It takes an artist’s touch to paint the portrait of a king.
When Lyara, a painter with a fickle muse, falls for a royal soldier, she’s inspired to make her dreams of change a reality.
Avaron’s poor border towns live under constant threat from monsters her fellow socialites know only from text books. The reigning king refuses to defend his people, so she devises a scheme that might see her gallant soldier wear the crown. Failure means more senseless death–or an even more dastardly man taking the throne.
The army’s willing to follow him, but the Avaronian people will take more convincing. Fortunately, there’s a plan for that, too–although it might cost Lyara her faith.
Get a taste for the world of the Heritor’s Helm series in this prequel novella!
Free on 30th Mar 24 - 3rd Apr 24
Reviews:
It takes an artist’s touch to paint the portrait of a king. When Lyara, a painter with a fickle muse, falls for a royal soldier, she’s inspired to make her dreams of change a reality. Avaron’s poor border towns live under constant threat from monsters her fellow socialites know only from text books. The reigning […]
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Reviewer: Angel for Bookangel.
Lyana, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, finds herself falling in love with a soldier, Dradge, who she had known in her childhood but who had moved away with his family. But while he is making his way up the ranks in the army, she is taking a more subversive line against the kingdom. In secret she is releasing a paper that makes fun of the royal family and giving an alternative view of the kingdom. While her writing and artwork are appreciated by the readers, the king is far from enamoured over the fun made of him and if it should be found out who is behind it, his wrath would fall upon them. In time Lyana marries him and Dradge is promoted to General, to be given the task of defending the country's borders. Lyana accompanies him and gets to know life outside the city so she can report it in her hidden paper as she travels with the soldiers and the rest of the camp. In time, she comes to realise that what Dradge offers the kingdom is far more than the current royal incumbent and decides to make it happen.
A fantasy tale that takes place over the years instead of months that might be expected. The plot sets itself up with several possibilities that combine as time passes and the stakes get higher to drive the story on and give a real feeling of the progress and hard work the characters put it. What starts out as a small skirmish with callow teenagers expands to far more serious and life-threatening situations but set against the experience and knowledge our protagonists have earned. Despite the shortness of the story, it is great to see them grow over time and both act and react to the life around them. Both Lyana and Dradge and far from being perfect, but it's their imperfections and willing to do what is right that helps to make them memorable characters. While Lyana is looking to see what is right for the kingdom, Dradge is doing his duty to protect both the people under his command and the land that he is trying to save. Between them, they are willing to make both hard choices and carry them out to do what is right, no matter if it might be considered wrong. Alongside the supporting characters, who carry out the excellent job of filling in detail or backstory without seeming to do it purely for exposition sake, I certainly went from page to page to see how the individuals would react to the latest task set in front of them. The writing is descriptive and the author does an great job in getting across the details whether it is discussing politics at a dinner or showing a brutal and bloody battle.
The book is well formatted and the front picture is quite striking. There is a map at the start, but I didn't find it as useful as I thought I might. The chapters are short and sharp, and well edited. I didn't notice any major spelling or grammar errors as I was reading, but the story was engrossing enough that if there were, I was overlooking them.
Overall, this is certainly for fans of the genre and perhaps others who are looking for an interesting story which takes place over a longer period of time than might be expected.
Rating: TBCQuicklink to this review
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