Published Oct. 24, 2017
333 Pages
In a feudal land, a Kingdom is at risk. With no heir to the fragile throne, its future rests with the powerful members of the dying king’s Council, including Minori, a nightblade warrior, and Kiyoshi, a dayblade healer. The two men are bound by the sword but divided by two opposing principles: rule the land, or serve it. In their challenge for supremacy, a spark has been lit.
Her name is Asa. Her creed is revenge.
A fierce nightblade warrior, she’s spent a decade in pursuit of the enigmatic general who killed her father in a violent revolt—then mysteriously vanished from all records. Now, her desire for reckoning has led her to the village of Two Falls—and straight into the heart of an impending civil war. Minori and Kiyoshi are vying for her loyalty. And Asa must choose sides.
As fresh betrayals unfold and a new uprising looms, Asa knows that chasing a ghost is no longer just a personal quest for retribution. It’s going to alter the fate of the entire Kingdom. -Goodreads
This could have been a really good book. It started off strong… really strong but there were things that caused your attention to drop.
Firstly, the book is told in different points of view. All the perspectives are connected and they add some much appreciated complexity to the novel. Although the transitions aren’t as smooth as I like, I did think the author did a good job of weaving in different stories to form a larger one. But the only issue was it lost focus on Asa. She felt more of a catalyst as opposed to a main character that I should invest into. She was the boulder rolling down a already shaky hill.
I didn’t really care for her character. She wasn’t as strong as you initially believe and she is very selfish. She makes decisions and then expects people to forgive and understand to justify what she has done. She doesn’t grow and that was another issue for me.
Because the author was trying to add so much to the story, the book was slow. There are a lot of details and I don’t believe it was really necessarily to go that deep because it didn’t add to world building. It was more of justifying and getting the reader to like the characters and pick a side.
There wasn’t enough action or even confrontation with this novel, which left a disappointing taste when you actually finished the book. Then ending when you finally get there was not worth the hours you spend reading for the grand ending. Also the surprising twist? You saw it about half way through the book.
Despite all of this, I strongly believe this book is a good foundation. As this is the first in the series, you can only hope it gets better in book two right?
Overall,
2 Pickles
Motif by Tanya 