Burning Rose by Hope Ann has released. Hopefully, providing I got the time right. It can be a tad confusing when converting American dates and times to Australian, we tend to be a little early, time travellers that we are. As part of her launch team I got an ARC to read and review. Hence this review.

Burning Rose consists of a prequel and three short stories. 

ROSE OF THE NIGHT: a Rose of the Oath prequel

ROSE OF THE OATH: a Beauty and the Beast retelling

SONG OF THE SWORD: a Rapunzel retelling

SHADOWS OF THE HERSWEALD: a Hansel and Gretel retelling

Behind every beast, there is a curse.

Behind every curse, there is a promise.

Behind every promise, there is a sacrifice.

Two hundred years before Beauty was born, blood and tears wove a legend of hope and sorrow. A timeless tale of a forbidden rose and the smooth voice of a masked stranger. A story of rebellion and despair and love. A story of a promise given and of a hope received. 

The story of the Oathkeeper.

With each novella based in an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, these are fairy tale retellings as you have never heard them before. 

Behind the scenes of Burning Rose: Shadows of the Hersweald

"Writing Burning Rose took around two years, from the publication of the first novella to the final paperback. Of course, that wasn’t non-stop writing. I published each of the three novellas contained in the paperback separately as ebooks, then pulled them together for the first book of Legends of Light. 

My third novella, Shadows of the Hersweald, was probably the hardest. I knew I wanted to retell Hansel and Gretel, but originally the sister was going to be the main character. During my first try, I only got a chapter or two written. The second round I actually wrote the whole novella from Gorawen’s point of view. It didn’t work. Finally, I realized Haydn, Gorawen’s step- brother, had a much more interesting story not to mention a more dynamic history. So I switched main characters, changed the plot a little bit, rewrote it, and was very happy with the result.

Read Haydn’s full story in my new paperback collection, Burning Rose!"

Elissa, a villager from the northern mountains, attempts to save her brother and ends up trapped in a hidden valley with a strange host and a treacherous enemy.

Evrard, the Wingmaster of the Prince’s army, races against his own weakening powers to discover the location of his twin and save her from deadly mistbenders.

Haydn, a pardoned rebel from Tauscher’s army, confronts shadows of myth and former comrades in his struggle to keep his sister safe and find the stolen Stormestone.

My Review 

The prequel/story at the start was just amazing. Of all of them it is my favourite, and as Rose of the Oath followed straight on it was too. The first few pages were a little confusing as I got it into my head that 'I' was female and then relised 'I' was male..... but after that it was very cool. Actually very sad and heart wrenching. I'm a bit of a skeptical person and overall the stories were better than I expected, but saying that I didn't really know what to expect at all.

Rose of the Oath was good, the only thing was I somehow got confused without knowing it and thought that the MCs siblings were her children.... and her brother was her husband... I got a long way through before realising my mistake. The story was mysterious, and heartbreaking. Words wove together in a beautiful way with such a ring of truth. I loved how different it was from the normal fairy tale while still containing many of the elements.

Darkness can be so beautiful when such a great light shines forth from it.

Song of the sword was beautiful. The words were melodious, sparkling with colour and light. The hope and promise the story leaves you with is refreshing. There were some very minor plot twists, which I guessed. The plot, though simple, was interesting. There was no bad content and not even much violence, though there is a war going on and a combat takes place. 

Shadows of the Hersweald was really cool, and I didn't actually guess the full extent of the story twist until it was just about happening! I read this one rather fast too. So obviously it was a good one. The story was beautiful again and full of hope, and forgiveness that just made it so lovely to read. I liked the characters and the retelling factor. It was easy to forget that it was a Hansel and Gretel retelling. There were some major elements from the original, but I loved seeing how things were switched up. This story seemed a bit more violent than the others, but still at a very low level and not descriptive. There was a lot of emotional pain and tortured characters, which is makes them good. They felt very alive and full of history together, and individually. 

The books all follow a story line of the fantasy world they are set in with some characters and time periods overlapping. I would highly recommend this book as a good read with really deep themes that ring with truth and life.

Order Burning Rose now!

I was put off by the concept of this book at first, but some other people were recommending it so when I spotted it at the library I picked it up and read the back cover and went wow, sounds cool. (And also better than the other two books I was looking at borrowing) But after reading the back cover I just could not put it down, I was intrigued. 

