Review: The Sword and the Prophet by Missy Larae

Title:  The Sword and the Prophet (#1)

Author: Missy LaRae

Publisher: Self Published/Createspace

Published: March 27 2012

Format: Kindle/e-book

Pages: 150

Source: Received a copy from the 

author in exchange for an honest 

review

Read:  August 11-12 2012

In A Few Words:  Full of action

My Rating: 3  stars

Goodreads: Add it to your TBR pile

Goodreads Synopsis:

Fifteen year old twins Lily and Tyler are on a mission. Escape from their abusive mother, hop a train to Charleston, South Carolina, and don't get caught. They've been kept in virtual seclusion their entire lives, and in one night make a break for it and succeed. However, something isn't right with their new Aunt and Uncle, and they realize they've escaped one nightmare and stumbled into something even far more sinister and deadly. 

Lily and Tyler both feel the call of the moon, and the first night she's able to go outside and feel it on her skin, Lily dramatically changes into something that both fascinates and scares her. Desperate to escape their Aunt and Uncle the twins devise a plan, but are thwarted at the last second. 

With time running out they finally manage to escape, and find help in the form of a smooth talking teenager named Talon with fire in his hands and an otherworldly aura. 

Just who are they, and where are they from? Are they even human? They must rely on one another if they're going to find out and manage to survive.

Melissa's Musings:

I have to admit that when I was first reading this book, I didn't like it all that much. I was set to give it a two star review  until about half or three quarters of the way through, but then it started to grow on me, and so I increased the rating.

One thing that was somewhat off putting was the main characters accents. The characters were from the south and the accents were written into the story with a lot of " woulda, coulda, happenin, threatenin" etc. I think that the author was trying to use the dialogue to get us to more readily identify with the characters by doing this but I feel that it would have been more powerful if the dialogue had been more proper and we could have just imagined the accent for ourselves.

A great thing about this story is the fast pace. There's always something happening, or something new going on, but not too quickly in terms of the action. There are also  not very many spots where the action lulls or there's too much over explanation. 

That being said, I have to admit I felt a little blindsided by the alien twist to this story. At first it's just a couple of kids who are trying to escape their cruel mother. Suddenly there's the introduction of an alien pod and all these sorts of powers and a different world.  I have to admit that I don't read much science fiction or fantasy so I'm not sure if this type of segue is normal or not, it just seemed fast and a bit out of place to me.  It could have been transitioned better.

Once you do get into the alien world and through the explanation of that world, it's a very interesting story. I like how one of the Kingdoms is the Kingdom of Dreams and members of the Kingdom of Dreams get their power from the moonlight. I've always loved the moon and stars so that was a personal plus for me. I also enjoyed how the people of this species could push their feelings into one another, and be able to sense feelings, that way it's nearly impossible to tell lies. I think it would be interesting to be able to do that, although it might be hard to deal with sometimes.

One other sticking point for me though were the names. They seemed so "normal" that it was strange. They're supposed to be on some other world faraway in the galaxy and they have names like Tyler  and Lilybelle, and a ruler named Jackson? That seemed odd to me. I would think that given where they are the names would be more, I don't know, exotic, I guess.

Overall, I grew to enjoy the story. I would recommend it to anyone who's looking to try out something new in the fantasy genre.