Reluctant Concubine (Hardstorm Saga Book 1), by Dana Marton
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Reluctant Concubine (Hardstorm Saga Book 1), by Dana Marton
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-- Please note that this is an updated edition of the book previously titled "The Third Scroll". "A terrific epic fantasy ~ magical, compelling, and romantic!" Susan Mallery, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author "It's impressively easy to become immersed in Marton's fantasy world. Readers will find it impossible not to care what happens next..." Kirkus Review An ambitious, vividly imagined epic fantasy. Marton has created a promising and immersive world that is, at the same time, darkly brutal... the splendor of the author's vision cannot be overlooked." RT Book Reviews To escape punishment, Tera, a maiden healer sold to barbarians must hide the truth: she has not yet come into her healing powers. Born into a much gentler world, she struggles to survive in a land of savage warlords and their cruel concubines. When ancient prophecies begin to come to pass, can the healer-slave save the realm and awaken the High Lord’s heart? "I ADORED.. (the hero). From his initial appearance and those gentle words of promise that no harm would come to...(the heroine), to his accepting manner of all that was her, to his tenderness shown when a barrier for which he waited so patiently to fold was finally crossed. He has to be one of my favourite male counterparts I've read in a while. LOVE him." Bookaroo-Ju Review "The writing is just beautiful. It flows sometimes like water. I don't know how else to describe it other than to say i enjoyed how it felt reading it." 5 out of 5 Modokker Book Pick Stars For anyone who enjoyed the fantasy worlds of George Martin's Game of Thrones, C.L. Wilson's Lord of the Fading Lands, Elizabeth Vaughan's Warprize, or the memorably crafted healer heroines in Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, THE THIRD SCROLL is the next epic adventure to get lost in.
Reluctant Concubine (Hardstorm Saga Book 1), by Dana Marton - Amazon Sales Rank: #19985 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-03-01
- Released on: 2015-03-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Reluctant Concubine (Hardstorm Saga Book 1), by Dana Marton
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Most helpful customer reviews
39 of 42 people found the following review helpful. Surprisingly good, much more intricate and complex than I expected By Jean I thought this was some kind of penny romance but was pleasantly surprised to find a complex world infused with vastly different cultures and histories, and a heroine that's resourceful with fears and hopes that are relatable to the reader. There's alot of different people groups but from what I can tell, this world is composed of islands in the middle of an ocean and each island is isolated from the other due to hard storms that make ocean travel dangerous. Tera lives on the island of Dharu and her people, the Shahala, are peaceful, monogamous healers. However, due to poverty and a wretched father, Tera is sold into slavery to the Kadar. The Kadar are warriors ruled by warlords, and the warlords are united under their High Lord. Each warlord has multiple concubines. Slaves can be groomed into concubines if they find favor with the Warlord or remain slaves. As one would expect, the concubines are full of drama, and the meanest, prettiest, and smartest concubine rules the roost. As a healer, Tera has a unique status and earns the friendship of some slaves while rousing the ire of the head concubine. Eventually she is given as a gift to the High Lord, and in his household she learns about the threats of war from the Khergi hordes, the truth about her mother, the secrets of the Dharu island, and the kind of destiny fate has in store for her.Tera has a lot of conflicting priorities: she wants to survive and escape, she also wants to find out what happened to her mother, a gifted healer who willingly came to the Kadar years ago to heal the former High Lord before dying mysteriously, and she wants to heal just like her mother did. Sometimes Tera seems weak or naive, like when she gets tricked/betrayed into slavery, sometimes she seems resourceful like when she uses the beetles to stitch herself up, and sometimes she's a little over-compassionate with her compulsion to heal anyone and everyone. While I like the complexity of her character, sometimes it gets confusing and sometimes I lose interest because the author is doing a lot of telling and no showing.Overall, a book I'd probably reread over and over again because I liked the character development and discovery. The world-building seemed overly complex but it was also interesting. I was pretty impressed with the myriad of people and cultures and beliefs but it was so overwhelming: the Shahala healers, the Kadar warriors, the Selorm tiger lords, the Khergi hordes, the evil Emperor, the First People, the wise and forgotten Seela, the kingdom of Orh, etc. There were some unanswered questions/unclear motives/confusing plot lines but still entertaining.
