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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes


Author: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Pages: 243
Series or Standalone: 1st in the Kiesha’ra series
Genre: Fantasy

DANICA SHARDAE IS an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk's form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she'll do anything in her power to stop this war--even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind's greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one.
Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica--and all they ask of their people--but it may be more than she can give.

I must say, I really enjoyed this book. Like all of Amelia’s novels that I’ve read thus far, Hawksong was not a light book. It was dark and deep, and explored heavy things like learning to love your enemy, sacrificing for the greater good, and lots of sexual tension.

Amelia likes writing strong female leads, and Danica was certainly not the exception. She was tough and resolved to do what was needed of her. The Avians were very stoic people, who held their emotions and actions in check. But when Danica is faced with something new¾the Serpiente way of life, which includes an unabeshedness to closeness and contact¾she, like anyone would, loses her footing. I like that it took Danica a while to come to terms on her feelings for Zane, and that there was the awkwardness to her when she was around him. It added to Danica as a person, and upped the tension between the two.

Zane himself was great. He’s handsome and quick witted, suave, and, well… hot. And he’s comfortable with almost everything that Danica isn’t. But he’s understanding, and he helps Danica ease into a new life with him. That’s what I liked the most about him, his duality as a person. He could be the dreaded Serpentiene warrior at one moment, and then a nice guy the next.

Aaaaaaannnnd, he’s pretty badass. Just sayin’.

Another thing I commend Amelia for is her world building. She has this uncanny ability to make a world come to like in all her novels, and the amazing thing is her novels aren’t even that long. She introduces the people and the social hierarchy and the bloody wars, and it’s all so well fleshed out. The concept itself of shapeshifters isn’t new, but Amelia takes it and adds a twist, and creates this whole universe around it, that, while your reading this novel, it is new.

The writing is all right. Sometimes I felt like it was forced, and other times I felt like she simply abused the “Thesaurus” tool on Word. But it was good enough to not hinder the story too much. I’ve read several of her novels, and her writing still hasn’t deterred me from reading her work, so I hope it doesn’t deter you either.

The cover? Eh, I personally don’t like it at all. Is that supposed to be Zane? He looks like Edward Scissorhands to me. Not sexy.



BUT, I am a major fan of the new omnibus cover. The omnibus includes the entire K’iesha’ra series.


Do I recommend this novel: YES

Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Uniqueness\Creativity: 5/5
Writing: 3/5
Cover: 1/5
Overall


Hawksong on Goodreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing

1 comment:

  1. Ha ha. I did not realise how much alike they looked. I like the very last cover the best out of them all. For some reason I only like the first two books in this series. My favorite is Hawksong.

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