Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

Jack is a bard studying music on the mainland, estranged from his island clan. He is summoned home to the Isle of Cadence after ten years away. Jack begrudgingly obeys the summons from his laird and travels back to the magical, brutal island of his childhood. Young girls are vanishing and his music may be the key to solving the mystery surrounding their disappearances. Jack must work together with his childhood enemy, Adaira, the heiress of his clan, to find the missing girls. But they soon discover there is a deeper, darker secret of Cadence lurking beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all. Keep reading below for my full review of this hauntingly beautiful novel!

Shannon’s Rating – PG-13

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LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!

As this year progresses, I’m slowly adding to my FAVORITE READS OF 2022 list. I’m very picky about books that I call “favorites.” I like and enjoy many books but there are only a certain few that I consider worthy of sitting on my favorites shelf in my library. “A River Enchanted,” by Rebecca Ross made it onto this most coveted shelf of mine!

I LOVED this book! Fantasy done well is just so enjoyable! In my experience, it’s not easy to find fun fantasy novels written for adults. More often than not, I lean towards Young Adult fantasy books. “A River Enchanted,” is an adult fantasy book that feels like a Young Adult fantasy story. It is beautifully written in a way that adults will probably enjoy more than teenagers. While there is some romance along the way, the storytelling and poetic imagery are the strengths of this novel.

I love stories involving mystical spirits, fairies, magical enchantments etc. and this novel had all of these! Elemental spirts dwell on the Isle of Cadence in the water, earth and wind. These spirits can only be summoned though a bard’s music. Jack is tasked with summoning these mystical, powerful spirits in order to find the missing island girls.

“Jack played a scale on his harp, his fingers stiff at first. His fingers grew nimble and notes began to trickle into the air. He sang up the spirits of the sea, the timeless beings that belonged to the cold depths. He watched eyes gleam from beneath the water like golden coins; he watched webbed fingers and toes drift beneath the shallow ripples. The spirits manifested into their physical forms; they came with barbed fins and tentacles, with hair like spilled ink, with gills and iridescent scales and endless rows of teeth. They rose from the water and gathered close about him, as if he had called them home.”

Jack quickly discovers that singing for these spirits exacts a great price from a bard. But with his own sister in danger, Jack will risk anything to protect both her and the other island girls.

I loved the entire cast of characters in this novel. They were well written, with their individual strengths and weaknesses. Of course, they all had secrets to discover – which makes for a page-turning story!

There are two clans living on the Isle of Cadence; the Breccans and the Tamerlaines. The clans have been enemies for centuries and the missing girls further adds to their suspicions of each other.

So, with the clan rivalries, the missing girls, the elemental spirits, the magical enchantments and the precarious relationship between the heiress and the bard – it all makes for a wonderful story!

Rebecca Ross describes this novel of hers as...”An epic fantasy novel with medieval Scottish inspiration and a mystery at its heart.” I think that describes “A River Enchanted” perfectly! This is the second book by this author, and she is quickly becoming one of my new favorites!

There will be a sequel to “A River Enchanted,” coming out in December. I usually hate reading the first book in a series and then having to patiently wait until the next book comes out for a cliff hanger to be resolved. While I will be happily awaiting the second (and last) book, this one ended well enough that I can wait until December without being annoyed or anxious!

If you are a lover of fantasy and/or beautifully written stories, then I highly recommend you pick this one up!