New Review! Borrowed Magic by Shari Lambert, 3.5 Cranky Stars
Synopsis:
After a three-year siege, Lord Kern, the dark mage, is dead. Magic has left Tredare, and life is almost back to normal.
For everyone except Maren, that is.
Before the siege, an attack by Lord Kern left Maren near death and with a sliver of magic buried deep inside her. Now, for reasons Maren doesn’t understand, that magic has been triggered, giving her the ability to “see” the truth: that her world is nothing more than a magical façade; and that the kingdom’s hero may not be a hero at all.
But this gift of sight comes at a high cost. Maren is in constant pain, and fears her own death is imminent. Plus, no one believes her suspicions that another Dark Mage has risen, and that Tredare may be in just as much danger as it was when Kern was alive.
With the country’s future in the hands of a man who’s vowed revenge on its king, Maren must convince someone else of the truth. Unfortunately, the only person powerful enough to help is also the one man she can’t trust; the man she almost married; the man who abandoned her and disappeared for three years: Kern’s son.
As Tredare crumbles around them, Maren must persuade him to help - before the king is murdered by the very hero he reveres; and before the same magic that gives Maren the gift of sight also takes her life.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Magic-Shari-Lambert/dp/1522998616
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28146512-borrowed-magic
Review:
This story is a
little bit different to your usual historical/magical books you’ll pick up and
read. The difference you’ll notice is the feeling that you’re not reading the
first book in the “series”. Several
events had obviously happened in the past and we’re now stepping into “the next
episode”. At first, it threw me off and confused me quite a bit, especially
since the rest of the “previous events” had been teased out little by little
from the main characters as I read along. In a roundabout way, the trick
actually helped hook me into reading the book until I was caught up into the
story until the very end.
Here we meet
Lady Maren. She’s a very close friend to King Daric and Queen Adare. She also
served as a personal advisor to the king. How or why she managed to secure that
position wasn’t clearly laid out from the beginning. Yes, it did mention that
she was the First Lady but in most historical books, women played a much more
subdued roles unless they are warriors or soldiers or magical which would explain
why they held such power over the king. Lady Maren wasn’t like that or not in
the beginning anyway. So, who or what she was wasn’t really very clear.
Then we meet
Phillip, her childhood sweetheart and the hero of the kingdom, who obviously
hates her NOW. Again, we don’t know why until the history was dragged out from
practically every major character in the book...then we finally understand.
There’s also the
other man in the form of Teige who brought in the twist in the plot which was
revealed earlier than the rest of the “history” behind the story.
All in all, it
shouldn’t work, as major components of how a book comes to life had been all
jumbled up. The ending was also predictable and followed the “norm”. It’s
really just like any other magical/historical tale one would pick up. Nothing
special.
But somehow
everything worked out really well. The way the author jumbled up the sequence
made it compelling. The way the author avoided focusing on details to make the
setting of the book “medieval” as most do by describing decor and people’s
mannerisms and way of life that’s so different from today, and instead simply centered
on Lady Maren and what was happening around her drew my attention even more. I
simply had to read on just to find out what was going to happen to her next.
Then right at
the end, I found out that there’s a prequel to this book which could have been
helpful to read first before this one to avoid the initial confusion.
However, as a
final verdict, it was an enjoyable read simply because the author found a way
to make it uniquely hers and showed me that there’s another way to tell a tale
told by so many others.
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