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RAJA AND THE THRONE OF ZURKIA

Name: RAJA AND THE THRONE OF ZURKIA
Author: Avah Broc
ISBN: 978-1-5255-3245-0

by Avah Broc ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A well-intentioned fantasy novel that lacks spirit.

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A humble woman goes from rags to riches in debut author Broc’s medieval tale of destiny and redemption.

Raja, a young peasant girl, is accustomed to the hard toil of fieldwork. Although her daily existence is filled with drudgery, she’s still spirited and curious about the world around her. When a wealthy young man gives her a job as a scullery maid, she’s grateful to leave her present circumstances and start a new life. But she soon makes a startling discovery about her past that turns her world upside down overnight: Proof has surfaced that she’s the rightful heir to the throne of Zurkia. She was abducted as a baby and forced into a life of servitude, and her true identity was kept a secret by people who wanted the throne for themselves. This revelation comes at a terrible price, however; news of Raja’s claim to the monarchy quickly spreads, and soon, there’s a price on her head that puts her life in danger. Who can she trust on her journey to the throne? As Raja evades assassination attempts and escapes kidnappers, she transforms into a formidable woman of strength, beauty, and valor. Broc’s descriptions of the medieval settings and atmosphere are detailed and colorful, and she also gets across the bleakness of life as a peasant in a feudal system: “It was fear that motivated them—fear of not producing enough for their lord, fear of the future for their family. Their lives were not their own.” However, the dialogue tends to fall flat most of the time. The characters’ conversations are often stiff, wooden, and less than lively: “ ‘Are you okay?’ asked the girl. ‘Yes,’ said Raja. ‘How about you?’ ‘Fine.’ ‘Do you want to put on a dry shawl?’ ‘Yes.’ ” Still, there are a few passionate outbursts that help to lessen the dry discourse.

A well-intentioned fantasy novel that lacks spirit.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-5255-3245-0

Page Count: 287

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

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Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.