The book is clean (though there are hints at the fact that affairs had happened in the past and hints of romance), there was the expected level of violence for such a book (they are killing a lot of the time) but nothing overly descriptive (except once when there was a lot of blood). Scythe is not written from a chrisatain perspective at all, but it still holds to truths about human nature and that we just cannot be perfect. I enjoyed being able to delve into the themes and perspectives of this book, not of course that I agree with them, but they are what many people believe so it is good to be able to see that this is how other people may see life. To be able to see that humanity cannot ever have a utopia on this earth. And that where there is power there is always corruption. Sure there are some fatal flaws in the worldview, but it still holds truths. Scythe talks about the subjects of death and killing (Obviously) but it is interesting because society usually won't talk about it at all.

The concept was really amazing, and though the technology is not explained (it just works.) I enjoyed it for how far flung and cool it all was. I read it in three days, and that was only because I started it really late one evening. I also really liked the journal entries at the end of chapters, so much foreboding in them, and terrifying thoughts about humanity! I like books that make me think and are also clear on what they think, so even if I don't agree with their thoughts I can still learn from them.

The characters were also petty good. I ended up not liking one who I liked a lot at the beginning, still I could understand why he did what he did, but I was still happy with how his character arc turned out, it was as it had to be, yet not what I expected. The whole thing also tied off nicely and could be a stand alone, though apparently a second book is coming. 

Further notes on the romance: it was kind of unnecessary, it would have worked fine had they been friends. So I kind of imagined it more that way. It also felt like it was put there just to be there. 

It was humourous at times too, in a morbid way. And it makes you realize that living in a 'perfect' stagnant world like the story paints is not something I would want. I am glad for the age of mortality, and that lives can have purpose. But most of all that I have a better answer as to what happens after death than "I don't know."

As soon as I finished reading this book I sat down and pre-ordered the second, which was finally released today. Unblemished is the first book in a trilogy by Sara Ella. When I first saw the cover I thought it was beautiful, the story fits the cover.

The story begins in a modern world but there are parallel universes and ways to move between them so of course things get complicated. The story is lyrical and magical. I was a bit unsure with the start of it, it felt all horribly contemporary to me but then the strange things started happening and stuff got cool! 

I enjoyed the themes of love and light and dark, Verity and the Void, and the 'reflection' that it has to Christianity. Although love triangles are sometimes nasty this was the best one I have ever read, so pretty good for a love triangle. I really liked how it all worked at the end with the 'magic'. It is central to the plot without the plot being about which one should the girl choose. (thought that is certainly an element) I am still a bit annoyed about some of the things that happened there. But I must say no more.

The magic/gifts/powers some people had were really cool and made sense. It was a page turning story. With some twisty bits at the end but I still had to spend most of the book wondering who was double crossing, and not trusting anyone. The world building was average and fairly simple/normal as far as fantasy books goes, though the magic was interesting, and not exactly the same as anything else I have read. Some people not familiar to the genre may find there is a lot of world building, but in my pov there was not that much. (but I did just finish a Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Book just before reading this one)

There were some cliches that bothered me a bit like the bad guy info dumping as he has the good guy backed into a corner, and just explaining everything. (which happened big time twice) Things also happens so fast at the end that it was a tad confusing but I forced myself to read it all slowly and it does make sense. Though I still have quite a few questions I want answered. At first I thought there would be more allegory, but it did not turn out like that so I suppose it is all in the theme and is not meant to be allegorical.

As far as content goes it was pretty good. There was not really any bad content, obviously there was fantasy kind of violence, and romance/attraction/girl looking at guy way too much. There are also some references to affairs and children born outside of wedlock. Only one this made me a bit uncomfortable and that was the fact that one of the callings/magical abilities is shape-shifting, and when those characters turn back into humans they are described as naked (nothing more).

I had a few other peeves and a lot of questions (but it is the first book in a trilogy so there should be questions.) I was bothered that some elements I thought were significant never turned out to be. Maybe they still could, but maybe I look way to deep into things.

Still I did want to hit the MC over her head every time she went out at night alone or only with one other person....just aaggh, don't put yourself in that position. El narrated the story and she gave the story its own unique/distinctive voice. I liked the musical references and it was nice overall, but I personally would prefer a less modern feel. As I said though, I am waiting excitedly for the next book and I have heard good thing about it from some influence readers!

Have you read Sarah Ella's book?

What is the best book you have read in the last month?

I was so happy when I found this book in our library but now my heart is destroyed. It is written as a prequel to Alice in Wonderland. But it is not quite so mad, which I personally liked as Alice got too weird for me. 

