Helpful Score: 2
This was part good...and then part bad.
It kept my attention, but I didn't think the author was quite able to pull off everything she was trying to do. She's a good storyteller and there's a lot of good story here, but she didn't seem to really own it, if that makes any sense -- almost as if this were her first novel. It's the transition from the everyday lives of the main characters to the bigger fantasy theme that really didn't work. I was really enjoying the story up until then, but that part just fell flat. I'm actually kinda frustrated because it just seems like this could have been so much better if they had spent a little more time on it!
I won't be continuing on with this series. I'm just not interested after the way this one ended.
It kept my attention, but I didn't think the author was quite able to pull off everything she was trying to do. She's a good storyteller and there's a lot of good story here, but she didn't seem to really own it, if that makes any sense -- almost as if this were her first novel. It's the transition from the everyday lives of the main characters to the bigger fantasy theme that really didn't work. I was really enjoying the story up until then, but that part just fell flat. I'm actually kinda frustrated because it just seems like this could have been so much better if they had spent a little more time on it!
I won't be continuing on with this series. I'm just not interested after the way this one ended.
Helpful Score: 2
This was an excellent novel! I devoured it in the span of one day, and I already can't wait for the sequel to come out! It's got a real winner of a concept -- the Dancers and the Lorekeepers are just fascinating to me -- and some really great worldbuilding. Too many fantasy novels use recycled, generic, vaguely European settings -- not Christie Golden! Arukan is a complex society with an original, fresh, vaguely Middle Eastern feel to it. This was not a world I've read about before; Arukan is someplace new.
Kevla is a wonderful character, a vivid, likeable human being. We watch her grow from a child to a woman, and we get completely involved in her life. We identify with her and want to see her succeed. All of this is perhaps why some of the psychological places that Golden takes this character (please excuse the vagueness, but I don't want to give anything away to people who haven't read the book for themselves yet) make us, the readers, so uneasy. Golden takes some real risks and isn't afraid of pushing the envelope. And, while it may have been uncomfortable to go there, it makes the book feel so much more real. Nothing is in here just for the shock value; it is all absolutely necessary to further the plot. The way Arkuan society was structured made the particular event I'm referring to (and once you've read the book, you'll know exactly what I mean) inevitable, but nonetheless shocking, horrible, and tragic -- but always, always, emotionally honest and real. All of the actions that Kevla and the other main characters take ring true. There's not one false note.
The bottom line: this book is fabulous, original, engrossing, and real. Buy it now!
Kevla is a wonderful character, a vivid, likeable human being. We watch her grow from a child to a woman, and we get completely involved in her life. We identify with her and want to see her succeed. All of this is perhaps why some of the psychological places that Golden takes this character (please excuse the vagueness, but I don't want to give anything away to people who haven't read the book for themselves yet) make us, the readers, so uneasy. Golden takes some real risks and isn't afraid of pushing the envelope. And, while it may have been uncomfortable to go there, it makes the book feel so much more real. Nothing is in here just for the shock value; it is all absolutely necessary to further the plot. The way Arkuan society was structured made the particular event I'm referring to (and once you've read the book, you'll know exactly what I mean) inevitable, but nonetheless shocking, horrible, and tragic -- but always, always, emotionally honest and real. All of the actions that Kevla and the other main characters take ring true. There's not one false note.
The bottom line: this book is fabulous, original, engrossing, and real. Buy it now!
Helpful Score: 1
The first book in a new series. Good story telling about a strange and unique fantasy world.
Helpful Score: 1
Icky "half brother" romance-
OK-it's not asking too much of a romance novel that you REALLY shouldn't have the heroine fall in love and boink her half brother. Nobody wants to read that filth! What was Harlequin (who owns the Luna book line) thinking?
This book is just TOO weird and depressing-from the heroine having to act as a "pimp" for her prostitute mother when she's a child-to her lordly father finding out about her, taking her to his home-but-by the by-he will not acknowledge her and she must be a servant in his house!?! It just gets worse from there.
Take my advice-save your money for another book.
OK-it's not asking too much of a romance novel that you REALLY shouldn't have the heroine fall in love and boink her half brother. Nobody wants to read that filth! What was Harlequin (who owns the Luna book line) thinking?
This book is just TOO weird and depressing-from the heroine having to act as a "pimp" for her prostitute mother when she's a child-to her lordly father finding out about her, taking her to his home-but-by the by-he will not acknowledge her and she must be a servant in his house!?! It just gets worse from there.
Take my advice-save your money for another book.
