by Anne Osterland
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Death disturbed the night.”
There are several elements that make a good fantasy tale, at least for me. There must be:
A feisty hero or heroine — I do better with feisty heroines, but a good, swashbuckling hero is great, too.
Action — swordfighting, adventuring, chasing, etc.
Romance — must have romance. Always nice to have a to-die for with an awesome leading pair, but even if it’s just hinted at (or one of the parties is cluesless), that works for me, too. I do unrequited okay, but pining just turns me off.
Intrigue, suspense, mystery, and magic are all optional.
Most of all, it must be fun.
Aurelia fits the bill. Feisty heroine: check. Aurelia is a conflicted person, but in the end, finds herself and kicks some butt. Action: great swordfighting, awesome horse-racing, mostly well-written. Romance: *swoon*. Mystery and intrigue and suspense: check. I was biting my nails, intent on figuring out who was behind the plot to assassinate Aurelia (that’s basically the plot of the book), and kept pestering M with questions (she read it before I got to it) until I figured it out. Granted, I was nearly done with the book at the time.
And fun? Check. It definately was fun. Very, very fun.
This sounds like a fun read and one that I must add to my TBR list!! Thanks for a great review!!
LikeLike
I’ve got this one on my shelf but I haven’t read it yet. I will have to move it up on my list.
LikeLike
Glad you enjoyed this one! I will have to be sure and add it to the list!
LikeLike
The cover of this is pretty, and it sounds good, I’ll have to check it out sooner or later.
LikeLike
Just did my Weekly Geek post and thought you’d like to know that I shared with everyone how much I enjoyed this review:
http://sueysbooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/weekly-geeks-200916-review-formats.html
LikeLike