Thinblade (Sovereign of the Seven Isles #1)

Title: Thinblade
Author: David Wells
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Kindle eBook
Rating: hmm 3.5 out of 5 paws


While out hunting Darius is shot and kill with a poison arrow.  While Alexander and his family mourn the lose of the heir they discover an ancient evil has came back into the world.  Alexander is now marked as the protector of the realm, and the one who could defeat this evil.  He travels to the mountain city of Glen Morillian and discovers before he can claim his throne he must find the Thinblade. Seven were forged to help protect royal bloodlines from evil forces. But the Thinblade was lost to years ago and no one knows where it is hidden.  Alexander begins his quest looking for the Thinblade and gaining alliances all the while fighting against the powers of a necromancer. 

I had this book on my kindle for quite a while from bookbub and it took me some time before I picked it out of the hundreds of books on there.  I almost forgot about it!  I like the idea of this novel: ancient evil has come back and young princling must learn to wield a special sword to defeat him among other things.  There is a lot that happens in this book from various battles to Alexander learning so much about himself.  It is a great beginning to a series.  I am looking forward to getting the other books and finding out what happens next. Lets start by talking about the cover.  Just look at it house gorgeous is it?  No wonder it caught my eye, I want to go there!!


Okay now to the story, it was evenly paced, some parts were slower than others but it seemed to keep an consistent pace throughout the novel.  There was a lot of telling rather than showing, but for me it seemed to work.  Everything was described in great detail, down to the food.  While this may become a little burdensome, it really drew me into the story.  It made me feel like I was there and could almost smell the feast that was happening.  There is some depth to the world that we don't get to see yet, but I am sure we will see in upcoming novels.  Some things we learn as characters learn them and I absolutely love it.  It makes feel like I am sitting beside Alexander listening to stories being told.  It is definitely a TELLING story, and I wonder if that will change once we have all the information we need and get into the heart of the epic tale.


The magic is a bit interesting in this in that mages aren't born with this innate talent (well some are) but develop it through trial and fasting.  The more talented you are the more specialized your magic is which is rather interesting.  I would have liked to have seen more of this throughout the story.  I also like the alchemy aspect of this with the potions and herb usage.  I like that Alexander appears to be rather powerful, but at this point he is too powerful for one who hasn't trained in his magic.


I would recommend it for those who like novels along the lines of Dragonlance.

Beautiful Storm

Alicia has always been drawn to the beauty of lightening, more so after the mysterious death of her father.  During a storm one night Alicia witnesses a fight in between the flashes of lightening.  When she gets to the scene, she finds military tags with the name Liliana Valdez on it.  After some research, she discovered this woman has been missing for two months, and takes the tags to the police.  This is a piece to a the puzzle that allows the police to begin further investigations, but Alicia decides to try and see what she can find.  She meets Michael along the way, a man who is the prime suspect in the investigation simply because he spoke to the Liliana. They work together to piece together the puzzle of Liliana's disappearance, a quest that takes them half-way across the country and into something far dangerous and sinister.  Their search begins to spark more disappearances and murders, will Alicia and Michael find out the truth before it's too late?

This is another book I came across on BookBub (if you are an avid reader and don't use this, you should).  The story is very suspenseful and you don't know what is going to happen next.  You try to figure out who took Liliana, but when the truth is revealed you will be taken away.  I definitely was.  There was a little bit of romantic tension between the two, but it doesn't take over the story.  Freethy does a fantastic job including this into the foreground of the story, but maintains the true mystery of a missing woman.  I actually don't like when it feels like authors are pushing characters together just for the same of a romantic sub story, Freethy doesn't do this.  She develops a friendship with romantic tension mixed in. 

The characters had depth to them, both Alicia and Michael had their own demons to tame while performing their search.  I think this gave them the feel of being...well human.  I loved the idea of lightening having paranormal attributes, and almost wanted something more from this, something more to tie it into the story other than an explanation as to why Alicia and her father were obsessed with this act of nature.  It is not a "typical" mystery with blood, gore or anything like that.  It is relatively clean, it does have a few sex scenes.  Nothing too "steamy" but sex scenes nonetheless.

Overall this was a good enough book to read, I wouldn't say it was phenomenal or out of this world.  But it is one of those books that will draw you in and keep you interested until the very end.  I do recommend other mystery lovers to pick up a copy.  Also if you normally aren't a fan of mystery, I would say give this book a chance, you might be surprised.  I give this a 4 out of 5 star rating. 

The Watchmaker's Daughter

India's father had just passed away, on the same day her fiancé kicks her out of the house and keeps her father's watchmaker's shop for himself.  The other shop keeps will not hire her, not because she lacks the skills, but because she is a woman.  At a lost for what to do and one who doesn't take things lying down, India goes to the shop to give Eddie a piece of her mind.  While there she runs into Matthew Glass who gives her a proposition of helping find a specific watchmaker to fix his watch.  One that is rare and carries an air of mystery around it.  While helping him find his mystery watchmaker, India begins to believe he is a wanted outlaw from America and wonders what do and how to prove her suspicions while trying to find out why the guild members are being so cold to her.  Danger seems to be lurking around every corner and India begins to discover new things about the man she is working and living with, as well as herself.  Will they be able to find the watchmaker before Glass' watch stops for good?  Will India be able to find proof of her suspicions and why she lost favor among?

This was one of the books I stumbled upon on BookBub.  Its hard to describe how I felt about this book. It was a good read and I enjoyed the characters but it felt like it took too long to develop and that there were too many things happening in it.  Whenever something happened or revealed my reaction was "oh..that's how that's being shown."  It had its suspenseful moments but overall it seemed somewhat predictable especially the "romantic" tension between India and Glass.

I don't feel like readers are able to feel completely connected to the characters, but they were interesting enough to finish the book. My opinion on India is like a love-hate relationship.  I liked her enough, but don't see her as a strong female lead.  I know this is the first book in a series and I have to wonder what the other books will be like and where the story will go.

As for a rating...i give it a 3 out 5.  Much more could have been done with the story, but young fantasy readers will enjoy it as well as many other readers.  I just don't think this was a book that demands me to read it again.