Earthsinger Chronicles Book 1 by L. Penelope
I was so excited for this book. So when I had received it I couldn’t wait to start reading it. I have to note this book seems to be a reprint / revised copy of a previous release and will be available on July 16, 2019.
The story starts with Jasminda who lives in Elsira but also has Lagrimar blood. The colour of her skin is a reason for the people of Elsira to shun her as they are pretty racist. On top of that she has earthsong powers (magic) which is something only people from Lagrimar have, and Elsira and Lagrimar have been separated for centuries by a magic veil called The Mantle.
The Queen Who Sleeps rules Elsira while Lagrimar is ruled by the True Father. When the Mantle falls peace for both countries will be no more because the True Father wants to seize power.
No Pull
Even though reading this book excited me, in reality I had a very hard time getting into the book. The story started without a proper introduction, throwing me straight in, and it left me confused. After the first chapter I was able to ‘catch up’ on things as I’d hoped. The world the story is set in became a little clearer and now the previous chapter made a little more sense.
Unfortunately the book just didn’t grab me. I just couldn’t feel the pull of a book sucking me into the story. When I made it half way through that changed a little. The story and the characters finally grew on me a little and I wanted to read more. That feeling subsided quickly and I found myself trying to stall picking it up again to finish it (because I really did want to finish it to write a review).
Eventually I finished reading it, but it left me unsatisfied and to be honest a little confused. There are long scenes dragging on where “nothing” seems to happen, and scenes that flash by that seem pretty significant for the story.
Story Line Confusion
What threw me off as well is that there is another story line in this book that from the very beginning seems unconnected to the main story line yet they eventually sort of merge. After reading the whole book it still left me with some questions as to why this story line was so important to the whole story. It’s not that it’s irrelevant, I just think it didn’t have to play such a big part in this book. Who knows, maybe the setup of this second story line is relevant for future books in this series. As for now it sort of leaves me hanging.
Too Perfect
The love story between Jack and Jasminda was a little too perfect and didn’t work for me. Maybe it’s because both of them are kind of ‘flat’ when it comes to character building. I don’t really get to know them in the book, I get to know of them.
Overall, this book could be pretty ok if the characters where build up a bit more to give them some ‘body’ and maybe deep out the relevant scenes and skip a bit faster over the ones that don’t need to go on for a lot of chapters.
This book has some pretty good reviews overall, so it might be your cup of tea. I just don’t think it was mine.
Rating: 2/5
Song of Blood & Stone is available from July 16, 2019
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley and St Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
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