Sunday, December 22, 2013

Dragonwitch by Anne Elisabeth Stengl--Review

Title: Dragonwitch
Author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Series: Tales of Goldstone Wood-Book 5
Pages: 425
Publisher: Bethany House
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 2 stars

Summary:
WHO WILL DARE FACE THE DRAGONWITCH?

Submissive to her father's will, Lady Leta of Aiven travels far to meet the future kind of the North Country and a prospective husband she neither knows nor loves.

But within the walls of his castle, all is not right. Vicious night terrors plague Lord Alistair. Whispers rise from the family crypt. The reclusive castle Chronicler, Leta's tutor and friend, possesses a secret so dangerous it could cost his life and topple the entire nation.

    And far away in a hidden kingdom, a flame burns atop the Citadel of the Living Fire. Acolytes and priestesses serve the goddess to the limits of their lives and deaths. No one is safe while the Dragonwitch searches for the sword that slew her twice...and for the hero who can wield it.

My thoughts:
    I hate to give this book such a low rating, as I love fantasy and I really like Anne Elisabeth Stengl, but I do have my reasons...
    First, this series started out with Heartless, the story of Princess Una. The second and third books I also enjoyed, but they were someone else's story, not Una's. Then with the fourth book, Starflower, the story went back thousands of years to tell yet another person's story. She definitely had something to do with history that was important to the world that the author had created, but I am not sure how she was connected to what had happened before. I don't even remember her being mentioned that much. Yes, perhaps in future novels in this series, everything will come together perfectly, but....after 5 books of this jumping around...who knows what will happen or how long it will take? I'm not even sure where Dragonwitch fits in at all with the others (besides something to do with dragons...).
    The summary of the book talks about Lady Leta and Lord Alistair as though they are the main characters, but throughout a lot of the book, it doesn't seem that is the case. Most of the time, it is more the Chronicler who is the "main character". (I don't have anything against that, but it just makes it confusing)

More information:

I was given this book by Bethany House Publishers for my honest review.