Moira Katson

I picked up Shadowborn during the Smashwords Summer Sale, but I had neglected to pick up the next two books...which I bitterly regretted late the other night when I didn't have the ability to connect to Amazon to order them.

To get the bad out of the way, Shadowborn had some very obvious gaffes in editing that would send me out of the story pretty quickly. There weren't a lot, but it was the sort of things that made reading the line awkward and made you pause (wayward "to" when it should be "the" for instance). Edited 8/5: The author has re-issued a corrected version of the Trilogy on Smashwords, Amazon and Kobo. My review is from the previous version before the upload of the revised versions.

Also the book takes a long while to get to where it wants the reader to be at in terms of the relationship between Miriel and Catwin.

As for the good! Mysterious prophecy, sneaky girls, sneakier assassins and learning that you can't expect life to be fair make for an engaging fantasy.

Told from Catwin's POV, but in the past tense (its almost as if she's narrating her life story to someone), we see her go from a mischievous and curious child to a wary, young woman. She wants something more from her life, but when she's given that something more she balks at what that really means. Several times Catwin makes mention of 'If only I had known...well things could have been different.' as she talks about important turning points in her young life. Would she have taken that dare if she knew the pain she'd later endure? Would she have trusted Temar if she knew what lurked behind his questions?

Because Catwin only knows what she remembers and suspects happened, much of Miriel is a mystery at first that we puzzle out as Catwin does. Neither girl is given an easy task, though they both think the other lucky for theirs. The Duke's sledgehammer approach to getting what he wants puts the girls at odds with each other when it would have been a benefit for them to be friends. A lesson learned late and at great cost I might add.

So what's in store for these two? Well Catwin's prophecy hangs over their heads (who betrays her? or does she betray someone? what will end?) as well as Miriel's own need for independence and disillusionment with the world. So in other words FUN TIMES KIDDIES.… (mehr)