals. When one of the stars in the show asks to meet him on the set, deep in a coal mine, he is ambushed and left for dead after an explosion happens. He is rescued in the nick of time and wants to find out who set him up. 

The story switches between these viewpoints and the viewpoints of the twin assassins who were sent to kill them all and who have already killed another of the kids who was now a federal judge - the Honorable Robert Benjamin Wood.

The three survivors all meet at the judge's funeral and begin to compare notes. They need to find out who wants them dead if they are ever to have their own lives again. The plot was twisty. Flashbacks from each viewpoint tell more about their lives a Savior House and expose the secret they are all hiding. 

This was an excellent story filled with characters I cared about.

Favorite Quote:

"I said I was done with all this," Jenna tells her. "They said I was free and they wouldn't--"

"That's above my pay grade."

"Please, I can't."

The woman shakes her head. "You'd better. For Simon, Willow, and Tallulah's sake."

The woman steps past her and calmly disappears. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Into the West by Mercedes Lackey

Into the West
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Series: The Founding of Valdemar (Book 2)
Publication: DAW (December 13, 2022)

Description: The long-awaited founding of Valdemar comes to life in this second book in the new series from a New York Times-bestselling author and beloved fantasist.

Baron Valdemar and his people have found a temporary haven, but it cannot hold all of them, or for long. Trouble could follow on their heels at any moment, and there are too many people for Crescent Lake to support. Those who are willing to make a further trek by barge on into the West will follow him into a wilderness depopulated by war and scarred by the terrible magics of a thousand years ago and the Mage Wars. But the wilderness is not as "empty" as it seems. There are potential friends and rapacious foes....

....and someone is watching them.

My Thoughts: Baron Valdemar has gotten his people through the gate and away from the Empire. But there is still a lot to do before they can stop moving. This second in the Founding of Valdemar series is about their journey. 

Delia has been sent ahead with the scouts both because her gift of Fetching is very useful to the scounts and because it gets her away from the object of her crush Kordas. The worldbuilding is great in this story and we get to see all sorts of magical creatures and magical landscapes in the land that was the battleground in the Mage Wars 500 years earlier. 

But besides the magical creatures, they are not alone in this new land. The Tayledras, the Hawkbrothers, and the Hertasi and learn about their purpose in this blighted land. 

This story had a lot of action as they all travel to search for a new home. I enjoyed watching Delia grow up and enjoyed thinking along with Kordas as he tries to do the best for his people. 

Favorite Quote:

Our Path, for the future of our expedition, for the well-being of those we befriend, for the land and the spirits, is this.

"There is no one, true way."

I bought this one December 13, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Beyond by Mercedes Lackey

Beyond
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Narrator: Paul Woodson
Series: The Founding of Valdemar (Book 1)
Publication: Tantor Audio (September 14, 2021)
Length: 12 hours and 13 minutes

Description: Within the Eastern Empire, Duke Kordas Valdemar rules a tiny, bucolic Duchy that focuses mostly on horse breeding. Anticipating the day when the Empire's exploitative and militant leaders would not be content to leave them alone, Korda's father set out to gather magicians in the hopes of one day finding a way to escape and protect the people of the Duchy from tyranny.

The signs in the Empire are increasingly dire. Under the direction of the Emperor, mages have begun to harness the power of dark magics, including blood magic, the powers of the Abyssal Planes, and the binding and "milking" of Elemental creatures.

But then one of the Duchy's mages has a breakthrough. There is a way to place a Gate at a distance so far from the Empire that it is unlikely the Emperor can find or follow them as they evacuate everyone that is willing to leave.

But time is running out, and Kordas has been summoned to the Emperor's Court.

Can his reputation as a country bumpkin and his acting skills buy him and his people the time they need to flee? Or will the Emperor lose patience, invade to strip Valdemar of everything of worth, and send its conscripted people into the front lines of the Imperial wars?

My Thoughts: This story tells about the beginnings of Valdemar. It begins in the corrupt Eastern Empire and Duke Valdemar rules a rural and hopefully overlooked dukedom. Its two major products are barges and very finely bred horses. 

Duke Kordas Valdemar is at least the third generation that has been working to remove his goods and people from the Empire and start a new life somewhere else. Now that the mages who have stayed under the emperor's view have discovered a spell to make gates into new lands far away, the plans can begin to be realized.

