His term of service to Lord Rishdah now complete, Aiden returns to his home in Braeton. As he travels he hears rumors that trouble plagues Braeton. Clan Canich is being attacked from within. He arrives, determined to save his father, his brothers, and his Clan from the treachery of one man.
A year has passed since the Calorins were driven from Aredor and Corin is struggling to rebuild his country. Despite the peace, a fear haunts him that the Calorins aren’t far away. The Hawk Flight takes to the forest again to defend the borders against a possible attack from the neighboring country of Durna and its Calorin ally.
As Aiden and Corin struggle to adapt to their new lives they know one thing for certain – war is coming to the North!
My Review
I personally liked this better than Book 1 in the series. It still took me a few chapters to get into it, but I loved reconnecting with the characters from Rise of Aredor. Just like Aredor, this book is filled with battles and oppressors. Claire does a good job depicting battle scenes (for my preference) — not too much gore but just enough details for you to understand what’s going on and feel the heat and excitement.
For about the first half, I had a hard time keeping characters straight because there were so many — and a couple of the characters from Aredor had name or position changes. Also, several of the characters were similar in character and speech (not enough distinguishing features), so I had to stop and think, “Now which one is this?”
At the same time, there were a few characters that took their shape nicely and were stand-alone. (Martin. Tam.) Also, relationships were progressing and, as the story continued, I found myself enjoying the balance of battles and character plots. There is more romance in this book, but it is not heavily emotional (e.g. if there is a kiss, it is more stated “he leaned and kissed her” rather than focusing on their emotions of how this kiss affected them).
Warriors and children! Ah! I thoroughly enjoyed these parts of the story. Especially towards the end between a specific warrior and child. But I shan’t divulge names.
The last battle … wow. Talk about a swirl of events and emotions! Half of me was like, “Yay, this is so realistic!” and the other half was, “But… but… _________ can’t die!!!!” Well done.
Again, things related to religion, death, and heaven were a bit strange to me. I won’t rehash what I wrote in my review of Aredore, but many similar things were in this book.
Overall, this was a very interesting two-book series and I enjoyed them.
*I received this book from the author in exchange of my honest review*
Purchase your own copy here. Purchase The Rise of Aredor here.
Author: Amanda Tero
Music has always been a part of Amanda Tero’s life–from her mom singing Steve Green specials to her dad honking out the rhythm of “Jingle Bells” in the driveway. She began teaching in 2007 and fell in love with sharing music. Amanda started arranging hymns for herself in her teens, with fast and furious advanced hymn settings. Then, as her students began requesting hymns at their levels, she branched out to hymn arranging for pedagogical reasons. Because of Amanda’s interest in various genres, in her shop, you will find hymn arrangements of various levels embracing classical elements, light jazz style, Southern Gospel flair, and more.
Sara Beth Williams | Author Interview
This week I’m pleased to have Sara Beth with me on the blog!
In a nutshell, what do you write?
I write Contemporary Christian romance currently.
Fun genre!
What spurred on the desire for writing?I’ve always loved writing. What has inspired me to write in THIS genre is finally discovering decent christian fiction within the last five years.
I can agree that there’s a need there! How do you balance writing with living — or is writing your full-time job?
Oh I wish I could write full time, but alas, not being published means not earning anything, which means I get to stay home and watch my 2 girls 🙂 I usually write/edit at night time after 9pm until 11 or 12
I’m also trying to maintain a noticeable presence online, so I usually sneak in blog posts and other stuff throughout the day.
Who do you hope to reach with your writing?
Ah that tricky audience question. Anyone who loves romance. Hm if I’m serious, I’d like to reach young women who are in that new relationship stage in their life. This first series I’m writing delves a lot into themes of second chances in life. But, I just love to tell a good story, and these happen to have faith weaved in.
Sounds neat. If someone asked you for your best writing tip, what would it be?
Finish your first draft without doing any major editing. The only way I was able to actually finish my entire first draft was to sit down and write it through almost all the way. (making an outline also helps) In the last decade, I have written many stories, but every time I would write a portion, I would go back and edit again and again until it was all perfect and beautiful. Unfortunately, doing so will 1) derail your flow of writing and ideas 2) cause discouragement because the story seems to be taking forever to finish, and 3) cause you to edit unnecessarily over and over again a portion of your story that might not even need to be in the story.
When you do major edits, you need to begin looking at the entire project first, and then hone in on the details. You can’t look at the entire project if you haven’t written the entire project or almost the entire project.
Good tip and good reasons to “just write.” What are three things that you greatly enjoy doing?
