Play Book Tag discussion

Fantasy lovers - please feel free to join myself and Melanie Joy for this Buddy Read if it calls to you. I am 30% in, and actually really liking it. I picked it up because its Amy Harmon, and she calls to me. I love her writing and the way she pulls concepts and ideas together.

Amy are you reading it in print or audio?

I really loved this on audio. The language is very playful, and transporting. I was sick the last time I read it, and it successfully distracted me from the pain. To me, it reads younger than her newer books, but I don’t know how much of that has to do with the audio narrator. I remember it as being very clean YA fantasy romance.

Print…. But I am liking it…

I am not normally a lover of fantasy, but I am very much a lover of Amy Harmon. And it has been my practice to find authors I like, and read all of their Canon. That is how this book landed on my shelf. I really like the way she thinks about concepts and how she pulls them together. There is something about her ideas and the way she crafts a story. I like her heroines and I like her style.

For a non-fantasy reader, I really enjoyed this one. I felt compelled by it and compelled to read it. I might even read the next installation of the story. I found this one compelling and powerful. And I really loved the way the prophecy and curse weaved its way through, and I loved how the different aspects of the "Gifted" became both people of gifts, but also of secrets. Is every gift also a curse? Why are our most powerful feared and hunted? And does the power of love indeed cure all and break all curses? I really enjoyed this. It had the hallmarks of everything I would not be drawn to, and yet, I fell into its story and its spell. Well done, Amy Harmon. 3.5

Thanks Amy for your thoughts! I've just started today and I'm about 5% done. The way she weaves words together so far is fascinating. I think I've read something by her before but I'd have to go back and look. I'm also intrigued by her use of Scripture from the Bible so far before each chapter. It's fascinating. We'll see what I think the farther in I get...

Finished! Here's my review thoughts:

This book is about a land governed by a king with advisors from multiple lands. The backstory of these lands is that they have people who are gifted with 4 different kinds of magic. But the kingdom rules state that all "gifted" are to be sought out and put to death because their gifts could be misused or be a threat against the monarchy.
One day the King comes to visit a province and meets a family and sees magic. In the middle of the catastrophic meeting, the mother issues a curse to her daughter, the king and the husband, that the daughter will now swallow back her words. The husband is told if the daughter dies, he will die, and the king is told he will lose his soul and his son to the sky. The woman then dies (this is not a spoiler, it happens at the BEGINNING of the story)
Years later, the king has died and his son takes his place, and brings the daughter to his palace in exchange for her father not assisting the war effort. The brunt of the rest of the story is the kingdom fighting the enemy, the girl navigating her new life and getting to know the new king and his actions and interactions. Then we watch the action escalate as the characters we come to care for are in danger.

This book was a RIDE. The author pulled me in from practically the first sentence! I had strong feelings for all of the characters, I could see the settings clearly, and the author's unique style of lyrical prose really called to me. It was clearly a fantasy but it read like so much more. Man, I guess all I have to remark is "chef's kiss".

MelanieJoy wrote: "Finished! Here's my review thoughts:

This book is about a land governed by a king with advisors from multiple lands. The backstory of these lands is that they have people who are gifted with 4 dif..."

I’m so glad you loved it too. This book is very special to me. It must be the poetic writing because other books in the genre don’t come close for me. My favorite book by this author is What the Wind Knows. You might like it too.

Chef's Kiss!!! Why that is just perfect. I loved your review. Are we in for the second installment? The Queen and the Cure?

I also think there is something incredibly special about Amy Harmon. and its Nancy who turned me on to her. And I also loved What the Wind Knows.

Just a funny, I went to go post my last book and I saw that Melanie had posted Bird and Sword under Strong Women, and I said to myself. Why didn't I go in that direction? Because it was still April when I finished it and I posted it under Fun.

I am thinking of starting Happiness for Beginners soon. Sometimes I need to break up my historical fiction and heavier books with a thriller and contemporary and I am thinking that one might get upped for me Sooner rather than later. And it is in my huge library bag in the car....

You know which Amy Harmon I really loved? I read it last year and it made my top ten. It was the one with the girl in the revolutionary War. I thought that one was so beautifully done. I think one of the few in her canon and haven't yet read is her newest. Where the Lost Wander.

I just checked and this one by her is the first one I've read.

book:From Sand and Ash|29638166] has been on my TBR just as long as the other one so I do need to read that one! Also Where the Lost Wander is on there as well.

I am up for the sequel but not sure when! Right now I actually have no books that like have to be read urgently this. I'm in between some of my more rigorous challenges, except for PBT, and that one is much more at my own pace.

I may be up for Happiness for Beginners soon! You should read it when you feel like it! I have on deckEvery Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, so I may just read that one for fun.

Amy wrote: "You know which Amy Harmon I really loved? I read it last year and it made my top ten. It was the one with the girl in the revolutionary War. I thought that one was so beautifully done. I think one ..."

I haven’t read Where the Lost Wander yet either. I wonder if there is a Play Harder prompt in the pool it would fit, such as Westerns. Her new book The Outlaw Noble Salt is also a Western. It’s about Butch Cassidy. (Was he played by Paul Newman or Robert Redford?)

Amy, I know you like Sara Goodman Confino. Her book Behind Every Good Man is on sale at audible this month. They recommended it to me because I bought She's Up to No Good.

I have read all three!!!! I adored behind every good man! I mean that one just made me laugh and smile. And I did listen to it on audio. I loved it on every level and every second I savored!!!!

Perhaps the three of us get to where the lost wander at some point. I am also nowhere near the sequel to this one. I did go as far as to put it on my TBR. But that’s it.