But Kordas is called to the capitol with the latest tribute shipment of horses. He sees that even more has changed for the worse from the time some years earlier when he had been kept as a noble hostage in the palace. Human servants have been replaced by dolls powered by captive Vrondi and the city is almost empty since anyone not immediately needed to support the palace has been sent to the Southern border to fight in the emperor's long-running war. 

Kordas, being the kind of man he is, becomes determined to also free the Vrondi, rescue that latest group of noble hostages, and rescue anyone else in danger. And danger is imminent because the emperor has captured a child earth elemental to provide magical power for his mages to use and its very angry parents are getting closer.

Meanwhile back at home, Kordas's wife and sister-in-law are mobilizing the transfer of people, goods and supplies to their new home.

I really enjoyed all of the magic and intrigue. This was an engaging audiobook presentation.

I bought this one during and Audible Sale November 20, 2022. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: Archangel by Sharon Shinn

Archangel
Author: Sharon Shinn
Narrator: Tamara Marston
Series: Angel (Book 1)
Publication: Ace; Reissue edition (April 1, 1997); Audible Studios (July 20, 2010)
Length: 398 p.; 17 hours and 8 minutes

Description: From national bestselling author Sharon Shinn comes a stunningly beautiful novel of a distant future—where the fate of the world rests on the voice of an angel...

Through science, faith, and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived as perfect. Diverse peoples held together by respect for each other. Angels to guard the mortals and mystics to guard the forbidden knowledge. Jehovah to watch over them all...

Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained. But with the coming of an age of corruption, Samaria's only hope lies in the crowning of a new Archangel. The oracles have chosen Gabriel for this honor, and further decreed that he must first wed a mortal woman named Rachel.

It is his destiny and hers. And Gabriel is certain that she will greet the news of her betrothal with enthusiasm, and a devotion to duty equal to his own.

Rachel, however, has other ideas...

My Thoughts: Gabriel, an angel, is in line to be the next archangel when he and his wife sing the Gloria at the upcoming annual celebration. The first problem is that, while Gabriel knows the name of his potential wife, he doesn't know where she is. He has only six weeks to find her before they have to sing together. 

Rachel in a slave in Semorrah for five years. She was born a farm girl. When her farm was attacked, she was a small child whose body was sheltered by the dead body of her father. When the attackers finally left, Rachel ran until she was found by the Edori who adopted her and raised her. She found happiness and a young man to love. But then their encampment was attacked by Jansai raiders looking for slaves. Rachel was captured and sold and left wondering about the fate of the rest of her adopted family.

Gabriel is reluctant to give up his search for Rachel in order to attend a wedding in Semorrah but as the next archangel he needs to get along with the wealthy merchants. He is very surprised to find Rachel there. He takes her back to his mountain Eyrie to marry her and make sure that she's ready for their vocal performance.

Rachel isn't pleased with what she sees as Gabriel's high-handedness. She has been filled with rage at her situation for most of her life. She had just convinced a young woman to buy her as her servant and then free her when Gabriel swoops in and wrecks her life again. It doesn't help that Gabriel doesn't have time to spend with her to get to know her. He's busy trying to deal with the consequences of the current archangel's actions which have done nothing to keep that harmony that their god Jovah requires. 

So, there is Rachel in the Eyrie where she is trapped since the only way to get to it is to be flown by an angel and she is deathly afraid of heights and suffers from vertigo while Gabriel is off meeting people. There is the jealous rival who has always wanted Gabriel and is doing her best to sabotage Rachel. And there are the music practice rooms where Rachel is introduced to recordings of the great angelic singers of the past. Rachel refuses to sing herself leaving major uncertainty about her ability to fulfill her role at the Gloria.

Then there is the villain of the piece in Archangel Raphael who has held his position for the previous twenty years and who doesn't want to yield power to Gabriel. But the more Gabriel looks into things, the more he sees what Raphael has neglected. Gabriel comes to believe that Raphael doesn't believe in Jovah and has convinced his supporters that Jovah is a myth. Raphael has encouraged greed and lawlessness and is ruining the harmony that Jovah requires. 

