Sunday, October 7, 2012

Review of Princess of Light


Review of Princess of Light
Marie Bilodeau



The Wall of Loss separating the lands of light and darkness is failing....
Despite her attempts to stop them, dark creatures invade Princess Cassara Edoline's small and almost forgotten kingdom, murdering her family and taking her younger brother captive. Torn by guilt and clutching an amulet of powerful magic, she vows to rescue her brother and save as many as possible from the invading hordes. But first, she must find out what is causing the thousand-year-old magic of the Wall to fail and stop it, if she can. As Cassara's resolve and strength are mercilessly tested and her shaky alliances begin to crumble, she must find a way to master her newfound powers which promise both salvation and destruction, or watch her beloved land be consumed by darkness and death.

         

Cassara Edoline is the youngest princess of the small kingdom of Edoline. Her life is slow, but she finds adventure and escape from her prison, in town, accompanied by her two grumbling guards, Kaden and Carsyn.

One night after playing her flute in town she leaves her guards behind, feeling they deserved some rest. She’s left alone with her thoughts, as she walks back towards her home, through the beautiful apple orchards. Her thoughts revolve around marriage, and home which she feels is a prison. When she is attacked, by dark creatures she had never seen before. With that, her normal life is shattered. Her life changes when she uncovers the dark creatures, and meets Avarielle. A spunky, eccentric warrior that shows Cassara the true darkness, and tells her she can help stop it. Cassara agrees to help Avarielle, protect her kingdom by destroying the hive of the monsters.

What ensues from that point onward is an epic journey, along side Cassara and her companions; you journey with her as she fights off the dark.


Cassara has a simple choice, sit back, listen to everyone who tells her that she must act properly, and watch her beloved home fall. Or she can grow up, react to the horrors she witnessed, and try to do something about it.

Princess of Light: Heirs of a Broken Land, by Marie Bilodeau, was a beautiful, exciting tale of adventure, family and love. Cassara is a truly engaging character, completely unique, and she keeps on surprising you as she is tested.

Her entire knowledge of the world is shattered by the appearance of dark creatures in her small, perfect kingdom. Despite the fear they create in her, she continues to fight them.

In every way, this was a great story of discovery, family and growing up, and letting go.

I loved the clear, concise writing of Marie Bilodeau.

I felt such a strong connection to this whole world, with its twists and surprise ending. I rooted for each of the characters, felt sympathy for the King and Cassara, who lost everything but vowed to do everything in her power to stop what happened. I loved her as she overcame her pain and sorrow, and I loved her beautiful connection with Kaden, and I’ll admit, I teared up at some key points in this story. I also loved that this was more a journey of self-discovery, rather than a story comprised of a strong man coming in and saving her.

Most would be skeptic if I compared this to LOTR’s, but honestly it had the same feeling of urgency and had the same amount of adventure and discovery.
I couldn’t put this down, I wanted so badly to get to the end—to find out what happened!
But, when I got to the end, that realization hit me.
It’s done.

This book is a gem, begging to be read.

Honestly I never would have known about this unless I had gone to Fanexpo, I wouldn’t have found this amazing story. Makes me wonder what other amazing books they don’t sell at chapters.

I loved the writing style of Marie, her writing was clear and rolled off the page like a movie. I loved the clear images the descriptions, one of my favorites, being the scenes with the apple blossoms which were just so beautiful.

This book is fast paced, an adventurous coming of age story. Each character was so well rounded, even minor characters had intricate and detailed backgrounds, which made the story and plot strong. Those alone are reasons to read this, in my opinion.

This novel was really hard to put down.
The perfect read for a stormy night.
If you like strong female MC with take-on-the-world attitude, you will love this. 

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