Black Gryphon

The Black Gryphon (Mage Wars Book 1)- Mercedes Lackey
DAW/Penguin Group
Release Date: January 1, 1995

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Skandranon Rashkae is perhaps the finest specimen of his race, with gleaming ebony feathers, majestic wingspan, keen magesight and sharp intelligence. Courageous, bold, and crafty, Skan is everything a gryphon should be. He is the fulfillment of everything that the Mage of Silence, the human sorcerer called Urtho, intended to achieve when he created these magical beings to be his champions, the defenders of his realm--a verdant plain long coveted by the evil mage Maar. 

Now Maar is once again advancing on Urtho's Keep, this time with a huge force spearheaded by magical constructs of his own--cruel birds of prey ready to perform any evil their creator may demand of them. And when one of Urtho's Seers wakes from a horrifying vision in which she sees a devastating magical weapon being placed in the hands of Maar's common soldiers, Skandrannon is sent to spy across enemy lines, cloaked in the protective of Urtho's powerful Spell of Silence.

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Before Valdemar, there were the mages.  Urtho, the Mage of Silence, created wonderful new creatures like gryphons and seeks knowledge to help others. The Mage Maar seeks power above all things.  Slowly Maar has taken over lands and people, until only those who stand with Urtho are left.  The Black Gryphon takes place at the end of this war, as people and gryphons try to claim small moments of joy and peace among the relentless grind of war and death. Skandranon, the Black Gryphon, and his close friend Amberdrake serve in Urtho's armies in their own ways.  Skan on the front lines, fighting the enemies and getting into and out of impossibly dangerous situations; Amberdrake among the Healers, working to keep mind, body, and soul together for the fighters. But among those loyal to Urtho are traitors, and even the Black Gryphon and the Mage of Silence may not be enough to stop Maar's terrible forces.

 Focusing on those trying to create lives in the midst of death, Black Gryphon shows both the best and the worst humans have in them.  Amberdrake in particular is a deeply sympathetic character, trying to bear his own emotional burdens as well as those others have confided in him, working to remain strong when grief or exhaustion overwhelm him. Seeing behind the facade Amberdrake and Skan show the world, you see how true leaders and good people are forged in the heart of adversity. 

 The Black Gryphon is a fast-paced, deeply emotional, and tightly written adventure. A fantasy novel both high fantasy lovers and those new to the genre will appreciate, and a book that stands up to many re-readings and the test of time.  Among Lackey's best! 

Witch of Willow Hall

The Witch of Willow Hall- Hester Fox
Harlequin
Release Date: October 2, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚

Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead

Synopsis: New Oldbury, 1821 

In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall.

The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline.

All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end…

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Lydia Montrose has spent her life trying to repress herself and blend into the background, a quiet bookworm shadowed by her older and outgoing sister Catherine.  When Catherine's behavior causes too much scandal for the family to remain in Boston, they move to the small town of New Oldbury.  Here Lydia begins to discover more about herself, her family, and the world than she imagined. She falls for her father's business partner, the enigmatic and brooding John Barrett, but believes he has eyes only for Catherine.  As Lydia discovers more of Catherine's shameful secrets, she tries to keep the family together and protect them from the world.  But when tragedy continues to follow the Montrose family, who will keep Lydia safe?

The Witch of Willow Hall starts off slow, hinting at secrets without revealing the truth for long stretches of time, but picks up as you go.  The dark, quiet menace and gothic brooding of Willow Hall are a tangible presence throughout the entire book- even more of a character than many of the flesh and blood ones.  As much as you sometimes want to shake Lydia into sharing her problems you feel sorry for her for not having anyone strong or caring enough in her family to share them with.  Lydia takes on far more responsibility for the family than she should have to, especially while she is trying to figure out her own life at the same time.  Mysterious visions and sounds that only she can hear- are they dreams or something more sinister? It takes the plain speaking of one of Lydia's ancestors to make her stop completely avoiding the truth, and though she spends most of the book in denial that somehow makes her eventual acceptance of herself and her abilities even stronger.  Most of the other characters are fairly two dimensional- her parents almost nonentities for most of the book, Catherine a vain and outrageously selfish girl.  Anytime you see a hint of a real person behind her shallow facade it's gone so fast you're not sure if it was really there or if Lydia imagined it.  John Barrett is a fairly mysterious and brooding character for most of the book, although when he and Lydia finally actually talk out their misunderstandings and secrets he turns out to be a strong man with a good heart, and one Lydia truly deserves after all she's been through.  Despite the gothic menace of ghosts it is an all too human menace that threatens Lydia and John and Lydia comes to learn that good and evil can be in all people- witches or not.

