Friday, January 18, 2019

Book Review - Mark of the Raven by Morgan L. Busse


ABOUT THE BOOK:

Lady Selene is heir to the House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person's dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. Soon after the gifting, however, Selene discovers that the Ravenwood women have been secretly using their gift to gather information or to assassinate those responsible for the fall of House Ravenwood to the Dominia Empire hundreds of years ago.

As she becomes more entrenched in Ravenwood's dark past, Selene longs to find out the true reason behind her family's gift, believing that its original intent could not have been for such evil purposes, but she is torn about upholding her family's legacy--a legacy that supports her people. Selene's dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations--but who is also prophesied to bring about the downfall of her own house.

One path holds glory and power and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and likely death. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Morgan L. Busse (www.morganlbusse.com) is the author of the Follower of the Word series and the steampunk series, The Soul Chronicles, the second book of which, Awakened, won the 2018 Carol Award for Speculative fiction. During her spare time she enjoys playing games, taking long walks, and dreaming about her next novel. She and her family live in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Visit her online at www.morganlbusse.com.

MY REVIEW:

This is a fantasy book about good versus evil - light versus darkness. It's a book that kept me wondering for a long time and the mystery of it all, drew me in. I love books like this!

Lady Selena has the mark of the raven on her back, and like her mother, and the women in the family before her, she has the gift of dream-walking. I really like Selena as you can tell she has a kind heart and wants to do the right thing.

There are seven houses in this kingdom, each with it's own gift. For the House of Ravenwood, they have their dream-walking but those in the kingdom believe their gift has diminished. This is an important part of this story as they are able to use their gift without others realizing it.

When Selena finds out that she is to use her gift, not for good, but for the benefit of those who would do evil, she is appalled. Her mother is not one to trifle with, however. In fact, her mother is quite frightening and no one really crosses her.

The book starts out setting up the information we need to understand the dream-walking and the people of the kingdom. About half-way through, we start seeing some action and it's all very intriguing!  I really enjoy a good fantasy story and this book definitely is that.  Since this is the first book of the series, it does end on a cliff-hanger.  I know some don't care for this, however, the book was so well done, it didn't bother me and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!

I really enjoyed this story and loved how Serena's heart was trying to do the right thing. I can highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars.

*This book was provided to me by Bethany House. I received a copy of this book to review but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading this book.


Blessings - Julie

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