Series: The Solus Trilogy #1
Published by Stonehouse Ink (4.24.2012)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: eBook, 462 pages
Source: For Tour
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Kiora thought she had never heard a lie until she was sixteen. But she was wrong. Her entire existence was based on nothing but. She thought that evil did not exist. Lie. That magic was not real. Lie. And that the land of Meros was all there was. One more lie.
With Aleric telling her that evil is knocking on the door and that she is the only one who can stop them she has a choice to make. Refuse, or start the wildest most painful ride of her life.
She reluctantly dips her toe into her new existence of magic and threads, dragons and shapeshifters, and the person who wants to take control of it all: the evil Dralazar.However, this journey was never meant to be hers alone. She will be accompanied by a Protector. To her disbelief, and utter irritation they name the hotheaded, stubborn, non -magical, (albeit gorgeous) Prince Emane. They will have to trust each other with their lives, but right now Kiora would settle for a non hostile conversation.
And now it comes down to this, If you had never heard a lie, would you know when you heard one? Is knowing good from evil innate? Kiora finds herself having to decide who lives and who dies on those very questions.
My thoughts
The world building was what sold me on this one. I want to burrow into Devri’s imagination and live there! (you know, in a totally non-creepy way….) She is fabulous at drawing you in, and it was easy for me to picture everything vividly in my head. Plus the creatures = awesomesauce! Mind-reading pegasus, check! Talking dragons, check! Shapeshifters, check!! What more could you ask for? I was super excited when Morcant came into the story, and I actually squeed when he started talking. I. Love. Dragons!! So much! And a talking dragon is even better!
I loved the magic! Just about any story where anything is possible is going to be good to me. The idea of threads was fascinating and original! And I really enjoyed the scenes with the shapeshifters. Very cool!
Kiora was alright, but to be honest she annoyed me. She overreacted a lot and cried WAY too much. I swear, she was always crying! I mean, I know she’s supposed to have a big heart and be super sensitive to everyone’s feelings, but she seriously cried like every other page. After the first few times I found myself muttering, ‘She’s crying again?’ ‘Is she seriously crying again?’ ‘Oh Lord, now she’s going to go cry again….’ and after that every time she’d start to get emotional, I just rolled my eyes so hard my brain rattled. I’m not good with whiny females. She was made out to be strong, but really only was because she had powerful magic. Other than that, she was rather pitiful and wishy-washy. And her reaction to Emane’s feelings made me want to slap her silly.
I did like Emane. He was a pain in the ass at first, and he had a dreadful temper (instead of ‘Why are you crying’ I was always asking, ‘Why are you yelling?!’), but he grew on me as the story progressed. He and Kiora really irritated me at the beginning because they were always bickering over absolutely nothing. But I liked how they didn’t care for each other and reluctantly became friends and more. Their relationship progressed slowly enough to be realistic.
I would have liked to know more about Dralazar, though, sexy bad boy that he is (and we all know how much I love bad boys!). We didn’t get much of a back story on him – except a tiny glimpse of his childhood and his sister – and I don’t really know why he is as evil as he is. I hope there’s more of him in the second book!
Although I didn’t quite connect to the characters like I’d hoped, a certain scene toward the end with a major loss actually made me shed a couple tears, which surprised the hell out of me. I had enjoyed the story thus far, but I hadn’t really felt it until then. And then I felt like glaring at the book and shaking my fist, wailing, “How could you?!?!”
The editing, however, was an issue for me. I usually don’t comment on that, but the extent was so bad at times it was very distracting. There was a lot of poor grammar, but what I noticed the most was incorrect comma usage. There were points where I found myself inserting and removing commas in my head instead of reading the story.
Other than that, the only complaint I had was that the pacing was a bit slow. It took me way longer than it should have to read this book (in the book’s defense, I was sick in bed for 3 days, so that made it even longer), and the story dragged at times. The book seemed super long for some reason.
“Love and anger are of two entirely different worlds. Anger and hate will twist and turn the ones you love until they are not recognizable anymore.”
“Humility is the absence of arrogance. Acknowledging the true worth of one’s soul is realizing your true potential.”
Devri Walls on Why Dragons Are So Awesome!
Did she just. . . she did! She just asked me. . . why are dragons awesome? Excuse me, I think I am dying. . chest tightening. . . can’t breath! Why are dragons awesome??? It is a DRAGON! Must I say more?
I don’t suppose that is going to cut it. Ok, let me see if I can explain. Maybe not all of you grew up like me. I bet some of you girls spent your time painting your nails. I never had very nice nails, maybe that’s why I shied away from that. Or maybe it’s because my nail polish chips off within four hours no matter what! (My poor daughter has the same problem, I kid you not) Maybe you boys played football- or painted your nails. Whatever, who am I to say? Point being, I skipped the nail painting and dreamed about magic! Dragons, unicorns, pegasus’, fairies and pixies. They have always held a fascination for me.
When I think of Dragons I think of wisdom and quick tempers- maybe it’s the fire breathing? They are protective and loyal AND how cool is it that they are enormous and can still FLY!
Of course it all boils down to, Dragons are always associated with magic- which seriously, if you have never wished you could do magic, I don’t think we can be friends. Even if you could teach me how to keep nail polish on. . .weeelll- maybe, NOPE! Must love magic, it’s required. No bribery accepted. (Except chocolate, I will always make an exception for chocolate.)
In Wings of Arian my Dragon’s have their own personalities but also species traits such as quick tempers. In addition, because I have ShapeShifters, I was able to play with some other dragon shapes as well. Long and thin for example instead of the enormous mountain of a dragon that Morcant is. (You guys must get to know Morcant, he is amazing!) It really let my love of dragons run wild. The Dragon’s play a very small part in book two, Wings of Tavea, but just wait! In Wings of Nestor you are going to LOVE them. I am squirming with excitement for you to meet them in all their awesomeness!
[Jessi] See? If you don’t love dragons, there’s something wrong with you! Thanks for the insight, Devri! ;)
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