Captivating and well written, The Witch of Willow Hall follows in the tradition of the gothic romances that Lydia loves so much- a book full of secrets, ghosts, betrayals, and love, with a much needed and deserved happy ending. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Halls of Law

Halls of Law- V.M. Escalada
DAW
Release Date: August 1, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Kerida Nast has always wanted a career in the military, just like the rest of her family. So when her Talent is discovered, and she knows she'll have to spend the rest of her life as a psychic for the Halls of Law, Ker isn't happy about it. Anyone entering the Halls must give up all personal connection with the outside world, losing their family and friends permanently. 

But just as Kerida is beginning to reconcile herself to her new role, the Faraman Polity is invaded by strangers from Halia, who begin a systematic campaign of destruction against the Halls, killing every last Talent they can find.

Kerida manages to escape, falling in with Tel Cursar, a young soldier fleeing the battle, which saw the deaths of the royal family. Having no obvious heir to the throne, no new ruler to rally behind, the military leaders will be divided, unable to act quickly enough to save the empire. And with the Halls being burned to the ground, and the Talents slaughtered, the Rule of Law will be shattered.

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Halls of Law begins a thrilling new series by V.M. Escalada.  Invasion is tearing apart the Faraman Polity, the royal family is dead, the military scattered and trying to decide who they should take orders from.  The Talents, who have always served Faraman as agents of the law, are being killed- their Halls burned, their powers outlawed, and any suspected of helping them killed alongside them.  Kerida Nast escapes the destruction of her Hall and joins young soldier Tel Cursar in journeying to a remaining military outpost.  But on the way they become a part of a far larger plan, one that might save not only their own lives, but their entire world.

Book One in the Faraman Prophecy skillfully creates and shatters an established world, leaving the survivors to find their way in the wreckage.  Escalada has a talent for world building while at the same time not explaining the world as if to an outsider.  The reader is immersed in a new world, one whose sights, scents, and sounds are as organic as the people who populate it.  All of the characters, especially Kerida, are multidimensional and complex. They have their strengths and weaknesses, their talents and blindspots.  Escalada is excellent at making sure none of her characters is fully "just" one thing or another.  Just when you are sure you can classify all the invaders as "evil"- and my skin crawled with some of the scenes when the invader mages "purify" and "pacify" locals- you find some level of sympathy, or at least humanity, in the main enemy as embodied in Shekayrin Svann.  There are Faraman men on willing to join the invader Halians without considering what that means for their world, particularly the women, and then right at the end Escalada gives a surprise twist among the Halians that promises more complications, uneasy alliances, and gray areas to come in Book Two.  

Halls is a fast-paces, intense, and absorbing story and I was sorry when I reached the end and had to leave it and the characters I'd come to know and love behind. I loved how we learned things through the characters, not ahead of them, and that those characters were not the leaders but more of the 'everyday' or lower level people dealing with the upheaval after it happens.    

V.M. Escalada creates a world of swords and magic, griffons and soldiers, heroes and everyday people trying to get along, harsh difficulties and the warmth of friends becoming family.  Readers who enjoyed Class Moss' From Unseen Fire, David Weber's Honor Harrington series, and Mercedes Lackey's world of Valdemar, will love the new world of Halls of Law and be waiting eagerly for the next book in the series (Gift of Griffins, release date August 7, 2018).