Kristen Ciccarelli’s debut fantasy explores an intricately woven world of deception, inner darkness, and dragons that fantasy fans won’t be able to resist. In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The … blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer.
These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.
Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm.
When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.
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I loved this book! It has everything–love, lies, and DRAGONS!
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. In return for my thoughts and my review. I want to start off by saying I really enjoyed this book so much. I have read a lot of fantasy books. But this one had all my attention. I went in not wanting to know much about this book. I can honesty there was nothing that I didn’t like while reading this book. Asha is young girl who is Iskari. Who tells of the old stories to get the dragons to come to her. Asha knows that if she is caught telling the old stories that its a crime. But the more she learns about the old stories and the stories even told by the dragons she learns about her father and her mother. And what really happen to Asha the night she was burn and left to almost die. The world that you enter reading this book is amazing. The characters will have your heart or wanting to slap them. Amazing story and very well written. I can’t wait to read this next book. Highly recommend this book if you like dragons and some forbidden love. Fasted paced reading.
It starts with a scarred MC, called Asha, hated and feared by everyone but her King father, her weakling brother, and her disgraced cousin. For a shot at redemption for her people, and so she doesn’t have to marry the cruel commandant, Asha makes a deal with her father to hunt and kill the oldest and fiercest dragon, who burnt down half the city eight years ago. But an ancient god and a cheeky slave boy stand in her way. And not everyone she loves she can trust. And so, so many secrets about her betrayal and fall from grace have been hidden…
I really enjoyed this book! It was action packed and fast-paced. I loved the different characters, and the world-building was spot on I saw a few of the twists and “shocking reveals” coming before they happened, but that didn’t stop me from marvelling at what this author had come up with and created
Highly recommend! 4/5
Dragons, strong female characters, twists and turns, challenging prejudice, old stories filled with power, all wrapped up in a Middle Eastern-inspired culture. The action was amazing, making me gasp and cringe with the impact several times. I especially loved watching Asha grow throughout her journey, going from a place of self-loathing and prejudice to love and acceptance.
Love love love this book!
I first listened to this on audible and then decided to read it. The world building and characters are so well designed. And the dragons! The story is poetic without being poetry, lyrical without music. I highly recommended!
This was an original and entertaining read! It was somewhat slow at times, with stakes that felt a bit contrived, but had an excellent premise, classic hero-receives-quest story line, and a well rounded cast of characters.
A gripping fantasy that will keep you reading until the end.
This book <3!! Gritty. Gorgeous. Kristen’s writing is everything.
~m
I want more!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love loveee this story so much! Now I’m waiting for book 2. <3
Title: The Last Namsara (Iskari #1)
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Publisher: Hachette
Amount of Pages: 421
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Date Read: 10-07-2018 – 11-07-2018
Favorite Quote: “Iskari let others define her because she thought she didn’t have a choice. Because she thought she was alone and unloved.”
Review:
I found it a very interesting book. It’s the first book I’ve read that was about dragons so I was excited to read it. And I do admit, I also bought it because of the cover. It’s so pretty, it really caught my eye.
What is this book about:
So this book is about Asha, who is also called Iskari. She is a dragon hunters and she kills dragons for her father, the king. 8 years ago Asha broke the law and told the old stories, those old stories attract dragons. And in this case it caught the attention of the first one. Things didn’t go well and Asha half her body got burned. Not only that but the city she lived in was attacked and many people died.
In order to be forgiven Asha does whatever her father tells her to. Whether she wants to or not. One things she definitely doesn’t want to do is to get married to the abusive arrogant captain of her fathers army.
One day she meets her “betrothed” slave. He doesn’t seem scared of her, he seems to look her in the eye and this irks her a bit. You see there are strict laws, the slaves can’t touch her, can’t look at her and they are all scared of her, so why not him?
What did I like about this book:
I think this is an amazing debut for the author. Very well done.
I liked the dragons and I liked the old stories. I liked how everything played out. I liked that eventhough I didn’t like Asha much, there was enough there to keep me interested. She showed enough of Asha to see that there was more to her.
How Asha behaved toward those she felt where lesser is something that I didn’t like much . I didn’t like how the people where treated and called slaves etc. But what I did like is seeing her change her views, realizing it was wrong and that she was wrong. I could tell she was struggling to change the views she was raised on but she did do it.
I liked the “slave” Torwin, he was a good guy. I like that he wasn’t afraid and more daring. I liked how he helped her and helped change Asha.
I feel like the Asha we saw in the beginning wasn’t her true self. It was the person she thought she should be. Underneath was a lonely girl that thought very little of herself.
Overall I enjoyed reading this book. I’m interested to see where the story leads. But after I learned that the next one isn’t going to be focused on Asha and in her Pov makes me hesitate a bit. I don’t feel like her story is wrapped up yet, nor that it was set up to change pov but who knows.
Rating:
3 1/2 I liked it stars
Where the Namsara brings life the Iskari brings death. Asha is the Iskari, death bringer and dragon hunter. Cursed with a lifetime of knowing it was her fault that dragons had come to ransack her town when she was a child, she is feared and reviled. It was her mother telling her the Old Stories of dragons that brought them, a balm to her nightmares with horrendous consequences. Asha has dedicated her young life to slaying the dragons, although now with them dwindling in numbers she must take drastic action to ensure a successful hunt. Asha must tell the outlawed Old Stories again.
The last Namsara is very much a book of revelations for Asha. The dragon attack when she was a child left her without a mother and also horrible scarred from the burns she suffered. Having to not only live with the fact that she is hated she also has to deal with the stares associated with her disfigurement, the armour she wears is both necessary for her hunt and for her emotional wellbeing. When her secret is out following an accident during a hunt, she is tended to by Torwin, her betrothed’s slave, who seemingly is willing to keep her secret, but at what cost to both of them?
Through a series of cruel acts she finds herself visited by the first Namsara who starts her on a path that will not only unravel the truth about what happened the day of the dragon attack, but also a much deeper and long running deception. Asha must therefore right the wrongs.
I very much liked Asha as a character, I found that she was written with both strength and vulnerability, she has always been the Iskari and that has given her an opportunity to hide behind a persona. She is however still a teenager and she has the same hopes and fears as everyone, but her hardened act is thankfully easy to scratch beyond the surface of. The book was an easy flowing read and I particularly liked how the Old Stories were interwoven into the pages, completing parts of the story and acting almost like a running prologue. It was a great way of explaining a complicated back story without being an info dump on the reader. I also found that there was a great deal of realism about the aftermaths of events, the fact that laws can’t be changed to suit the sovereign and that one persons change for the better will always be anothers change for the worse. It didn’t shy away from the ugly side of things and that always gets good marks from me.
That being said, I found the Last Namsara lacked a certain spark. I enjoyed reading it very much don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t have my pulse racing and I found it easy to put down of an evening. I would still recommend this to anyone who is a fan of dragons and kick ass female protagonists as it really does have a lot to like.