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Review #22867 - Dated: 17th of September, 2023
Author: mizim |
Back in 2016 I received a copy of "The Girl of Ink & Stars" and really enjoyed it (I still have it sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for one of my kids to read and enjoy it). I've tried a couple of books by Hargrave since then and had mixed reviews (one I finished but just didn't enjoy and another I couldn't even finish the first chapter). But, I saw a copy of this sitting in the back office and thought I would give it a try, and I am glad that I did. This is the first in a trilogy, which follows Ysolda, who is living a peaceful enough life before her sister is taken away by Ryders (who work for the wolf queen) and she heads off to try and gain her sister's freedom.
Hargrave manages to world build easily, everything just slides into the story perfectly and creates some pretty neat imagery, such as the large castle made of old, abandoned and rotting ships. Ysolda is a heroine who is muddling her way through, teasing out her lies enough to bluff her way to, hopefully, freeing her sister. The wolf queen is an interesting character, we are meant to dislike her but there are moments that have you -almost- feeling for her, before she goes back to being dislikable. There isn't a large range of characters here, which fits well and I like that there are few we have to follow (and fewer along the way). The relationships Ysolde is making along the way are complicated but I like the feel of them.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and the author has left a lot to the story, so I'm looking forward to the next book, my only complaint is it feels like the author has sliced one whole book into three just for the sake of selling three books vs one.
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