This was a stunning story quite different than the book summary. It actually reads as a fantasy with some science fiction elements like screens to talk to Jovah used by the oracles and devices implanted in babies which let Jovah know about and keep track of the population. The current generations don't know about the history of their world or about the goals of the founders or the existence of a ship in space. There are winged angels and humans on the world. There is a god named Jovah who can be invoked by the singing prayers of the angels. Jovah can control the weather and sometimes sends down medicinal plants or necessary seeds.  Jovah is their god. 

I enjoyed this story which is the first of the Samaria series and look forward to rereading and listening to the rest. 

Favorite Quote:

"Only the strongest are put through the fire," Josiah said. "And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty."

"Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends."

I've owned the paperback since before 2008. The audiobook was a recent purchase because it was on sale. I got the Kindle because I like to read along while I listen. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen

Beneath the Keep 
Author: Erika Johansen
Series: The Queen of the Tearling (Book 4)
Publication: Dutton (February 2, 2021)

Description: As a kingdom descends into darkness and new alliances are forged under fire, a battle begins over a prophecy that will change the course of history in this much-anticipated stand-alone prequel to the bestselling Queen of the Tearling trilogy. 

The Tearling, founded as a utopia, has collapsed and reverted to feudalism. As the gap between rich and poor widens and famine threatens the land, rumors of a prophecy begin to spread: a great hope, a True Queen who will ascend and save the kingdom.

But rumors will not help Lazarus, a boy on the verge of manhood, trapped in the clandestine underworld known as the Creche. Enlisted from his earliest days to kill without mercy, he has never seen sun or sky, not until a quest for vengeance propels him aboveground. There he finds a calling amid a royal court rife with intrigue and danger, where he meets Niya, Princess Elyssa’s handmaid, who is not what she appears to be and whose true identity will spell death if revealed.

With a righteous rebellion gathering inside her kingdom, Princess Elyssa finds herself torn between duty to the throne and her growing loyalty to the Blue Horizon, a group of fierce idealists who promise radical change. Elyssa must choose quickly, for threats beset her on all sides, and the powers wielded by an uncanny seer and her shadowy master are preparing to decide the Princess’s fate for her. It is only a matter of time before Lazarus, Niya, and Elyssa will be called into the service of something greater than they have ever imagined: the fight for a better world.

My Thoughts: This prequel to the Tearling trilogy was a dark fantasy filled with intriguing characters. The story is told from multiple viewpoints including a young boy who was sold into the Creche as an infant and trained as a cage fighter in death matches and a lady-in-waiting to the Crown Princess who is an agent for the Blue Horizon group that wants social justice. The Crown Princess Elyssa also has a viewpoint role.

The story talks about a feudal world that is in the process of a revolution. Continuing drought has convinced some of the peasants chained to their land that they have to revolt. Led by Aislinn Martin who had seen her family killed by the bailiffs of Lady Andrews who owns the land after Aislinn caught her attention, the peasants take over a number of the estates on their way to the city to lay their case before the Queen.

Princess Elyssa sees that her mother is a tyrant much more concerned with her own comfort and holding on to her authoritarian grip on her country than caring for her people. Elyssa was raised by a secret member of Blue Horizon and wants to make things better for her people. But she is taken over by a man from the Creche with a grudge against the Royal Family and his witch Brenna who has magical powers.

Our cage fighter who knows himself as Christian but has earned the fighting name of Lazarus has one friend. She was sold into prostitution when she was a child and has taken to using the poppy to cope with her life. When she disappears into the land above, Christian is determined to find her which leads him to work his way into the Royal Guard as a guard for Princess Elyssa.

The story is dark and complicated and each character has to face all sorts of trials. The worldbuilding was interesting. I especially liked the chapter headings which feature quotes from books written about the time period where our characters are living their lives. 

This was an interesting and exciting story whether or not you were already familiar with the trilogy. It has made me want to read the trilogy again with better understanding of what led to the events there.

Favorite Quote:

"No," Elyssa whispered, turning away from the wall and moving back to the window to stare out across her kingdom, this damnable, maddening kingdom that had once had such potential to be great. Everyone seemed content to accept the fall...everyone except the Blue Horizon, with their better world.

It doesn't matter that they don't know how to get there, Elyssa realized suddenly. It doesn't even matter if we never do. The important thing is to die trying. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.