It took me a while to really like the characters, other than Jest, and I did at times wonder why Cath couldn't just get over it and marry the king and be happy. But from the lovely ending (haha) on page 321 the book just tore me to pieces. So if you want a happy ending and all that, do. not. read. a. single. page. past 321.

I eventually realized that I like all the characters and yes I had guessed the plot twist, but it was still good, and well done, and I suspect quite a few people would be surprised by it. The ending was what I expected, except I never expected it to hurt so much. 

Even though I never really liked Alice in Wonderland that much I really enjoyed all the references to it. Now I know why they paint all the white roses red.. oh my heart. And why the Hatter is mad and the raven, and why the queen of hearts is heartless. It is all explained!

This was nothing like Marissa Meyers other books, at all, but it was a good book, still you will probably enjoy it more if you don't expect it to be like her other books. It is something else entirely. The first half of the book was a bit slow, but not the ending. I could not put it down as I read the last third. Also the dreaming stuff was really cool as was the baking. I was also pleased to have the jabberwocky and vorpal sword in there, because that is my favourite piece of Lewis Carroll's writing. 

Content wise, it centers on the romance, or lack thereof between two characters while another two romances go on through the story. (Can't say anymore because spoilers) There is no particularly descriptive violent bits and not that much violence. It is quite odd at times but no where near the level of Wonderland oddness. (a plus for me because that was too weird) There are also three sisters who tell prophecies that in some regards come true

Have you read Heartless or any other Marissa Meyer Books?

What did you think? Do you want to read this one?

I heard of the Snowflake method of plotting from some writer friends and wanted to try it, because before that my poor stories were very, extremely, highly un-plotted. The main one I have been working on for years is a mess. But then I read this book and it inspired me. 

So in case you have not heard of it let me introduce How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method.


This book is amazing. I have never read such a fun writing book before. Sure I have read other good ones but this one was so engaging. The first more than a half is written as a novel in which the main character is being taught how to outline using the Snowflake Method. It is kind of like you as the reader are also sitting in the class and you can go off to do your homework on your story as the main character does.  

To give you a bit of an idea the teacher is called Baby Bear and the main characters name is Goldilocks. There is a main plot line running through the book of Goldilocks wanting to write a story and a secondary plot line as well. I just wanted to keep on reading like it was a novel.

And yes the Snowflake Method, has made me write some kind of outline and I managed to get up to starting step 8.... after that I'm not so sure if all I have is a mess, but it is so much better than what I had before that. And so much less of a random mess, and I know what I am doing now. It was so fun to read through and helpful too, I highly recommend you give this a go and you may even find that is it just right.

See look how ordered does that look! I am so happy right now looking at that. It took me ages to make Scrivener do what I wanted but I knew it had to do it somehow I just had to find out how and an hour or so later I did. Yes I whited out the main parts because spoilers. 

And binary, because I have been looking at it for half the day. No I can't read it, but my sister needed a book cover and I don't use other people's graphics if I can help it (unless they happen to be in public domain or are book covers.) So I spent ages making some binary graphics up. And they look cool, but as far as I know the book covers are secret for now. So you only get to see the binary on the first picture of this post, which is comparison to the cover is quite un-epic. And has nothing to do with snowflakes or my own writing.

Anyone else plotting for camp NaNo?

It is about time for another book review. Well that is what I am writing about today anyway. This e-book, Dreamlander by K.M. Weiland can be bought from K.M. Weliand's store and some other places for free. Probably because once you have had one taste of her writing you will want more. And I am saying this simply because her writing is excellent and I want everyone else to have the opportunity to read her amazing books. Dreamlander is the third book by K.M. Weiland that I have read, the others were just as good. But onto Dreamlander. 

What if it were possible to live two very different lives in two separate worlds? What if the dreams we awaken from are the fading memories of that second life? What if one day we woke up in the wrong world?

The characters are what makes this book so amazing. But even without all the cast of complicated interesting, endearing, funny, exasperating characters the book is still very well written. The concept is so cool too, I really liked how the dreams were not just dreams but an alternate reality. Even with the two worlds it did not get confusing but flowed well, and some questions I had at the beginning about how that world/dream traveling worked were answered later in the book without any info dumping but it showed the things I had questions about happening.

There is always so much going on in the book and I feel for the characters so much, they are such real characters and their struggles feel true and the choices they must make are so so very hard, I wanted the same things as them and believed with them what they believed and learnt with them that they were wrong. There is so much more to this story than meets the eye. There are good lessons to be learned though they are not all very obvious. 

