Year Published: October 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings
Source: Bought
Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Synopsis
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.
My Review
I think I was expecting a little more from this book.
I remember when this book was released, plenty of people compared it to The Wrath of Dawn (which had only came out few months before), but I haven't read that book so I can't do a comparison.
One thing I did not like about the story was nobody had names except Lo-Melkhiin. All the characters in the story were referred to as my sister, my mother, my sister's mother, my youngest brother, my father, it was a little confusing and I found it to be more than a little distracting.
The magical aspect of this story was also confusing. It just came out of nowhere.
The demon factor felt a little glossed over and perplexing at least.
There is a point in the story where you think the author is going to throw in some romance, but later down the road, she changed her mind and never went back to delete that part of the story. So in the back on your mind you are waiting for the romance to happen and it never did.
The book itself is an interesting and enjoyable read. I did enjoy parts of it and it did keep my attention. I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending.
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