Lera's Sorrow

by Gail Gernat

[chymerra]

When I was approached to review Lera’s Sorrow and Illeria’s Darkliete, I was a bit hesitant to accept. I was running behind on my reviews and didn’t think I would have time to read another two books. But, once I read the blurb of both books, I made the decision to read them. I am glad I did because these books were wonderful.

Lera’s Sorrow is the prequel to Illeria’s Darkliete. In this book, Illeria’s mother, Lera, is introduced. Lera is an Elven healer who has finished her training. She is sent to her grandparents in Madean to learn about the human world. Lera meets Ian, a human prince. That meeting throws everything that Lera has worked for into chaos. There is also an unexpected result of her actions. It is those consequences that force her to make a decision that shouldn’t have to be made.

This book was a very quick read at 60 pages. But the author did a wonderful job for packing in a whole bunch of information into those 60 pages. She also did a wonderful job of building up a world that would be continued in the next book.

I did like Lera but I didn’t like how the elven community treated her after what happened with Ian. She didn’t have control over it!! Considering that the Elves were having trouble conceiving, I would have thought that they would be happy about half-elves. Anyway, I thought Lera dealt very well with what happened. I also felt that she dealt very well with the mother in law from Hell. I don’t know if I could have been as…nice….as she was. Thinking about it more, nope. Definitely not as nice.

The romance between Ian and Lera was sweet. I did think that Ian could have stuck up for Lera more. But then again, he did stick up for her when it mattered.

The end of the book was sad. Not going to get into it but it broke my heart to read it.

Pros of Lera’s Sorrow:

A) The author laid a great foundation for the next book

B) Great character building

C) Lera’s sweetness

Cons of Lera’s Sorrow:

A) The Elves and their unwillingness to deal with humans. Understandable but still

B) Ian’s mother. I wanted to punt her off the castle wall. Couldn’t stand her

C) The end of the book.

I would give Lera’s Sorrow a rating of Older Teen. There is mild violence. There are sexual situations but they were very vague. There is no language. I would feel safe recommending this book to anyone over the age of 16.

There are no triggers in this book. None, zilch, zero.

I would recommend Lera’s Sorrow to family and friends. This is also a book that I would reread.

I would like to thank Gail Gernat and Andrea James Publishing for allowing me to read and review Lera’s Sorrow.

All opinions stated in this review of Lera’s Sorrow are mine

**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**