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The Mage Sister
Arinda has been in hiding for her entire life. While nearly everyone in her little town of Amok can learn the simple magic spells that make everyday life simple, she doesn’t dare try. If the townspeople discover that she’s an actual magicker, she’ll be enslaved by the Circle of Mages for the rest of her life. Her Nanny raised her with dire warnings about the evil Mages and protects her so well that not even her parents know her dark secret.
When their parents send them to a boarding school, Arinda and her elder sister Amaris are on their own. The Headmaster, Jahx Rife, seems to take a keen interest in Arinda, and she’s desperate to keep him from discovering her magic. Of course, things go awry, and Arinda confronts her worst fears. Her suspicion and anger might blind her to the intentions of the Circle of Mages, but some of what her Nanny told her has a veneer of truth. There’s someone she should be afraid of, but her stubborn nature may keep her from seeing the threat for what it is.
Jeanne Bradford offers a Young Adult novel that is entertaining, fast-paced and full of intrigue. It’s almost heartbreaking when Arinda faces hostility and rejection, and digs in deep to defend herself from all of the perceived threats around her. In her eyes, everything her Nanny warned her about is coming true. She’s a stubborn young woman and she’s determined to keep herself free.
The world building here is excellent. I was prepared for a story about magical boarding schools, but the author surprised me and took the plot in an entirely different direction. The setting is intimate, a small kingdom founded many centuries ago by people who “came across” from another place. The wilds are full of magical creatures, and small spells and devices are commonplace, but greater magic is feared. Mages can command powers from many branches of study, and readers learn about the use of magic and its dangers right alongside Arinda.
There’s a large cast of characters. Alongside Arinda, Jahx, King Nathan, and Cullen are the members of the Royal Household, other Mages, and a nasty piece of work named Sebastien. He and his cronies are young, arrogant, and perpetually in disgrace. Sebastien makes a perfectly nasty antagonist for the novel, exploiting weaknesses in the Mages’ ranks and determined to take Arinda as his own. A strong book needs a strong antagonist, and Sebastien does not disappoint.
One thing I found troubling is that so many of the conversations were contentious. It felt like nearly every time two characters spoke to each other, someone wound up shouting, back talking a superior, speaking rudely, or getting angry. There is a lot of dialogue in this book, and when so many conversations are highly emotional or held at top volume, it diminishes the impact of the situations they’re discussing.
I enjoyed The Mage Sister and recommend it for readers 14 and up. The novel leaves enough room for a sequel, but it will easily stand alone as a complete tale. Like many fantasy novels, the themes of learning to trust, leaving childhood behind and joining together for a common cause are strongly presented. Check it out for yourself or for your favorite stubborn, self-determined teen.
Pages: 256 | ISBN: 1606594060
Etched In Fire
Fourteen-year old Maelen Saltbearer is finally on her first business trip with her parents who are merchants from the shore. She is old enough to learn more about the family business and has the opportunity to learn hands on while discovering the world outside of her hometown. However, their arrival in the diverse city of Kaelennar takes a turn for the worse and they find themselves in a perilous situation with no escape. With an invasion of magical creatures against the humans and other races that lived in harmony in this bustling city, Maelen learns first thing about survival as well as herself. Nothing in her life could have prepared her for the battles ahead.
From the first paragraph that is rich with vivid detail, readers are drawn into Maelen’s mind as well as her world. No description is left out, which makes it more exciting and more interesting to read. The story is from her point of view and readers feel her impatience of not knowing enough of what is happening in the world that is slowly dying around her. It’s easy to feel as if the reader is right next to Maelen through it all and enduring the joys and hardships she encounters. Each chapter has little teasers as the reader tries to understand more about Maelen and what her destiny or purpose is. She is just an average girl who is smart and driven, but there is something about her that makes her a bit more special. In the story, there are sexual situations and violence, but considering the predicament Maelen and her family are in with a hostile invasion, it is relevant to the plot and suitable for young adults. The story also deals with a variety of themes such as war, dystopian society, racism, and fighting back against corruption without picking up a weapon. Even those characters that come across as physically weak draw on their own strength and talent in order to survive. This fantasy is complete with amazing creatures and races as well as magic and dark powers. It has its share of tyrants and tragedies. Emotional and gripping, it is well written and makes it difficult to put down at the end of the chapter. As Maelen’s life comes to a place where her path must take a turn, the reader easily tries to imagine and predict her next consequence for her actions. She even learns that she cannot anticipate the direction her life will take her no matter how hard she fights it or tries to make a change for the better.
Etched in Fire by Beth Hudson is intense and complex from start to finish. It makes the emotions and fears tangible to the reader and changes them. The journey with Maelen is long and full of moral challenges, but it is a worthy read that will take the reader away to a darker world of its survivors of all ages.
Pages: 544 | ISBN: 9781310614965
The Moreva of Astoreth
Roxanne Bland’s, The Moreva of Astoreth, is a twenty-seven chapter long book about life as a morev for Moreva Tehi. Tehi is a healer that works in the Temple for the Goddess of Love, Astoreth; The Most Holy One, who is also her grandmother. Less than interested in attending the Goddess’ religious service of Ohra and desperate to find the cure for Red Fever; a disease that plagued the Hakoi of their lands, she finds herself in great trouble with Astoreth, after missing the service. The defiance in character that lands Moreva Tehi in trouble, however, would not soon leave her and she would find herself in the Syren Perritory breaking every rule she had come to know. She is be lead to many revelations, some wonderful, some unsettling, but all unexpected.
The story began in Kherah, “a sunny desert south of the planet’s equator, where the fauna were kept in special habitats for learning and entertainment.” Moreva Tehi had seemingly spent too much of her privilege as granddaughter of a Goddess and was going to be sent away as punishment. In Kherah there were Devi, morevs and hakoi, most to least powerful respectively. Moreva Tehi was all three, but she despised the hakoi, even the parts of herself that was. After being sent away, hakoi like Kepten Yose of Mjor, would be a reminder to Tehi of why she hated hakoi, while others like Hyme; the healer and Teger; the Laerd, would conflict her understanding of that hatred.
Told from a first person perspective, the book became monotonous, as Moreva’s daily routine is described almost word for word for several chapters. The cycle contained, scrambling to get to breakfast, run ins with Teger, lab work with Hyme, morning service, clean up, rest, putting on makeup and getting dressed for the Ohra, evening service, rest, repeat. This made the book harder to read until about chapter thirteen. All the chapters before laid a boring and repetitive path for the reader to just happen upon a climax, literally. A severely unlikely love interest creates a hallmark of a plot twist and begins to really unfold the story.
The use of a second language that the narrator did not understand and that was not translated, successfully excluded both the narrator and myself.
Thematically, the language and attitudes to Tehi showed the struggle for her to be welcomed by the very people with whom she would share her body in the rite of Ohra, very similar to behavior of real world cultures. It was her bravery, breaking Protocol, and saving some miners from dying, that began a change in behavior towards her. There was a strong sense that she struggled with accepting herself, her religious obligations and how she felt about performing them starkly contrasted. Even though she hated the sexually invasive Ohra rite, her religious persuasions forced her to believe her feelings were the problem and not the rite. In the midst of themes such as love and power, Moreva learned reality was relative; she made a discovery about the Gods of her temple that threw her into a struggle with her own identity. Even so, Tehi dared not be bound by a dictated life. It was her determination and willingness to sacrifice that got her into trouble and she would use them to get out. Burning old bridges and creating new ones, with minimal harm to the people who she loved with all her hearts.
Pages: 452 | ISBN: 0996731660
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