BLURB
On a planet far from Earth, descendants of marooned space travelers fight a decades-long war. Shy scholar Victoria knows nothing of this conflict until pirates kidnap and sell her to the sadistic tyrant behind it. He keeps her naked and locked in a tower, subjecting her to months of psychological torture. After seizing an opportunity to escape, Vic joins the fight against her former captor and begins walking a bloody path toward revenge.
As the Blade, Vic gains glory raiding her enemy’s forces, but the ordeal in his tower haunts her. Bitter memories keep her from returning the love of the kindhearted Prince Ashel, whose family has fended off the tyrant’s invading army for a generation. When enemy soldiers capture Ashel, Vic embarks on a quest to rescue him and, on the journey, discovers a source of spectacular power. With wizardry, Vic can rescue the prince, end the war, and wreak the vengeance she craves, but she might also destroy her only chance for peace.
REVIEW
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.
Okay. This was supposed to be an ARC review, unfortunately, I got busy because of school and the upcoming intramurals so I didn’t finished the book until now.
All I can say is this book is both bad and good. There are factors that it made the book bad and there are factors that it made the book good. I’ll talk about those at the same time but I’ll try to divide my review onto parts so you won’t confuse yourself.
Let’s talk first about the characters.
Let’s starts with the prince of Latha, Prince Ashel. Prince Ashel’s first impression to me was kind of a modern type man. Maybe because his first appearance in the book is kind of mature. For me, Prince Ashel is a good character. He helped the heroine, Victoria of Ourtown, develop all throughout the book. But he’s impulsive, making me hate him at the same time. Whenever something tragic happen to him, he decides impulsively leading to another tragic or dangerous situation. It was his impulsive decision that made him and Geram abducted by the enemy troops. He also denies the biggest and most obvious thing in the story; he’s in love with Victoria.
Next is the queen, Elekia. I don’t know what her deal with Victoria is. She challenged Vic from the moment Vic arrived in their palace. Though she said she loved Vic the way she loved her other two children, and treated her like her third and youngest child, I still doubt her real motive towards Vic and even towards the throne. Elekia confuses me sometimes. Fine, most of the times. And I’m still having second thoughts about trusting Elekia.
Then there’s Bethniel, the princess of Latha and the suppose heir of the kingdom. She’s a fine character. Like her brother, she’s impulsive too. But her impulsiveness isn’t as dangerous as Ashel’s. She treated Vic like a younger sister and she was able to show that in the book. Sure she respect Vic because of her rank in the army but she still treats Vic like a younger sister, scolding her and giving her words of wisdom from time to time.
Next is Vic’s hatest and most loved person in most of the book, the Relmlord Lornk Korng from Traine. I don’t know what to say about this character. He didn’t look like the kind of person Vic had pictured in my head. In the book, Lornk is the villain, the bad guy. But it doesn’t feel like he’s the bad guy. Well, aside from the torture he gave to his prisoners, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy to me. He’s seriously possessive though.
The rest of the characters in the book seemed to give their loyalty to Vic so I won’t elaborate more of them.
Now, lastly, Victoria of Ourtown; the heroine of the book, the main character. My first impression to Vic was just normal. She’s not innocent and seriously not naïve too like most of the books with the same genre that I’ve read before. When Vic arrived in Traine and became the Relmlord’s mistress, I didn’t felt the heaviness of the trauma she experienced being a mistress as what the book portrayed. All throughout the book, Vic lived her life with one goal, to get her revenge on the Relmlord. Though I seriously don’t know why she’s so hell-bent on killing the Relmlord. The way the book described Vic’s experience being the Relmord’s mistress was somehow exaggerated. The Relmlord didn’t even tortured her, didn’t inflict pain on her. Instead, she just locked her in a room and stripped her with everything she had, personality included, that’s all. She was even eating regularly. But the way she reacted to it was like she suffered the most brutal torture ever.
There are times that I hated her, Vic. She wants to have her revenge on the Relmlord but at the same time, she doesn’t want to kill him. Like wtf?
I don’t understand her sometimes. She confuses me more than Elekia does.
Let’s go to the story and the way it was written.
It was good. The narration is in third person point of view. I was fine with it, I understand the story well. Though there are parts that I read some paragraphs two or three times to understand the situation. And honestly, while reading the book, it feels like I’m watching a series in Netflix. There are parts that the way it was narrated was so good that I actually felt nervous and scared and overloading with feels.
I couldn’t quite wrap up the thoughts inside my head about this book right now because I’m still trying to let the ending of the book sink in. You know those times that there are still a lot of things left unsolved and you’re on the ninety-eight percent of the book? Yeah, that kind of feeling. I was so taken aback by the ending; I needed to read it again and again until I just suddenly stopped. It was way too unexpected for me. Way too many things left unsolved making you crave for the next book immediately.
All in all, I don’t have a problem with the flow of the story. I actually liked the plot of the book. Even though it’s kind of a common story here in my country. A cliché type, a woman who’s been looked down and challenged and then years later came back to have her revenge. Yeah, it’s common here. But never in a fantasy genre.
Like I said, I don’t have a problem with the flow of the story. The only thing I have issues are the characters, especially Victoria. Like seriously, I’ve never met a main character like her. She’s both irritating and admiring at the same. I like how badass she is in her missions but I don’t like how hung up she is with her past and couldn’t seem to move on.
I’ll stop now. When I read deeper into this book I know that I will have a long review about this and most of it will be rants. And I just did so I’ll stop right now.
Recommendations! If you want a kind of story of a person rising from the low side of life and avenging things, this one is perfect for you. You will feel a lot of emotions in this book. I did.
RATE: 3.75/5
About the Author...
I have danced tango beneath the wings of angels, played hide and seek with harbor seals, and sought distant galaxies from dusk to dawn. It’s been a while since I’ve donned my tango shoes, but I still scuba dive and star gaze whenever the seas are calm enough and the skies dark enough. Hiking to isolated swimming holes, exploring ancient cathedrals, and dining with friends are among my favorite things, but I really love sitting with a cat on my lap while a beloved movie plays on TV.
My young life was defined by restless parents who moved us every two to four years; but I’ve found stability in a Brooklyn apartment where I’ve lived more than a decade with my husband, daughter, and my cats.
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