I love reading, and singing/playing guitar. I also love balloon twisting. Yes, read that right 🙂
Neat! I’ve enjoyed finding out more about you! Hope your writing goes well, Sara!
ABOUT SARA
Sara Beth Williams is a Christian, writer, blogger, wife, mother of 2 girls. She loves a good story, regardless of platform. Therefore, she hates watching TV episodes out of order! (God forbid she should miss something vital to the overall story line!) She lives in Sacramento, CA with her husband and children. Her time is currently divided between working, raising her daughters, and writing every spare moment she can.
Current Work in Progress: Second Chances: A 3 book Contemporary Christian romance series. You can connect with Sara Beth on Twitter @WilliamsSaraB and through her blog.
“Befriending the Beast” on Pinterest
I have discovered how amazingly helpful Pinterest is for writers! Seriously, I am more of a visual learner, so when it comes to describing people, places, and things, being able to LOOK at pictures helps me tremendously!!
No, I’m not infatuated with my “Befriending the Beast” story (okay, maybe I am a little stoked about it…) anyway, I thought you Pinterest lovers would like to see a little of the “behind the scenes” work of the story. Where I get my inspiration from. Because I like lovely pictures! Hop on over and check out “Befriending the Beast’s” Pinterest board!
Beauty and the Beast with a twist | My WIP Reveal
I’m super excited to reveal a little more about my current WIP–and even more excited to have everyone play a game with me!! “Befriending the Beast” was supposed to be a short story. First draft (very, very rough draft) was 19 Microsoft Word pages, 7,800 words. Yesterday in the edits, I added 1,000 words and am adding more plot depth. How many of you want to guess how long this “short story” will end up being? I have no clue what the right answer will be until it’s finished. But it’s fun to guess, isn’t it? And added to that, if your guess is close to the end result I’ll send you a paperback!!! Ready… Set… Guess!!
Beauty and the Beast with a twist | My WIP Reveal
I’m super excited to reveal a little more about my current WIP–and even more excited to have everyone play a game with me!! “Befriending the Beast” was supposed to be a short story. First draft (very, very rough draft) was 19 Microsoft Word pages, 7,800 words. Yesterday in the edits, I added 1,000 words and am adding more plot depth. How many of you want to guess how long this “short story” will end up being? I have no clue what the right answer will be until it’s finished. But it’s fun to guess, isn’t it? And added to that, if your guess is close to the end result I’ll send you a paperback!!! Ready… Set… Guess!!
"Me? Teach Piano?" giveaway winner
Today is the happy day in which I get to announce another giveaway winner!! The print copy of “Me? Teach Piano?” goes to Miss Kenzi K.!!! I’ve sent her an email.
If you didn’t win this time and are interested in purchasing a book, you can get it from Amazon (Kindle and Paperback). Or, I have four proof copies (with minor defects) that I will sell for $4 each, $2.50 shipping (first come, first serve). Email me at withajoyfulnoise (at) gmail (dot) com if you’re interested.
Write a Story Challenge
For the first time, I’m trying something new: a story challenge on Instagram. It’s where you write 1-3 sentences a day with a word as the theme. Besides almost continually being behind … it’s been a fun thinkless challenge (okay, maybe not quite “thinkless” but close 😉 ). If you’re on IG, you can follow me @amandateroauthor. However, I know how it is to NOT be on IG and be “out of the loop,” so here’s my story up to today – day eight. I don’t have a title, but it’s life from the eyes of a toddler.
Scripture Designs
I recently got my first paid-app for my iPhone, and I’ll admit, I’m loving it!! One of the reasons I love it is because it gives me a chance to share God’s Word more. 🙂 If you’re on Instagram, I usually design one a day from the Scripture I’ve read. Follow me @amandateroauthor. For those of you who aren’t, I’ll be putting them up on here on the blog … just not consistently one a day. You’ll just get a great dose of Scripture once a week. 😉 Here are some for this week!
An Elegant Facade | Book Review
 This was a very clever and intertwined book. I haven’t read the other books by this author yet, but was able to enjoy this as a stand-alone.
