Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

genre: fantasy

For sure, read Queen of the Tearling first, this is the sequel and they definitely should be read in order.

Kelsea is now Queen of the Tearling - and the worst thing she could imagine is about to come to pass: the Mort Army is preparing for invasion, and there is nothing her small army can do to stop them.  With this threat ever-present and the priests in the Avarath making their own demands, her life feels like a lead weight but with one interesting development: in her mind, Kelsea keeps traveling to the past.  Not just to random parts of the past but to the life of one particular woman whose fate seems somehow linked with her own. With no solution to the Red Queen's Army marching into the Tearling and her own pain and anger always bubbling at the surface, Kelsea needs to find where her strength lies in time to defend her kingdom, even if she can't save herself.

This is an intense book: the threat of invasion, Kelsea's choices (which are sometimes quite upsetting), her fight against evil both from without and within, I felt almost anxious while I was reading sometimes.  However, it's also very well-written, the plot grabbed me from the first chapter and never let go and there is a glorious plot revelation in the second half that had my brain shifting and mulling for quite a while.  The two time periods worked really well and I liked it a lot and I am excited to see how it ends.

NOTE: It's got enough mature content (swears and sexuality) that I'd hesitate to call it young adult, although I'm sure older teenagers would certainly appreciate the story.

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