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful. Fantasy/Romance with solid action, Needs greater sophistication in world-building By Angela All in all, this is a solid effort that is well-written, but for the world-building. I would definitely recommend this story if you like a good romance. Not so much if you're a hardcore fantasy fan.**Spoilers ahead**Likes: The romance between Tera and Batumar. The adventurous plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat.Dislikes: The overwhelming, bulky travel challenges (poison sands, hardstorm oceans, and Gates no one uses except for under special circumstances.) The shallow prophesy/Guardians/ancient race plot lines. (All of which had me rolling my eyes with exasperation.)Character development (wasn't consistant): The main (and 1st half of the book) characters are well developed and wonderful to read. Characters introduced after the half way mark tended to be one-dimensional and under developed though.In depth:Tera has all the standard, stock qualities of a fantasy heroine. She's beautiful, has a firm sense of the moral right, and a stubborn streak. (Great.) She has a goal: to live up to the example of the woman that her mother was. (Admirable.) She's waiting for 'more' than just marriage and children. (How very progressive.) ...and, most importantly, she has a rare spirit healing power that she can trade on. (After all, what good is a fantasy heroine without a mystical ability these days? ;)Of course, through a series of unjust misadventures that are basically 'the will of the spirits', she comes to the attention of the High Lord of Kadar, Batumar. He's our hero of the story, a battle tested warlord with a heart of gold. He's got scars (making him ruggedly attractive, but not handsome - per the romance mandate), a gruff exterior, a wounded heart, and knows the meaning of loyalty. And, bonus!, he's a reformer - working to bring social justice to his war-worshiping society.I really enjoyed the slow-build of their relationship. The only hiccup is this feeling I had that Batumar is 15-20 years older than Tera, which is a little uncomfortable for me (because I get creeped out by a 'could be your father' age difference), but since the feeling isn't confirmed with any explicit age reveals, I looked past it to just enjoy their love story. And it is a very nicely written love story that carries the book through to the end.Marton's character development is also well conceived and not rushed at all with regard to her main characters. She definitely shows their progression in a believable arc. The reader feels compelled to empathize and side with Tera from the very first pages, which is wonderful. I genuinely cared what happened to Tera with each new conflict that arose and was anxious to see each resolution as it was reached.The main flaw in this story, which is exposed almost immediately, is the world-building. There's a lot of 'tell' rather than 'show' here. It starts with the sands made of poisoned minerals that divide the two peoples on the island and the 'hardstorms' which make the surrounding ocean almost impassable, already the topography and navigational challenges become cumbersome in the reader's imagination. (It reminded me a lot of the diametrically opposed lands of The Dark Crystal world - one a perfect, hippie paradise filled with a society that respected all life and did only good and the other a dark city, with a war-loving culture that embraced slavery, power jockeying, and violating those weaker than yourself - separated by a boundary that neither culture crossed.) Obviously, there needed to be some permeability between the two cultures to create the back story for Tera and allow for her to travel to meet her hero, but Marton's initial set up makes navigating this world entirely too awkward and it's a huge imposition to get from one place to the next. It makes it hard to grasp how there is any cross-cultural interaction or commerce at all.And then Marton introduces the world Gates. Magical portals that connect and allow teleportation between the islands. Somehow these Gates have been in use since before these societies existed but there is no regular traffic through the Gates for commerce or visiting other lands... instead, everyone seems to travel by ship over hardstorm ocean waves with the pirates... What??? (Umm, basic point here: Humanity is well-known for taking the path of least resistance!) There's obviously modern travel through the Gates (ex. Lord Karnagh, the diplomat, who came with his tiger to discuss diplomat stuff with Batumar.) It makes absolutely no sense that the Kadar people wouldn't avail themselves of the Gate as a convenient source of rigorous trade with the other lands, avoiding the crazy ocean as much as possible! (Yes, the travel challenges of this world are a little ridiculous to me and I think they could use a comprehensive revisit and revision.)Also, the Guardians... three grandfather figures who have been waiting for Tera across lifetimes. (sigh) Tera had to be a prophesied savior... really? Okay, well then, please give this new twist a little more depth than what's there. The back story on the prophesy is weak. It just is. Edits to flesh it out, with more foreshadowing and greater complexity or gravity wouldn't be amiss. We've got destiny's breeding program going on here... which is sort of gross and immoral when you think about it... a little more work on the mythology would go a long way on evening those scales.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Misleading title By Elly Helcl I expected this book to be a romance of some sort....and it kind of was....But it was completely misleading. When you read a title like "Reluctant Concubine" you EXPECT it to have some steamy scenes. You expect some actual romance. Instead this book is more like a fantasy book with a little romance thrown in as an afterthought. I rated this book as a 2.5 stars for being a YA fantasty (I will not even grace it with the title of being a romance novel because it is NOT) that was enjoyable. I purchased this book however looking for exactly what the title and the description promised but never delivered...Romance, sex scenes, something I wouldn't let my twelve year old read. Enjoyable read if that is the kind of book you are looking for.
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Reluctant Concubine (Hardstorm Saga Book 1), by Dana Marton
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