APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
Suzanne Freeman narrates Rebecca Ross’s story with eloquence and passion. Brienna and her new friends are fighting to overthrow the king and put the rightful queen back on the throne. Freeman delivers Brienna’s strong personality and myriad emotions with confidence and mastery. Through changing tones she captures Brienna’s hope, despair, love, and courage. Switching easily between female voices, she captures the bond that Brienna shares with each of the other female characters, especially the passionate sisters at Magnolia House. However, some of her male voices are not well differentiated, and it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish one from another. Overall, though, this doesn’t detract from the listening experience. A.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
★“Sophisticated plotting is the hallmark of this debut, which deftly navigates complex, treasonous plots and political intrigue. [A] Stunning literary adventure.” — Booklist (starred review)
“A sprawling girl-powered fantasy. A compelling page-turner. Hand this magical debut to readers who loved Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy or Sarah J. Maas’s “Throne of Glass” series.” — School Library Journal
Booklist (starred review)
★“Sophisticated plotting is the hallmark of this debut, which deftly navigates complex, treasonous plots and political intrigue. [A] Stunning literary adventure.
School Library Journal
11/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—This debut is a sprawling girl-powered fantasy that pulls readers on an adventure that spans generations. Raised by her grandfather, Brienna knows nothing of her father except that he lives in Maevena, the troubled and violent kingdom to the north of her native Valenia. At 10, her grandfather spirits her away to Magnalia House in as much an effort to hide her from her father as to teach her to become a passion—an expert in one of the five Valenian virtues. Just as Brienna is on the verge of gaining her passion, she begins to have strange visions: memories of a Maevan man who may have been her ancestor. These visions lead Brienna into the thick of a plot to usurp Maevena's cruel King Lannon and place the country's rightful queen on the throne, but the more Brienna learns about her past, the more her future is endangered. Although the story starts off a bit slowly with Brienna's misadventures at Magnalia and plenty of luscious world-building, once the visions start, Ross expertly weaves Brienna's past and present into a compelling page-turner. Smart readers may find that the extensive front matter, including family trees of many of the characters, telegraph some of the narrative's twists and turns, but there are still plenty of surprises to keep readers guessing. VERDICT Hand this magical debut to teen readers who loved the close female friendships of Shannon Hale's Princess Academy or the sprawling epics of Sarah J. Maas's "Throne of Glass" series.—Mimi Powell, Library Systems and Services, Kissimmee, FL
APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
Suzanne Freeman narrates Rebecca Ross’s story with eloquence and passion. Brienna and her new friends are fighting to overthrow the king and put the rightful queen back on the throne. Freeman delivers Brienna’s strong personality and myriad emotions with confidence and mastery. Through changing tones she captures Brienna’s hope, despair, love, and courage. Switching easily between female voices, she captures the bond that Brienna shares with each of the other female characters, especially the passionate sisters at Magnolia House. However, some of her male voices are not well differentiated, and it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish one from another. Overall, though, this doesn’t detract from the listening experience. A.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-10-28
An illegitimate girl who hopes to find her creative passion may be connected to another kingdom's magical history.At 10, white, orphaned Brienna was brought to Magnalia House. For the last seven years she's studied to become an arden, an apprentice passion, with the goal of finding her patron. The arden-sisters study art, dramatics, music, wit, and knowledge; Brienna, who has no true vocation, has eccentrically studied in all the fields. Though she doesn't truly belong among the talented (and somewhat racially diverse) noble girls of Magnalia House, they are her beloved friends. Perhaps once she's passioned, she can even act on her romantic feelings for the white knowledge master. But Brienna's having strange visions lately; could they be ancestral memories of an unknown forbear from the neighboring country? What with romance, jealousy, family drama, betrayals, ancient magical history, and characters with multiple secret identities, there's a nigh-constant pitch of throbbing…well, passion. A voice is like "tamed thunder," and hair is like "a stream of silver." Malapropisms abound ("punctures of laughter"; "her beauty warbled by the mullioned windows"). Oddly, most of the shocking revelations of back story are openly detailed in the lengthy family trees at the novel's opening.There's some originality here, though it's hard to unearth amid all the melodrama. (Fantasy. 13-15)