In some aspects, the writing seemed a little amateur (repeating similar phrases often within a paragraph), but the plot line was so rich that it was more of an afterthought about the writing. At first, I thought Georgina was just a snob. However, realizing that she had a reason for acting the way she did — and a secret she desperately wanted to hide from society — made her endearing. Colin was amazing. In hindsight, it’s easy to think of him as too perfect, but his relationship with his family definitely showed him as imperfect. I really, really liked how Colin’s acceptance helped Georgina to realize God’s acceptance. That being said, the first 3/4 of this book didn’t impress me as a Christian book. But there was a pretty strong spiritual lesson towards the end. It was very neat to see how the author tied it all together. I loved one of the character’s hunger and thirst for the Scripture! There were a few romantic scenes, a kiss, etc. I can’t say it was the main thrust of the book (or maybe it was because I was more intrigued by Georgina’s problem that I skimmed over the romance.” ;)), but it was obviously in there. Overall, I really enjoyed this book … and think I found a new favorite author. Looking forward to reading more! Favorite quote: *I received this book in exchange of my honest review from Bethany House* About the Book To purchase the Book: https://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Fa%C3%A7ade-Hawthorne-House-Book-ebook/dp/B01AO3OTTK?ie=UTF8&qid=1455829688&ref_=tmm_kin_swatch_0&sr=1-3#navbar To learn about the author: http://www.kristiannhunter.com/ |
Hope Ann | Author Interview
Today, I’m delighted to have Hope Ann here with an interview!
1) In a nutshell, what do you write?
Fantasy! Christian themed fantasy mainly, both novels and novellas. I love the genre. I also really enjoy futuristic fiction and work with that sometimes too (ok, so I’ve a trilogy set two hundred years into the future that I’m working on sporadically, but that doesn’t really fit into the ‘nutshell’ portion of this question. 😉).
2) What spurred on the desire for writing?
I enjoy writing about 64% of the time, but my main drive to write is simply that I have all kinds of stories fluttering about in my head and I have to write them out and share them with the world. I want to provide inspirational and exciting fiction for Christian readers…the kinds of stuff I had a hard time finding when I was younger. My greatest hope is that I’ll inspire readers to live a stronger Christian life.
3) How do you balance writing with living — or is writing your full-time job?
At this point, I live at home and help around the house. And, after I get married, I plan to stay at home as well. So writing is my main job, though not really a full-time job. I also have a part-time job knitting hats.
As to writing itself, I deadline out for myself what I want to get done and when I want to have it done by. And then I write as I’m able, around housework and noisy siblings. I normally get two to three house of writing done in the morning and another hour or two done in the afternoon. I tend to write in short chunks, working on at least two stories at one time, along with articles or blog posts. But even when I’m not writing, I’m thinking about stories, titles, plot holes, idea…the thought process invades as much of my day as I let it.
4) Who do you hope to reach with your writing?
 |
| Follow Hope on her blog |
My main audience is Christian teens and young adults. I want to give them good material to read, which will also teach them Biblical truths and inspire them.
5) If someone asked you for your best writing tip, what would it be?
Don’t ever give up. Just keep writing. I know that’s one of the oldest pieces of writing advice, but it’s true. There’s times where I (and I think all writers) feel discouraged. Or we feel that our work is utterly awful and should never be seen. Or that it will never get done. Or that no one will like it. But keep working and writing though those down moments…or days, or weeks. Get the draft done. Then edit it. Then edit it some more. Don’t give up because, in the end, you will have a good story which can touch people’s lives.
A second tip, closely related, is that any story you write won’t be for everyone. There will always be someone who won’t care for it. It’s not their style or they can’t get engaged. Don’t be discouraged. It happens. Write for those people who love your work and don’t worry about those who don’t care for it.
6) What are three things that you greatly enjoy doing?
Reading! Fantasy, of course, but also Greek and Roman history as well as anything about spies I can get my hands on.
Climbing trees. What can I say? I love climbing…especially in strong winds.
Archery! I’m not very good, but I own a recurve bow and enjoy shooting it.
7) What is your newest release about? What do you hope readers will learn from this story?
Song of the Sword is a retelling of Rapunzel, complete with high towers, dark mistbenders, a blackened rose, and a powerful sword. Intermingled with the story are strands of allegory. Each of my Legends of Light novellas focuses on a different aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit. For Song of the Sword, that focus is joy and I hope the story will inspire readers and help them realize that our joy does not come from events and situations surrounding us, but Christ alone.
Books and Links
Books: Rose of Prophecy
About the Author
Hope Ann is a Christian wordsmith, avid reader, and dedicated authoress. With the help of her resident realm leapers, Kirin and Elena, she loves to research published legends, like Lord of the Rings, as well as recount her own tales of undiscovered lands. Her time is taken up with writing, reading, archery, knife throwing, playing with inspirational photos, helping care for the house and eight younger siblings, and generally enjoying the adventures of life on a small farm at the crossroads of America.
Amanda Tero Books 