Silvara
Written on Dec 5, 2015
I liked this book. However the prologue? Not so much. We didn't care about the characters at that point, didn't have a clue what was going on or how the world worked. So having that be the first thing you read turned me off. I loved it once we met Natalie in chapter 1, she was easy to like and her money and family problems felt true to life. But I almost didn't read that far because of not clicking at all with the prologue.
It's the first in a series, so there was a lot of setting up in this book. But we didn't actually learn a whole lot about Fourline. We learned that there are blue-skinned, talking creatures called Nala that are bad. That there is an evil guy who wants to take over the kingdom, and that there is a select type of... not priests or ruling class exactly... I'm actually not sure what to call them.
They're called Sisters in the book, and they have different Houses. Healing, Warriors, Wisdom Sisters. And they used to be highly respected until the bad guy turned the people against them. I'd love to get to know more about them in the next books. I also want to know more about the world of Fourline and the magic therein.
The romance felt a bit fast to me, and then the way the book left you hanging at the end... It was and wasn't a good place to stop.
While I liked Natalie on the whole, most of the other characters weren't fleshed out enough. Annin was my next favorite character, and the one who was fleshed out the most after Natalie. But even she could use a bit more rounding out.
I did like the story enough to want to read the next one, and since this one was free when I got it (check to be sure it still is before buying!) if you like fantasy books that combine our world and a magical world, you might want to give this one a try.
This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon