Skip to main content

The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland

I had forgotten how into the first book in the Nine Kingdoms series I was until I got five pages into this second volume and instantly remembered. Oh, right. This story totally rocks. The first volume, Star of the Morning, ends in utter chaos. Nothing is resolved, everyone's in peril, and I remember closing the book in disbelief at the audacity of ending a book in such a way when the sequel would not be out for another year. I wasn't too upset, of course, because the book had been so dang enjoyable. I even wrote an email to Ms. Kurland asking if she had sat back and basked in evil glee after typing the last word. She responded and commiserated with me. She, too, was in utter despair after ending it that way and had to spend some good time recuperating before she could continue. That made me feel somewhat better.

Fortunately, The Mage's Daughter picks up right where its predecessor left off. The chapters alternate between Morgan of Melksham's story as she struggles to survive after destroying the Sword of Angesand and fleeing the Archmage of Neroche, and Miach of Neroche's story as he struggles to keep the realm intact and find Morgan at the same time. Morgan and Miach are both such sympathetic characters. You desperately want them to work out their differences and accept who they are because they deserve a measure of happiness after all they've been through. That and the fact that you want them to join their awesome forces to defeat the perfidious Lothar and figure out just what kind of ubercrap is creeping out of Bain's Well. I enjoyed this book so much I unconsciously dragged it out, savoring every chapter. It's terrifically entertaining and I love Lynn Kurland's writing style. Highly recommended to anyone who loves a good adventure. But make sure you grab Star of the Morning first!

Links:
Genre Go Round Review
Fresh Fiction Review

Comments

  1. Just wondering if you're going to post about the 3rd book in this series. Did I miss it?

    Thanks,
    Sally

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Sally! I don't think I will review it at this point. I read it way back in the day now. It was good and a satisfying conclusion to the main trilogy, if not quite as strong as the first two. This middle novel remains my very favorite.

      Delete
  2. I have been eyeing this series for a while now. I'm glad to know you loved the first two books so much! Has the rest of the series lived up to the first two?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I enjoyed the third one but didn't feel it was *quite* as strong as the first two. This one remains my favorite. I'm behind on the spin-off novels, though.

      Delete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

I can't quit Jennifer Echols . Not that I really try that hard, but I read her new ones and often feel as though I'm still searching for that one in possession of that certain something that will make me feel the way  Going Too Far did. Like I couldn't put it it down. And definitely like I didn't hate either of the main characters after the fact. Well, I found it with Such a Rush . I read this 300+ pager in a single night, which clears up the question of whether or not I couldn't put it down. And I finished it definitely not hating either of the main characters. I didn't finish it loving them both unreservedly, though. I loved Leah with my whole heart from page one and that never changed. My feelings regarding one of the Hall brothers remain complicated. More to come on this in a bit. On a side note, I'm delighted that Such a Rush is Ms. Echols' hardcover debut. It's a meticulously designed book, a pleasure to hold in my hands as I stayed up way

Review | Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

It really is a pretty cover. And dragons. I love them so.  It's been far too long since I've read a book in which dragons played any kind of primary character role. They do here, and they are probably my favorite aspect of this book. But more on that later. It's probably worth noting that I, like the rest of the world, was aware of Fourth Wing and the collective losing of BookTok's mind over it. I mean, it was kind of thrilling to hear that you couldn't find a copy anywhere—in the sense that I love it when books are being consumed and loved. And when that happens in such a way that it takes publishing by surprise (for lack of a better way to phrase it) so much so that they have to scramble to print more. So I did the sensible thing and bought the ebook. And then I proceeded to do the not-so-sensible-but-extremely-Angie thing and not read it. There was a cross-country move tucked in there somewhere between the buying and the reading, but more on that at a later date

Bibliocrack Review | The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 Hi. Hey. Hello there. It's been a . . . well, you know what it's been. We're all still living this together. So I will simply skip to the fact that I couldn't not review this book here. Because reading it was something special. I knew nothing about Ali Hazelwood 's debut novel except that it involved women in STEM and that the cover made me smile. I decided to set it aside for myself as a reward. Work has been . . . punishing . . . for the last year, and I have been so exhausted every hour of every day. And so I determined to buy The Love Hypothesis  on release day knowing nothing about it. But when I went to the bookstore to get my copy, none were available. In fact, none were available anywhere for love nor money, in store or online. At first I was moderately disappointed. Then I told myself maybe it's not that great after all and I didn't necessarily need to feel this preemptive sense of loss. But it kept gnawing at me. The loss. And so I paused work an