Book Description:
In the deep heart of the forest, there are places where no light ever shines, where darkness is folded by pale hands and jewel-bright eyes, where the world is ruled by the wicked and kept by the wraiths. This is where the Sprites of the Sihl live.
But Sprites are not born, they are made. On the path to Spritehood, spritelings must first become shades. They do so by binding a shadow: a woodland creature, who guides them through their training. Together, they keep from the light and learn to enchant living things, to bind them, and, eventually, to kill them.
Yet, not all spritelings are born with malice—they must earn it or they are condemned. What happens then to the spriteling who finds a shadow where she shouldn’t? What happens if that particular spriteling wasn’t born with malice at all?
Ahraia was that spriteling. She ran too close to the light and bound herself to a wolf, a more powerful shadow than any that came before it. Now a shade, her shadow marks her for greatness. But a test is coming, and the further they wander out of the darkness, the deeper they wander into danger. Ahraia’s time is coming and what awaits her at the end of her test will either make her or kill her . . .
I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I will admit it took me a while to get into this book, it just wasn’t grabbing me at first and I just felt a little confused on how everyone kind of went together. Mainly just like how the different hierarchy was in the group of the Sprites/Shades and then also just who other groups of people were in the book. At first I thought Alps were humans, but it seems like they are actually elves. Anyway once I started to understand it more I got more into the book and also once the story started moving along and there was a little more suspense of what was going to happen to Ahraia.
I thought the plot of the book was interesting, it was unique, you don’t see many books about Sprites/Shades that are part of a group that has to stay in the dark and so they bend the forest to their will to keep them in the dark. Not only that but at some point they have to go out and bind a shadow (an animal) that will be by their side and basically becomes part of who they are. What you don’t know until later is what happens to become a Sprite means you have to let your shadow go. Ahraia is very connected with her shadow Losna and doesn’t want this to happen and is doing all she can to not let it happen. Then enter the Masai and she wants Ahraia to start her shadow test and she just isn’t like the others and doesn’t want to be a Sprite and lose her shadow. Little does she know what she is in store for with this test and what she will discover about losing your shadow to become a Sprite.
I thought the characters were pretty good, really the main one you know about is Ahraia and Losna. There were times I didn’t connect with Ahraia but then there were other times I felt more connected to her. There were supporting characters, of course, but you don’t really learn a lot about them but they do play a part in the story and some are more important than others and those do a good job of moving the story along. The writing was good, I wish it had more background in the beginning of who was who with the different groups and stuff, but the writing was clear and the story progressed nicely.
Book Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
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