Behind familiar fantasy trappings await a marvelous adventure and a vibrant love story.
In this medieval tale, the conflict between two rival kingdoms escalates over an ancient prophecy.
Vanyar, a shape-shifter, former soldier, and drunkard, has just been tossed from a tavern in his native land of Bryn’Cairdha. On the grimy streets, he’s soon confronted by a Centaur named Malik, who runs King Roidan’s secret task force, the Weksan’Atan. He informs Vanyar that he's to sober up and rejoin the Atan as second-in-command for a special mission—or go to prison. Vanyar eventually agrees, and he travels with a contingent of Minotaurs, Griffins, Centaurs, and Shifters to rescue Princess Iyumi from her vile kidnappers near the border of the northern kingdom, Raithin Mawr. Meanwhile, in Raithin Mawr—where magic and monsters are forbidden—Prince Flynn is tasked by his father, King Finian, to find Iyumi, marry her, and fulfill a prophecy that will supposedly eradicate magic and join the two nations in peace. The situation is more complex than either side knows, for Iyumi, herself a prophetess, sees that a baby plays a key role in uniting the kingdoms. When she’s trapped in a cave by Raithin Mawr forces, she suddenly falls ill. Will Vanyar be able to help, or will the ghosts of a botched military action catch up with him? Rose (Prince Wolf, 2016, etc.) crafts an excellent stand-alone adventure from some of the fantasy genre’s most tried-and-true components. Her prose, wry in tone and comprised of long, loping paragraphs full of physical and emotional description, is pitch-perfect. Some lines find beauty in the story’s violence, as when Flynn kills someone and “his spirit fled to the folk who kept count.” Rose frequently uses slang to garnish the dialogue, not oversell it (Iyumi says, “Bite me, Vanyar”). Further connecting with modern audiences, she casts the violent behavior of Raithin Mawr citizens who blow people up as terrorism—and then cleverly draws the narrative to a point by which such acts are unnecessary. Tucked within is also a first-rate romance, making the characters that much more unforgettable.
Behind familiar fantasy trappings await a marvelous adventure and a vibrant love story.Pub Date: April 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9904275-5-1
Page Count: 560
Publisher: House Anderson Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lovelorn winemaker’s daughter seeks the right way to crush sour grapes into a winning blend.
Days before her wedding, Georgia’s relationship breaks down. But when she tries to escape home to wine country, she discovers nearly as many fissures in her family.
In the navel-gazing microcosm of California, worlds don’t get much more different than Los Angeles and Sonoma: the former rich in artificial vice, the latter in cultivated flavor. Dave, a seasoned writer of literary romance (The First Husband, 2011, etc.), explores this divide through the eyes of Georgia Ford, a 30-year-old LA–based corporate lawyer on the cusp of marrying her dream guy, Ben. He’s a devastating British architect, of course—rom-coms breed such fellows on a Burberry island somewhere—and his long-ago fling with an equally devastating movie star resulted in a 4-year-old daughter he's just learned about. Cue the devastation for Georgia, who flees up the coast in wedding garb after spying the seemingly happy family walk by during her final dress fitting. Destination: The Last Straw, the idyllic family vineyard in Sebastopol where she grew up with handsome twin brothers and crazy-in-love parents. Unfortunately, the clarity Georgia hopes to find there is quickly marred by everyone else’s problems. Her parents’ marriage is faltering; her feisty brothers are warring over a woman; and, in the deepest cut of all, her dad plans to sell the vineyard that’s always anchored them. As Georgia weighs her ambivalence about Ben, she struggles to understand the parade of relationships blooming and busting around her. Through a series of flashbacks that range from canny to cloying, we learn how the Ford family has reached this collective crisis point. Resolutions arrive slowly and often unexpectedly for each of them, giving this satisfying novel legs.
A lovelorn winemaker’s daughter seeks the right way to crush sour grapes into a winning blend.Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-8925-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
It's all quite entertaining and memorable.
Here, Follett sets the thrillers aside for a long, steady story about building a cathedral in 12th-century England.
Bloodthirsty or adventure-crazed Follett readers will be frustrated, but anyone who has ever been moved by the splendors of a fine church will sink right into this highly detailed but fast-moving historical work—a novel about the people and skills needed to put up an eye-popping cathedral in the very unsettled days just before the ascension of Henry II. The cathedral is the brainchild of Philip, prior of the monastery at Kingsbridge, and Tom, an itinerant master mason. Philip, shrewd and ambitious but genuinely devout, sees it as a sign of divine agreement when his decrepit old cathedral burns on the night that Tom and his starving family show up seeking shelter. Actually, it's Tom's clever stepson Jack who has stepped in to carry out God's will by secretly torching the cathedral attic, but the effect is the same. Tom gets the commission to start the rebuilding—which is what he has wanted to do more than anything in his life. Meanwhile, however, the work is complicated greatly by local politics. There is a loathsome baron and his family who have usurped the local earldom and allied themselves with the powerful, cynical bishop—who is himself sinfully jealous of Philip's cathedral. There are the dispossessed heirs to earldom, a beautiful girl and her bellicose brother, both sworn to root out the usurpers. And there is the mysterious Ellen, Tom's second wife, who witnessed an ancient treachery that haunts the bishop, the priory, and the vile would-be earl. The great work is set back, and Tom is killed in a raid by the rivals. It falls to young Jack to finish the work. Thriller writing turns out to be pretty good training, since Follett's history moves like a fast freight train. Details are plenty, but they support rather than smother.
It's all quite entertaining and memorable.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 1989
ISBN: 0451225244
Page Count: 973
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1989
BOOK TO SCREEN
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