Did I mention the characters are amazing? oh I did, right...

The book is epic and fast paced and the poor characters are never given a breather. All over it is amazingly written, and some sentences are just beautiful. I also liked how there were words in the book I did not recognize and know the exact meaning of, I enjoyed looking them up and seeing how well they fit. There is so much action but also a good amount of description to balance it off. 

AND THERE IS A MAP, sadly it is hard to look at when you have an e-book, but there is one!

There was quite a lot of violence and some of it, especially the battles are, lets say, well described, so I'd recommend it for older readers. Particularly when a child of another non-human race and a human are executed, and also when some people or again a person from another non-human race are seriously wounded in battle. There is also a tad of romance. But I just loved this book even though the last few chapters did have me in tears.

Have you read any books by K.M. Weiland?

If you are a writer, have you checked out her blog on which she posts writing related tips, regularly?

The wait is finally over, for those who like me got ARCs of this book anyway. For everyone else it is almost here! And I am so excited because this book belongs to such a good series/trilogy. Obviously this is my honest review of this amazing book. 

What book am I talking about? A Time To Rise of course by the lovely Nadine Brandes. I am honored to take part in her book tour.

I don't want this post to be spoilery for those who have not read the first books so here is the synopsis of book one. You can find the synopsis for A Time To Rise on Goodreads.

How would you live if you knew the day you'd die?

Parvin Blackwater has wasted her life. At only seventeen, she has one year left according to the Clock by her bedside. 

In a last-ditch effort to make a difference, she tries to rescue Radicals from the crooked justice system. But when the authorities find out about her illegal activity, they cast her through the Wall -- her people's death sentence. 

What she finds on the other side about the world, about eternity, and about herself changes Parvin forever and might just save her people. 

But her Clock is running out.

A Time To Rise was worth the wait, I was expecting this to be as amazing as the other two and it certainly lived up to my expectations. There were many elements of faith in the other books but even more in this one, and by this book in the series I had grown to expect that so it was lovely. It is really refreshing to read a book that is saturated in biblical faith. But it also all applied and was necessary to the story; it has a reason and purpose. It makes this novel so much better and unique. It is an inspiring read.

This story pulled my emotions every way. The characters are all so real Parvin, Tawny, Solomon, Willow and their struggles so relatable and I really liked how some of them changed so much through this series and yet are still the same … Skelley Chase… The theme of forgiveness was powerful too. And many of the side characters were quite intriguing people as well, with their own stories, that we never really heard in this book. (because that would be unnecessary) But it made for good characters. 

There were quite a few surprising twists that I did not see coming, at all. I never even suspected there would be twists in those places. The story had me flicking through pages… e-book pages anyway as fast as I could read. A few bits had me laughing aloud.. and laughing/crying at other times.

Some horrible things happen, in the story. (Realism peoples) Some people do many horrible things; some good people make bad choices. But there are no gruesome detailed descriptions of the violence. So I really can’t say there was anything I did not like about this book, except for everything I loved of course!

I find most romance in books is painful to read, but in A Time To Rise (and the other two books, but particularly in this one where it is there a lot more) the romance is lovely and beautiful and a wonderful example of how a relationship like that should really be. It made for some heart wrenching moments. 

The story is just beautiful and so full of faith and the ending satisfied me. I am just trying not to think about how it is now ended. But Nadine did a wonderful job in making the ending sound like a new beginning for the characters while still being a great series ending.

Look at that photo, I even have a signed copy of the first book! Well, a sticker that is signed and in the front cover, but that is just as good!

Now after reading that review you want to buy the book right? So here are some links to the previous books in the Out of Time Trilogy as well as A Time To Rise!

You can find A Time to Die the one it started with all these places:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Christian Book Distributors

Goodreads 

As for A Time to Speak, possibly my favourite of the three:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Goodreads 

And A Time To Rise the third and final book:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Goodreads 

If you Pre-Order A Time To Rise you can sign up to get some cool swag -like mini character magnetic bookmarks and other out of time series bookmarks- on this post on Nadine's blog.

And there is going to be a Facebook Party to celebrate the release too, which you should totally join in on because Facebook parties are, in my experience anyway, always so fun. What could not be fun when there are book giveaways and author chats?

That American time then translates to 9am on Wednesday the 19th, if you are in the same time zone as me (Australian Eastern Time Zone UTC+10:00) And then again I just realised there is that horrible thing called daylight saving so that could make it 8am, or 10am, my poor little brain is so confused now, but we will work it out some time before then.

