Engaging characters star in this measured tale of spirituality.
A teenager confronts adversaries with her newfound divine power in this second installment of a fantasy trilogy.
Matthew Greatworth, a hermit living in the Western Isles, comes across an abandoned infant on a rural road. Seeing the child’s brutally murdered parents lying in a lane, he informally adopts her, names her Evangel, and brings her back to his forest home, The Refuge. When Evangel is still young, the hermit learns that God shows her things in her dreams. Apparent proof of this is her response when bandits abduct Matthew for the riches they believe he has. In saving her guardian, Evangel displays a “divine power,” which everyone, including the outlaws, sees as a miracle. Further miraculous events ensue after a friend at The Refuge disappears, and a search party can only hope to find him alive. Later, Matthew, Evangel, and some comrades visit a nearby priory, where they don’t exactly receive a warm welcome. Much more affable is a group of traveling knights who also stop by. Sadly, one of the priory’s sisters, evidently vexed by the knights’ kindness toward Matthew and Evangel, reacts in an unexpectedly ruthless manner. Carreiro’s sequel is deliberately paced. The author’s descriptive passages often linger on the environment, as with Evangel in a garden: “Birds flitted among the trees. A wide variety of hummingbirds zipped by her head and chased after one another in competition for nectar and dominance over the other.” There are instances of violence in the story, which has more than one scene of torture. But a sweeping theme of forgiveness shines brightly while the seemingly indestructible bond between Matthew and Evangel remains endearing. An extended dream/vision sequence at the end deftly ties this book to the preceding series installment and sets the stage for the trilogy’s conclusion.
Engaging characters star in this measured tale of spirituality. (maps, acknowledgements, character list, author bio)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-950339-27-3
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Stillwater River Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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