AUTHOR: Marcia Laycock
DATE: 2014
PUBLISHER: Kindle e-Book
STARS: *****
Consciousness seeped into Eghan like the mists that slipped seductively down from the mountains -- slowly -- so slowly his mind fought to clear the haze away. Leather strips binding his ankles and wrists twisted into his skin when he moved. Memory flooded back. He had been in his own room in his father’s castle, staring at a cup in his hand. The cup’s rim blurred. His head spun. He remembered turning toward the door, seeing a man he did not recognize, just before everything went black.
What an opening! Marcia Laycock’s story gripped me from these first sentences through the entire book. The captured prince, a threat of war, a beautiful enemy, and a mysterious teacher combine in this fantasy that wove itself into my imagination and enticed me to keep reading. I love her use of the Word as the guiding light for the teacher and his people. Prince Eghan’s character arc is clear even in the first two chapters as he struggles to reconcile what he’d been taught by his father the king with the truth his supposed captors live by.
This is a wonderful story, and I hope to read more of the series. It earns five stars.