AUTHOR: Michelle L. Levigne
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 87k)
GENRE: Fantasy romance
COST: $7.00
In a world struggling with wars and reconstruction, one woman holds its future in the magic her fingers weave. She holds no memories, knows only the sheltered existence in a protected valley where once a month, priests bring her supplies to weave their tapestries. And yet, at night, she dreams of a man who knows her better than she knows herself. As the years pass, Dia slowly questions her existence, until Asha’s unexpected arrival at her sanctuary sets them off on a new adventure. One in which they have to save the world as they know it.
This is not your average e-book. It’s not because it’s not erotic, because you can certainly buy non-erotic romances online. It’s not because it’s a fantasy, because fantasy is actually a substantial part of the romance market. It’s in the execution. Threads is not a fast read. It’s not an easy one. It has dense, dreamy prose that requires a reader to pay careful attention to detail, and it has a story construct that necessitates actually thinking about what’s being told. But if you stick with it, it delivers a punch like few other e-books I’ve read this year.
Dia, the heroine, has no memory at the top of the story, and since much of the beginning is told from her POV, it means the reader must try and figure things out at the same time she does. She is a Weaver, and through the course of the careful telling, we learn that her weaving is not just about tapestries. There is magic in her touch, magic that frightens her as much as it intrigues. I felt like I was right there with Dia as she struggled to come to grips with not only her quiet existence, but the question of why she existed at all.
We meet Asha, the hero, first in Dia’s dreams, then later in sections told from his POV. His world is vastly different from Dia’s, and it’s reflected in the prose. Where Dia’s perspective is slow and sedate, Asha’s holds more intrigue, clipping along at a faster pace. By the time Asha takes his destiny into his hands and sets out on the mission that ultimately takes him to Dia, the juxtaposition of these two styles has merged into one, making the second half of the book much more unified than the first. I don’t necessarily consider this a flaw. I think it’s a sign of an author who knows exactly how to craft a tale that fits the world she’s created.
Though this book is labeled Book IV of the Bainevah Series, it is entirely possible to read this lush fantasy on its own without losing too many of the nuances of earlier tales. The author takes great pains to keep a new reader informed, and while these sections can drag a little bit – because she has a lot of history to explain – the pay-off is more than worth it. Threads is a magnificent read. I’ll be remembering Dia and this world for a long time to come.
| Readability | 9/10 – Lush, dreamy prose that sets the languorous rhythm of the story perfectly. |
| Hero | 8/10 – The construct of the story makes it harder to get a firm handle on Asha, but I thought he was heartwarming, strong, and real. |
| Heroine | 8/10 – Dia’s amnesia works against getting to know her well, but in light of the entire story, I liked learning about her at the same time as she did herself. |
| Entertainment value | 9/10 – Though the beginning was a little slow for me, I fell in love with the characters and world created here to follow along rabidly to the end. |
| World building | 10/10 – Dense, careful detailing that stands alone in spite of being part of a series. |
| TOTAL: | 44/50 |
No comments:
Post a Comment