Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.
The day my mother was killed, she told my … killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.
My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?
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Amy Harmon is a favorite of mine, but this book… It’s got to be one of my top reads ever.
I would say this book landed somewhere in the middle on grabbing my attention. I was certainly interested and read it in less than one day, but it also wasn’t like I sat in one spot and didn’t put it down until I was finished. I think the story was striking enough to hold my attention and I was actually quite intrigued by the beauty of the story itself. I was waiting throughout the entire book for the moment that she was going to hone her skill and break away from all of the people in her life abusing her situation. However, I was most surprised at the big twist near the end where someone who is thought to be friend turns out to the be foe all along. I won’t spoil this for anyone, but it was truly a big shock for me. The book really ramps up and gets more interesting when Lark is with the king and you begin to find out more about the king. Finding out his struggles and how he hopes she might be able to help him got me as a reader to really start to question where the story was headed at that point. I certainly think this book has emotional depth. The romance between the king and Lark feels like something of a forced relationship, but as it slowly progresses throughout the book it really began to elicit feelings to me as a reader. I loved that it was a relationship hiding as one of convenience and need, but that was actually so much deeper on a very subtle scale. It was a beautiful way to develop a love between two characters. The relationship between Lark and Boojohni also brought emotional depth to the story. Boojohni cared very deeply for her and always made sure she was safe and comforted. All of the characters had value to the story. However, I think the character with the most value or necessity was the mother who dies early on, but continues to influence the story in such a major way. Thinking back to time with her mother, Lark is able to figure out how to fix the main problem. Her mother had been such a brave woman who taught her so many important lessons in a short amount of time. She also did her best to protect her daughter and honestly really succeeded in a very unexpected way. I do think the writing style was easy to read. I thought the choice of cover was tasteful and simple. I am a big fan of first person narrative and it feels like it has been a bit since reading a book in that point of view. I also felt like the book had a really good balance of serious situations with a bit of sentiment. The timeline flowed well, perhaps could have been stretched out a bit more for some readers. Overall, it was very well-written. I think this book could have been stretched out into several more books. However, for someone who enjoys a stand-alone this book was perfect and to the point. I think everything that needed to be achieved in the story was done so in this one book. But, in my humble opinion, I would have loved to see more subplots with a slower development to the ending over a book or two more. I understand that the next book in the chronicles focuses on Kjell, which is quite intriguing and I will be interested to see where that story line leads. I think the most unique part of the book was the main character’s inability to speak for communicating with others. She was able to use her gift and communicate with certain people, but he lack of education and ability to use her voice made for an interesting story and character development. I enjoyed reading about her desire to learn and the kings willingness to help teach her. Of course, approaching the end of the book and finding out the truth of it all was a shock worth the wait. This book is well-written and has a beautiful story. It can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers as it is appropriate for mature teens, young adults, and adults. There is some MINOR violence and intimate situations. However, this story is one that is really unique and we can each learn something from it.
Beautiful writing