aly_anne's review against another edition
5.0
Still one of my favourite reads, even a decade plus after the first time reading it. The author borrows heavily from Scottish folklore, which almost makes the wights more realistic when reading. And having a strong and resourceful main character is a major plus. Love love love.
annick's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.75
I’ve read this at least eight times over the past 21 years. I still enjoy it. It has an episodic quality to the questing and adventures.
The author enjoys using antiquated vocabulary. I think of it as a blend of folklore from the british and Irish isles, Rossetti’s Goblins Market, and high fantasy.
The author enjoys using antiquated vocabulary. I think of it as a blend of folklore from the british and Irish isles, Rossetti’s Goblins Market, and high fantasy.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Violence
annick's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
One of my favourites. I’ve read it at least seven times since first discovering it in 2002. Still enjoying it.
anovelstart's review against another edition
4.0
In this second instalment, Rohain has her voice back and also her face. She disguises herself and goes to court as Rohain of the Sorrow Isles so she can gain an audience with the King-Emperor. During this book her goals are to regain her memory and to hopefully see Thorn again, a kind warrior of the King-Emperor's who saved her and her companion in the first book.
Near the end of the book Rohain starts having memory flashes, introducing the reader to the world of the golden-haired race that has long been dwindling in recent times. To see anyone with natural blonde hair is very rare. We gain more knowledge through stories of the Faraen. I quite like this because the more they are mentioned in the first book, the more the reader wonders what happened to them, so it's nice that the author actually answers the unasked question.
One fact I like about this series is at the beginning of each chapter, there's a little verse of poetry relevant to the chapter. Each is 'written' by someone in the book, e.g. a commoner of the land, a song of a well known bard, etc. I think this is a nice unique touch.
Again, this second installment does not disappoint. The author keeps to the same level of detail and introduces riddles and more twists to the story. Rohain's past is quite interesting and the romance of Rohain and Thorn is also quite cute. I'd still recommend this book but only if you've read the first, otherwise there's no way you could understand it.
Enjoy.
Near the end of the book Rohain starts having memory flashes, introducing the reader to the world of the golden-haired race that has long been dwindling in recent times. To see anyone with natural blonde hair is very rare. We gain more knowledge through stories of the Faraen. I quite like this because the more they are mentioned in the first book, the more the reader wonders what happened to them, so it's nice that the author actually answers the unasked question.
One fact I like about this series is at the beginning of each chapter, there's a little verse of poetry relevant to the chapter. Each is 'written' by someone in the book, e.g. a commoner of the land, a song of a well known bard, etc. I think this is a nice unique touch.
Again, this second installment does not disappoint. The author keeps to the same level of detail and introduces riddles and more twists to the story. Rohain's past is quite interesting and the romance of Rohain and Thorn is also quite cute. I'd still recommend this book but only if you've read the first, otherwise there's no way you could understand it.
Enjoy.
twas's review against another edition
3.0
The continuation of The Ill-Made Mute.
Imhrien becomes a lady of the court, and ends up dodging attacks from ill-intentioned humans and fey creatures.
Why does Thorn fall in love with her? Because she's humble? Or beautiful? or because he disregards the fact that loving her is actually rather cruel?
I don't know. I did sort of enjoy reading about Imhrien fumbling through life at court like any one of us would, and the events of her journey northward are exciting.
Again, I love the legendary fey creatures that Thornton weaves in, and again, the serendipity of her travails and travels wore on me.
Imhrien becomes a lady of the court, and ends up dodging attacks from ill-intentioned humans and fey creatures.
Why does Thorn fall in love with her? Because she's humble? Or beautiful? or because he disregards the fact that loving her is actually rather cruel?
I don't know. I did sort of enjoy reading about Imhrien fumbling through life at court like any one of us would, and the events of her journey northward are exciting.
Again, I love the legendary fey creatures that Thornton weaves in, and again, the serendipity of her travails and travels wore on me.
bokashi's review against another edition
2.0
Dreamy. I listened to this audio book while traveling and found the reader's voice soothing and the author's tendency to over describe a nice lulling tone during the half-awake state of a long-haul flight.
xtinetreasure's review against another edition
1.0
I think it's saying something that upon leaving the book in a different place than usual, it took me two/three months to conjure the effort to go find it and finish it. I will not be continuing with this series any longer, this book just destroyed all hopes I had of it picking up the further it went. I don't mind flowery language, however, this was far too much (worse even than the first book) and the plot (of what little there was) was lost. Along with the cringeworthy love interest, progressively irritating main character and everything being bogged down by mediocre fables I struggled to finish this book, and contented myself with speed scanning the last two-thirds of the book - although I wouldn't have bothered with even that if it wasn't for my slightly neurotic goal to finish all the books I start.
celiaedf12's review against another edition
3.0
Our lead character travels to Court under the name Lady Rohain of the Sorrows and quickly adjusts to Court life - and then makes a discovery about the King, and departs the Court to spend quite a long time on an island where the characters tell each other quite detailed stories (and the narrative slows down quite a bit at this point), and then they depart, and then there's a rather lengthy flashback section. Is that the most convoluted plot summary ever? That's because the plot is quite convoluted. But I enjoyed it, even though I felt it got bogged down a little in the island section.
julieputty's review against another edition
4.0
An enjoyable continuation of the story started in The Ill-Made Mute. Dart-Thornton still has a regrettable tendency to overwrite, as if she's thumbing through her thesaurus all the time. The romance aspect of the book is a little overwrought as well.
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