The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley. King Kareed of Archeld conquers Bellandra, despite their magic sword that is supposed to make their kingdom invincible. As part of his spoils of war he brings home the son of the defeated king. The boy, Landen, is given to princess Torina as a slave. Her first act is to free him, earning his gratitude and later his love. But Kareed has put his trust in the wrong commander, and Torina's own peaceful existance is soon destroyed.Pros: good writing, interesting characters, well developed world wherein each kingdom has their own customs and leadership style.
Cons: lots of coincidental situations to move the plot along and given the time frame of the book the characters are less well developed as they might have been otherwise. It's definitely written for teens or even younger readers, who won't mind or notice the flaws as they get pulled into the story of a princess trying to survive in exile.
please blog about your trip to Spain. :>) Yes, yes, I KNOW it's a book blog, but the beauty of blogs is that you can go careening offtrack...
ReplyDeleteMy dad would like to go to Spain next year. That means I must be the planner. I'd like to know anything you care to write--where you stayed that you liked, museums, food places that were excellent bargains...
You know. If you've nothing better to do and get bored one evening...have some time on your hands...
I've actually written about my trip of my 'private' blog:
ReplyDeletewww.wyvernspeakwriting.blogspot.com
You dad probably wouldn't want to stay at the youth hostels like I did, but I was lucky enough to visit some beautiful cities.
If you want more detailed info than what you find there write a comment and I'll do another post or two.
Yeah, Dad might well be past the youth hostel stage...we've certainly done our share of cabins and whatnot in the US as we hiked the various parks. But Europe is soooo expensive, especially right now with the dollar where it is. that's been part of my trouble with the planning stuff.
ReplyDeleteOf course, dad doesn't get around as well as he used to either, so we'll likely be picking one city and doing a few things. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out!