And in case you do not know Nadine here is a little introduction.

I am an adventurer, fusing authentic faith with bold imagination. I never received my Hogwarts letter, but rest assured I’m no Muggle (and would have been in Ravenclaw House, thank you very much.) This Harry Potter super-nerd has been known to eat an entire package of Oreos (family-size) by herself, and watches Fiddler on the Roof at least once a year. I write about brave living, finding purpose, and other worlds soaked in imagination. My dystopian trilogy (The Out of Time Series) challenged me to pursue shalom, which is now my favorite word (followed closely by bumbershoot.) When I’m not taste-testing a new chai or editing fantasy novels, me and my 

knight-in-shining armor (nickname: “hubby”)

 are out pursuing adventures.              

Nadine Stuff: (which you should check out because she is a most lovely person)

Website: http://nadinebrandes.com

Newsletter: http://nadinebrandes.com/my-newsletter

Facebook: http://facebook.com/NadineBrandesAuthor

Instagram: http://instagram.com/NadineBrandes

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NadineBrandes 

Last week I read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I am glad I borrowed this book from a friend and did not pay anything for it. I liked it, and rated it three stars on Goodreads. Mind you I also rated the first HP book 3 stars but it is way, way, way better, which rather tempts me to lower the stars on this one. I reviewed the whole Harry Potter series in this post a while ago.

This book came no where near the others. Not even close. Despite telling myself not to I expected to much. I spent the much of the time while reading it being annoyed at the whole plot of the story. It did not have that magicalness, or beauty of the actual books. I never really got into the story I think I can mostly blame that on the layout and style of the book, It is written in play format, so everything is dialogue or 

"Suddenly there is another rumble in the chimney and DRACO comes down hard, surrounded by cascading soot and dust.
Everyone looks at him surprised. He stands and brushed the soot off himself."

Every emotion and action is told. Which gets painful, as does the overuse of "suddenly". The reader if jolted around from scene to scene. It is easy to read but still confusing as to how we actually got to where we got to in such a short time. It is after all called a "Play by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany." There were no epic plot twists, and the whole plot felt rather cliché, it is just like so many other time travel stories. I liked the old time travel in the books by J.K. Rowling, that was quite unique and made a lot of sense, but the stuff in this book is as annoying and overused as almost every other time travel book. The story feels like fan fiction, which I guess it is as it is not really written by Rowling. I had not expected it to be as good as the other books but I had hoped it would be a bit better than it was.

Lets spin and travel through time and put everything that happened in the beloved HP series in peril of not ever happening.

I felt as though I was being forced to imagine the whole thing on a stage and as a play instead of it feeling real. So if you read this remember that it is not a book, it is a play. I would rather like to see it on a stage, but I just could not enjoy it as a book. It does not feel as if it was ever intended to be a book. After all Jack Thorne the playwright did write most of it. (I noticed that though J.K. Rowling gets her name big on the cover, he actually gets it twice, and it is Rowling’s name that sells the book, and they are her characters.)

Yes sometimes even I take slightly blurry photos... and let people see them.
But I had to have it exposed long enough to get the spin. Oh well...

But since when does Ron own the joke shop? And what happened to George and young Fred, they are never mentioned! (A rather depressing fact.) There were a few things like that which felt inconsistent and rather bothered me. Also who is the cursed child? And what is with the weird book cover? I still don't understand either? And seriously Voldemort had a child? <very slight spoiler

But there were some good bits, I really liked the friendship between the two main characters, Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpious was the bright spot in the book, he was the only character I really liked from the start and of course to the end. He was the one who drew me into the story and made me laugh. And it was nice to see a few of our old friends again, but it just did not do it for me.

I also liked one of the alternate realities where some characters who should be dead were still living in them, and I enjoyed that bit. So I guess you may enjoy it, but just don't expect that much.... not that I did, I guess I just couldn't help it, but I do kinda want to forget all that book and just read the original series again.. still the most annoying thing could have been how the time turning put all the original books at risk of not being true anymore.

And as to why I did not take any photos of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with the other books well there they are:

• I could not be bothered to pull all the others out of my shelf and lug them around
• The covers look terrible together.... they are just a nope nope nope
• It is not worthy of sitting beside them
• And did you notice the first photo? I was in the mood to rip up another book of plays that I bought over a year ago (for the purpose of ripping up for photos) and had not yet had the heart to destroy.

