Review: Heritage by S.M. Boyce

Heritage by S.M. Boyce
Series: The Grimoire Saga #3
Publisher: Caffeinated Books Publishing
Source: Author
Release Date: November 5, 2013
Pages: 249

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Kara Magari isn’t normal, even by Ourea’s standards—and in a world of shape-shifters and soul stealers, that’s saying something. To the royalty, she’s a loose cannon. To the masses, she’s a failure. But Kara’s arrival in Ourea started a war, and she’s going to end it.

An ancient isen named Stone takes an interest in Kara’s training, and it turns out he has more answers than he originally led her to believe. In an effort to unearth a secret that might end the bloodshed, Kara instead discovers an ugly truth about her family—and how much she has in common with an infamous mass-murderer.

Braeden Drakonin has slowly rebuilt his life after the betrayal that tore it apart. His father wants him dead, and frankly, his so-called allies wouldn’t mind that either. Private alliances are formed. Secrets are sold. Tension is driving the armies apart. A single battle will end this war, and it’s coming. Braeden may be a prince, but it will take more than that to survive. He must take the fight to his father’s door—and win.

Everything that I may have had a problem with in Treason went out the window with Heritage. I LOVED Heritage. Right from the start it hooked it claws into me and I was drawn right into the story.

Heritage picks up right after Treason. Kara and Braeden are once again apart, but somehow it works where in the last book it just frustrated me. Kara is training in the Vagabond village with Stone, an ancient isen, and we finally meet the Vagabonds that Twin made and see how they react to her secret. While Kara is away, Braeden is plotting the attack on the Stele and doing reconnaissance missions to prep for the war. I think why their separation worked in this book compared to the last is that both have their goals and know what they needed to accomplish before they could reunited with each other.

Stone, an ancient Isen, was the perfect trainer for Kara. He pushed and pushed her for her own good. At times she despised him, but he knew the kind of power that she holds and didn’t want her to become her grandfather, Agneon. Stone wanted Kara to learn from her family’s mistakes.

Kara cursed under her breath. Her mentor threw a brick through her window to wake her up. That dramatic son of a –

Stone takes her to her grandfather’s home to relive Agneon’s memories. This was definitely a turning point with Kara. Kara saw both the destruction and guilt Agneon faced and the happy memories. After that she knew she had to be able to control her power, so Kara learned to trust Stone and devoted herself to her training. Kara definitely kicked some serious ass in this book. She was scary taking on Carden. Even he feared her, which made the battle in Kirelm so intense!

Braeden contemplates a lot during this book about his future with Kara. And Oh. My. Gosh. It is adorable. I loved seeing him sweat and get all nervous, because that is not the Braeden we have all come to know and love. Right? Every time he thinks is the right time to ask Kara he worries that asking for forever will only push her away. But when the proposal finally happens! Eeek!! It was adorable messy and perfect.

My Rating:

Review: Treason by S.M. Boyce

Treason by S.M. Boyce
Series: The Grimoire Saga #2
Publisher: Caffeinated Books Publishing
Source: Bought
ISBN: 9781939997074
Release Date: October 27, 2012
Pages: 364

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Kara Magari ignited a war when she stumbled into Ourea and found the Grimoire: a powerful artifact filled with secrets. To protect the one person she has left, she strikes a deal that goes against everything she believes in. But things don’t go as planned.

Braeden Drakonin can no longer run from who—and what—he is. He has to face the facts. He’s a prince. He’s a murderer. He’s a wanted man. And after a betrayal that leaves him heartbroken, he’s out for blood.

To survive, both Kara and Braeden must become the evil each has grown to hate.

I had a love/hate relationship with Kara & Braeden’s relationship in this book. At times it felt like Kara was just jerking Braden’s feelings around. She was hot and cold all throughout this book and just confused both Braeden and myself. I do realize she was just trying to protect him, but it got tiresome at some points.

You wouldn’t get close to me because you didn’t trust me to take care of myself. We’re both at fault here.

But with that being said I still love them together. They work well as a team and maybe the problems I did have with this book was the parts when they went their separate ways. They also had some obvious communication issues. Kara was trying to protect Braeden from the Vagabond, but wouldn’t clue him into her reasoning so she just ended up pushing him away. When they finally talked about it at the end of the novel it was well written and gave me all sorts of feelings.

