A Stand-Alone Heretic Gods NovelEvery decision she had thought was right had led her astray.Perhaps it was time to make the wrong decision.Lives are shaped by decisions, and Ivana’s decisions have destroyed her life.She finds herself on the streets of Carradon, broken, destitute, and utterly alone. But perhaps not entirely without hope. A man named Elidor comes to her rescue and welcomes her into … without hope. A man named Elidor comes to her rescue and welcomes her into his home. But Elidor holds secrets of his own.
Lives may turn upon a single moment, and Ivana’s decision to accept the hospitality of this stranger will transform her in ways she never imagined…or feared.
Content Notice: This book contains references to/depictions of self-harm.
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Hold the phone, we have here a teenager becomes an assassin origin story that is new and dark and different in all the good ways. Bye bye pretty girl who’d previously been a crack shot with her daddy’s hunting bow; sayonara suddenly uber-skilled, best in the business by 18 beauty who secretly lusts after dresses and romance novels. Meet Ivana, your standard “fantasy girl has a hard life”… Until she becomes so much more than that. Not to mention that the deadly fantasy world it’s set in is sure to whisk you away (though maybe you might prefer to stay away).
Ivana’s story starts similar to those we’ve heard before: a teenager from a comfortable family life falls on hard times and ends up alone and on the streets. Details are sketchy, but she believes it to be her fault. Begging on the streets, she’s taken in by the mysterious older man Elidor, but she can’t fathom why. He’s not shown any interest in her in that way, nor does he treat her poorly despite his emotional iciness. But he has a secret, one he will kill for. Broken by the misery of her former life and desperate for release, Ivana asks him to help her be more like him. Cold. Numb. A killer.
At first I thought this story would just follow the same old cliches of poor girl gets taken in by a kindly or handsome man, they’d go father/daughter or fall in forbidden love, she’d learn his secrets and fall from innocence… But it’s not that tale. There is the expected dual timeline of present day struggles and the past showing how her life went downhill, and again it seemed to be that story you’ve probably heard before. Teen angst, misplaced passion, the unfairness of feudal society… But while it sort of is that particular tale, it’s where it goes with it that matters and draws you in.
Ivana is made of pain, and the depiction of self-harm and depression, while shocking, is not gratuitous. It may upset some, but it seemed so true to life you could feel her numbness. How does a girl go from that to assassin, I hear you ask? It doesn’t sound like it should make sense, yet her character development and the way in which assassins are portrayed makes it plausible (if maybe a tiny bit quickly decided by her internal reasoning monologue).
Mentor Elidor (if you can call him a mentor) is neither attractive nor fatherly, and that distance makes him all the more creepy and incalculable. He could be Artemis Entreri’s long-lost cousin (hey there fantasy assassin fans), only his dark side is… unusual. He’s downright unsettling as you just don’t know which way he’ll go. There are other side characters who each had their own distinct flavour, and their roles were important in shaping Ivana’s destiny. Friendship,love, pain… Did I mention pain? Their relationships are so hauntingly well-written.
The setting belongs to the author’s Banebringer series, but to begin with you wouldn’t know. The only misstep I could find with this gorgeously realised fantasy world was that a few world specific terms were bandied about early on which didn’t get explained early enough to really appreciate what was being said (what a “Banebringer” was when Ivana and Elidor had their little study discussion, or why characters mentioned “sky-fire” so often). I did worry that the book would be so rooted in the existing universe that I would feel lost, but those two things aside I found it a very immersive realm. Once you do understand those terms and witness what they mean, that adds a whole load of originality to the setting. You can read this as a stand alone, but having read part of the Banebringer series wouldn’t hurt either.
The writing otherwise is flawless. I mean published book sort of great. I did balk at a medieval fantasy world having a convenient “dumpster”, but that’s a language nitpicker for you.
Starting the book I assumed this would be just another assassin girl fantasy tale. By the second act, where the action takes a more twisted turn, I was hooked. It just kept you on the edge of your seat guessing at the who and why, and the ending was oh-so satisfying.
In short, the girl assassin origins story I needed to convince me that this theme isn’t a dead end. This will certainly not be the last story I pick up from this author.
-I received a free copy of this e-book in a giveaway. This does not influence my review-