The power to love. The power to heed your own voice. The power to hope in a world of blood and shadow.Yesterday morning, most of Saphrona Melioska’s family was executed. Today, at dawn, she and her brother’s widow would have followed them to the block. But something changed.Saphrona doesn’t know who paid for their sentence to be commuted, but by that act of kindness, she and her hearth sister are … and her hearth sister are exiled to the remote island of Ghondatha, where Saphrona’s only relatives live.
She has nothing to take with her but the legacy of ten generations of master sculptors, a family name beloved in the world of Art, and her own credo: there is goodness and beauty in everything.
Upon their arrival at Ghondatha, however, Saphrona and Leigh find that even ageless Ghondatha is not what it once was. The island has a new liege-lord, a nobleman from the lavish Amkadan Empire, with deep pockets and extravagant ideas about progress.
All Lord Gideon Bloodstone requires is that the villagers obey three laws: no one may leave the island; all who are invited to his nightly masquerades must attend; and those who are not invited must mind the curfew and stay home.
Who is this man who has stolen the last familiar piece of life Saphrona has left in the world?
Someone who will change forever how she defines that which is good and beautiful.
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At the end what you don’t Surrender. Review of Ghondatha.
Master sculptor Sophorna returns after she is exiled by the sculptors guild for years. She lives now with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in the island of Ghondatha. Sophorna is surprised to find her cousinsand everyone else in this village enamored with the new Lord Gideon from Amkadan Empire. He provides the villagers everything they need or ever want. Lord Gideon makes sure the people want for nothing. Lord Gideon even provides his people with a masquerade ball everyone around the land can attend. However, there are three things Lord Gideon asks of the villagers.
The first is no one shall leave the island.
The second everyone must attend his masquerade ball .
The third everyone must heed the evening curfew.
This all surprises Sophorna and makes her cautious and suspicious of this benevolent Lord. Sophorna joins her cousins to the ball, one evening and meets Lord Gideon in his Library where Sophorna went to seek refuge. Lord Gideon is drawn by Sophorna’s intellect and beauty from the start and invites Sophorna into a conversation about philosphy and myths. One myth in particular, fascinates both Lord Gideon and Sophorna leading her to make a choice that will forever change her life. I love this book! The book cover grabbed my attention. It was beautiful and romantic. How it was written is a great example of show don’t tell for any writer. I didn’t know what it was “really” about until I started reading it. The showing instead of telling helped with that. Lol. (I dont know if it is secret what Lord Gideon is but i won’t spoil it. You will just have to read it to find out.) Lol. I will tell you I was so absorbed by the story and the charactacters that nothing else mattered. I just had to finish the book and i did this on Saturday and began the second book right after. I didn’t want it to end. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it will not be my last .I am already absorbed in book 2 and can’t wait to read book3. I’ve even signed up to her newsletter. Lol. Id like to thank BOOKSIRENS.COM and the author for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Ghondatha (The Garden of Night Trilogy Book 1) Kindle Edition
by Emery Ayres
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Ghondatha is a what happens when Pride and Prejudice has a love child with Beauty and the Best and let’s Dracula babysit!
Full of wonderful foreshadowing, strong and independent women, and gentle souled vampire, this exploration of culture and manners provides a solid first act to the trilogy.
Saphrona flees her home in exile after her family is betrayed and executed by a greedy Lord. She finds herself back in the her family’s ancestral home, but nothing is as it was. Lord Gideon has changed everything, including requiring all unmarried young people to join him in a nightly masquerade ball. Saphrona arrives and immediately sweeps Gideon’s heart away. But nothing is as it seemed, vampires, civilized and feral run over the Seven Sisters Islands. And Gideon is the Lord of them all as they prepare to fight against the evil mother of all vampires.
A slow burn fantasy romance with sweet, melancholy heroes and strong, opinionated heroines, Ghondatha feels like a fantasy version of a Regency romance. The dark fantasy piece of vampires is unique and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Four stars out of five.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CWGNC3V
I was intrigued by this story, and in truth when starting, it’s hard to tell what sort of story I was reading. There is some pretty heavy world-building and learning about the guilds and other parts of the characters lives does take some time, but I loved how complex and though-out this world is, and once all the formalities passed, I realized that this book is very much a fantasy-style paranormal mystery! While I did expect more romance, in part due to the cover and blurb, I am quite pleased with the story as it is, and can’t wait to read the next book! (Be warned, you’ll want to make sure to have book 2 close by!)
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Much Lies Beneath the Surface in Ghondatha
This is a well-written, complex book. While the description doesn’t directly say it, it does have vampires in it; so if you’re not a fan of vampire books, you’ll want to stay away.
However, if you are a vampire fan or don’t mind it, the author has created a complex world built in such a way that it is revealed very slowly, just as the reader needs to know or the primary character herself finds out. Often in books with much worldbuilding needed, the author makes the mistake of either overwhelming us with lots of details in long sections of backstory or bombarding us with the world’s concepts and constructs without enough information to make sense of it all. This author does an excellent job of finding that difficult middle ground.
The heroine, Saphrona, has been exiled by her sculptor’s guild after most members of her family were killed. We meet her as she and her brother’s wife are on their way to their new home with Saphrona’s uncle, aunt, and cousins in Ghondatha. She is familiar with Ghondatha, but she hasn’t been there in a while. So we learn about the new Ghondatha as Saphrona learns about it. Ruled by a new lord who has improved much of the outer circumstances of his people, Ghondatha is far different than she remembers; even her family members have changed in response to new governance. On the surface, Ghondatha and its inhabitants appear prosperous and happy, but secrets and surprises lie just below the surface.
I found the conversations between Saphrona and Lord Gideon (the new lord) to be fascinating, well beyond the kinds of philosophical or intellectual discussions that you see in books like this. Saphrona, due to her being a guild member, has a deep suspicion and instant dislike of nobility, so it is interesting to see her conflicted with that in dealing with Lord Gideon.
The book did have a few issues. I thought some of the names were too close; for instance, the place Saphrona was from was called Cliatha, there is a girl named Clia in Ghondatha, and Saphrona’s sister-in-law is also named Leah. The book had the common issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage, but there was also occasional mistakes with diction; or, I sincerely hope that Saphrona’s young cousin was a courtier and not a courtesan!
Despite these issues, I enjoyed the amazingly rich and complex world that this author created with fascinating characters who had deep histories, strong motivations, and goals. If you enjoy fantasy, you might enjoy this well-drawn world.