A Bookish Sarah

encouragement & bookish things

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Sarah
Welcome, friend! Relax & rest awhile, if you please. I'm an ordinary girl, a follower of Christ, mama to Gabriel, Heidi, & Aidan; and wife to Evan. Here in this little space of the online world, I share all manner of bookish things, including full content reviews, writerly snippets, encouragement for everyday life, and a whole collection of names & their meanings.

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Book Review | Harbor

Harbor
Seven Sisters of Silverleaf (#2)
L.C. Ireland

Ghost Light Publishing | April 22, 2018
Fantasy Fiction, Faerietales

{GoodReads}
When the Horrid Witch is defeated, the Delaroe siblings think everything will go back to the way it used to be. They couldn’t be more wrong. 

Hallie Delaroe would much rather curl up with a good book than go on dangerous adventures. And romance? No, thank you. So she’s less than thrilled when she starts hearing the voice of Sayune, a mysterious fae, begging for her help escaping from the Horrid Witch’s prison. With her long-latent magic powers awakening, Hallie is the only one who can see or hear Sayune — but can she trust him? 

“Some things are kept in prisons for a reason…”


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WARNING: Possible Spoilers
[I was provided a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.]

{The Basics}
Firstly, please note this is the second novel in a series, and I would not consider them stand-alones.  Read in order first! or you won't understand what happened prior to this story.  :]  You can find my review for the first book, Horrid, here.  

Most of us introverts can certainly relate to Hallie, the third eldest of the Silverleaf sisters.  She is one whose comfort is found in solitude and books.  Of all seven daughters, she may be considered the one who will draw the least amount of attention and would NEVER be seen as adventurous,---other than wherever her books may take her from her usual perch in the library's window seat.  As usual, however, adventure tends to find those who least expect it and who are most inadequately prepared.  (Honestly, now that I think more deeply on her character, she reminds me of Bilbo. ;D) 

In the first novel, thanks to a curse from the Horrid Witch, the three eldest sisters are captured until the fourth daughter, Delta, [SPOILER!] manages to break the spell.  In this story, we learn what happened to Hallie during that time.  And it is the start to her entire and quite unexpected adventure filled with action, magic, love, and loyalty.

{Spiritual Content}
There are two worlds, or realms, if you will.  One is home to the fae and one to humans (plus whatever fae travels to live there).  The fae possess the power of magic, which can range from controlling water, plant life, teleportation, etc. etc.  During her capture, Hallie meets Sayune, a fae.  He has been a captive of the Horrid Witch for many, many years.  A portion of his power allows him to anchor his consciousness to a "host."  In so doing, to survive as such (because his actual body is elsewhere), he leeches off of his host's life energy, supposedly taking off a bit of their years.  Honestly, this was all rather strange, but certainly fit the entire story and it's allure and intrigue.  Before their prison is destroyed, he anchors himself to Hallie and later only she is able to hear him in her head, but only when water is near.  As a sign of this, Hallie finds a tribal-looking design appear on her wrist.

[SPOILER]  Turns out Hallie possesses magic also!  Sayune says she has a little bit of fae heritage in her ancestry, which she adamantly denies.  He calls her a water witch, and she can control water, making orbs, drawing it to her, using her tears as a distraction, etc.   

{Violence}
Pirates kidnap Hallie, none too gently, in her bedroom.  She resists to the best of her ability, but a vampire bites her and she falls unconscious.  She is tossed into the disgusting brig of their disgusting/nasty/filthy ship.  The pirates are smugglers, dealing with odd and unique creatures (one is a rather vicious mermaid-siren).  There, they try to starve her into giving them the location of Sayune's body.  She escapes after smashing things around.

Now that the vampire has bitten her, he has tasted her blood and hungers for it (unless he does the same to another creature).  At one point on the ship, he approaches her in an almost sensual way (NOTHING happens), but she basically beats him up with her newfound powers and escapes.  

A huge wave overtakes the ship and it begins to sink.  [SPOILER!] To save her, Sayune turns Hallie into a mermaid (with a kiss), allowing her to breathe underwater.  Amidst the wreckage she attempts to save a pirate (despite him being the enemy) and is attacked by the siren, who was freed as the ship went down and wishes to claim the pirate as her victim.  Sayune tries to persuade her to flee, but Hallie can't leave the man to be eaten by the siren or drowned, claiming all lives matter.  The siren bites her shoulder, leaving a nasty wound.  

Someone's hand is stabbed through with a sword.  A particularly nasty villain's arm is severed in a fight.  A fae creature kills another in his powerful grip---crushing him.

A fae creature was kept prisoner for his body: his scales, hair, jewels, etc.  There are signs of torture in deliberate scars and such.

{Language // Alcohol & Drugs}
None that I recall.

{Romantic Content}
Hallie is attracted to Sayune and his muscular build and handsome fae features.  They kiss a couple times.  

A fae queen is said to have many husbands.  

{Conclusion}
I very much enjoyed the first of this series in Horrid, and this one was just as good if not even better in my opinion.

The characters are fantastic, lovable, and so very relatable. I found myself loving Hallie, and seeing in her bits of my own personality.  The story-line was so unpredictable---I was certainly kept on my toes, and couldn't put the book down!  Love, love, love! Can't wait for the third!

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Ages 14+

Comments

  1. Well, that is an interesting concept. I'm not a fan of the dark magic stuff though (and after looking at the first book again, I don't know if I would enjoy these books as much as I thought I would).

    Awesome review! (I love it when you do these reviews :) )

    ReplyDelete

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A shapeless mass, and a book of rules,
And each must make, ere life is flown,
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