Have you read HP and the Cursed Child?

Do you like time travel in books?

Are you planning on reading this book?

It is finally the time to share the cover of A Time to Rise! For any who do not know A Time to Rise is the third and last book in the Out of Time Series by Nadine Brandes. It is set to be released on the 14th of October 2016 in America which makes it the 15th here in Australia.

But to the point, you want to see the cover. Actually you probably scrolled down and saw it before coming back to read anything.

That is what I do. 

So with no more delay I present to you 

*insert sound of dramatic music*

*insert imaginary drum roll*

*insert a great gust of wind*

the cover 

of 

A Time to Rise!

Doesn't it look so good! 

You can find it here at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27230665-a-time-to-rise

Now follows the synopsis which contains spoilers for the previous books so consider yourself warned.

What more can you sacrifice than your life?

Parvin Blackwater is dead.

At least…that’s what the Council—and the world—thinks. But her sacrifice tore down part of the Wall long enough to stir up hope and rebellion in the people. Now she will rise again. Strong, free, and fearless.

Parvin and Solomon must uncover the mysterious clues that Jude left behind in order to destroy the projected Wall once and for all. Meanwhile, the Council schemes to new levels of technology in its attempts to keep the people contained. Can a one-handed Radical and a scarred ex-Enforcer really bring shalom to the world?

So if you have not read the previous books you should forget that you just read that synopsis, and read the other two books now, so you are ready for A Time to Rise when it comes out. The three of them look so good together, I can't wait for them to all sit in a row on my shelf. 

Now I bombard you with links 

You can find A Time to Die all these places:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Christian Book Distributors

Goodreads 

As for A Time to Speak, look here for it:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Goodreads 

And because if you don't know what an amazing person Nadine is you are really missing out. She here are some links to the places she usually resides on the internet:

Website: http://nadinebrandes.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/NadineBrandesAuthor

Instagram: http://instagram.com/NadineBrandes

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NadineBrandes 

And there is also a giveaway of cuteness. A whole set of the tiny bookmark characters! So enter into that before you go. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
>

Have you read any of Nadine's books?

Do you like dystopian fiction?

The book lived up to the cover, although the characters did not spend as much time in the desert as I had thought they would. The story was fast paced and connected with my emotions and allover I would rate it as even better than the first book, Orphan's Song. It is darker though, but in that darkness there is a faint hope. It is a Christian fantasy but none of the characters are actually 'Christian' instead there is Emhran, who is like God, and even that is all very subtle and in the background. Which is just how I like fantasy books, any book actually. It is telling the story and not being preachy about something other than the story. 

Songkeeper was a lot more violent than Orphan's Song and at times gruesome too, but not really any more than was necessary. They did go into the most evil place in the land though and that was quite horrible and at the beginning one character was tortured a little to try bend another character to the bad guys will.

The characters are the best bit though, especially Amos, Gundhrold and Migdon, Ky oh and Birdie too. I really liked how the 'voice' of the writing changed to be like the way Amos talks whenever we followed him, although it was still in third person. That also left no doubt when switching which character we were now following. The characters have a perfect amount of complexity relative to how much we see them in the story. 

There were funny moments, quite a few actually and usually involving my three favourite characters Amos, Gundhrold and Migdon. A few quotes for example:

“Hurry, aye, but hurry where?" Amos halted midstride and spread his arms wide to encapsulate the view. The Vituain desert surrounded them, vast in its nothingness.”

Ky glared at the dwarf. He lunged for the bank, landing with the upper half of his body flat on at least partially dry ground. The edge sank beneath his weight and cold water crept up his shirt. By the time it reached his ribs, he was shivering. But he hung on, and between digging his elbows in and kicking his heals like a frog in a wallow, he managed to crawl clear of the muck and roll over on his back.


Migdon stooped over him, jaw jutting in a frown. "You could've just asked for help." 
Ky spat out a mouthful of mud and stayed where he was, gazing up at the ice blue sky of mid-morning.”





Why did the sand-blasted catbird have to be so seaswoggling
logical? It was downright infuriating.” ~Amos

I could go on with them, and on about the characters, but instead you should buy the book and go read it because it is one worth reading. (And buying so the author can write more.) I highly recommend it. The plot is not vastly complex but there is a lot to find out and you care about the characters. You really do, they are so alive ..... ah the irony of that statement. But as I said there is hope in the story and that makes it beautiful. 

Oh and I should say that I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and this is that. Five full stars!