She’d come back. When anyone else in the world would have left him to a lifetime with Carden, Kara came back.

Braeden is your traditional hero. He truly cares about Kara and respects her. Even if she will never return his feelings he still wants to protect and ensure she is safe. Kara on the other hand comes from a more modern world where she doesn’t think she needs to be protected.

We don’t ever have to be together, Kara, if that’s not what you want. It doesn’t have to be that way. But I will always make certain you are safe.

I’ll do my best to respect what you want, Kara. I just want to be nearby. Someone has to catch you when you trip.

In this book you see Braeden struggling with his heritage. He’s afraid of his Stelian side. He enjoys killing and fears that he will become his father. His past comes to light and it goes over just as one would expect and he is alone to face his father after everyone he has known has abandoned him.

A family isn’t supposed to care about what you are, just what you’ve done. I can’t care about what they think anymore.

A new character is introduced in this book, Stone. Stone is an isen (not the bad kind). When Stone is first introduced he did not make much of an impact on me, but when he appears later to save Kara he really grew on me. I can’t wait to read the third book now because I think he is going to play a big part in it. Stone has a mysterious past and all the answers Kara needs to fulfill her destiny.

Once again S.M. Boyce has created a beautiful world with Ourea.

My Rating:

Review: Lichgates by S.M. Boyce

Lichgates by S.M. Boyce
Publisher: Immortal Ink Publishing
Source: Netgalley
ISBN: 9781938750922
Release Date: January 2011

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Kara Magari is about to discover a beautiful world full of terrifying things—Ourea.

Kara, a college student still reeling from her mother’s recent death, has no idea the hidden world of Ourea even exists until a freak storm traps her in a sunken library. With no way out, she opens an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire and unwittingly becomes its master, which means Kara now wields the cursed book’s untamed power. Discovered by Ourea's royalty, she becomes an unwilling pawn in a generations-old conflict—a war intensified by her arrival. In this world of chilling creatures and betrayal, Kara shouldn’t trust anyone… but she’s being hunted and can’t survive on her own. She drops her guard when Braeden, a native soldier with a dark secret, vows to keep her safe. And though she doesn’t know it, her growing attraction to him may just be her undoing.

For twelve years, Braeden Drakonin has lived a lie. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. Though he begins to care for this human girl, there is something he wants more. He wants the Grimoire.

Welcome to Ourea, where only the cunning survive.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the character development and world building was excellent. Ourea is an intense and fascinating land. Each of the kingdoms that Kara visited was distinct and unique in its own way. Hillside has protected Braeden for years from his past, but holds its own secrets. Losse is a magical underwater world, and Kirelm is a traditional world, where men are warriors and women embody beauty.

I loved Braeden. I fell for him the moment he called Kara, Miss Kara. I think he will always protect Kara. His intentions were not noble at first, but I think he would always put her first. I don't know if I trust him entirely. His weakness to his father is obviously his greatest downfall, but it will be something he will struggle with. He thinks in order to protect Ourea from his people is to destroy the Stelian race. I don't think a massive genocide of one race in his world is the answer. I think this is something he will be struggling to come to terms with throughout the series. Kara's right in which it is not up to us to decide who deserves to live or die. He does want peace, but peace must come from compromise, not bloodshed.

"Life requires balance. Though a dandelion is never as stunning as an orchid, we would never appreciate a flower's beauty without also appreciating a weed's simplicity. Therefore we must accept that there is evil if we are to understand what it means to be good."

Kara I truly liked. She was a sarcastic and quick witted, which is my favourite kind of heroine. She's just a regular girl who got sucked into another world and told she was the one everyone has been waiting a millennium for. She will have a long, lonely road ahead of her, but she can trust and rely on Braeden. There are a few characters that can go either way in helping or betraying her along the way, the Muses, Twin, Heir Aurora, etc. She will need to learn who to trust in order to succeed.

"If this world didn't want her, she would try to save it anyway: for her dad, for her mom, and because being the Vagabound was all she had left."

I wish I had a Xlijnuhl. Flick sounds adorable. A miniature fox with massive ears, zebra stripes, random magical powers, and hatches from an egg! I think every girl should have one of those.

I think I will definitely be reading the next book very soon.

My Rating: