Elanraigh The Vow [NOOK Book]

A Fantastic Read for YA and Adults!

Elanraigh - The Vow

This mystical story kept me enthralled right from the beginning where we find young Thera’s spirit riding the wind rift in the body of a sea hawk.
Memteth Raiders, killers with no scruples, plan to attack her people, the Allenholme, who in turn are forced to depend on their neighbouring Ttamarini for help to win the battle. This isn’t a problem since their leader, her father Oak Heart, had made peace with them in his youth. The Ttamarini chief has remembered. They embrace when reunited, and his handsome son, Chamakin, who accompanies his father, falls in love with Thera.

The Elanraigh elemental, an energy force, the ruler of all nature, joins with Thera who was born with an even greater power that her aunt controls. And she is the Salvai, the Ultimate. Thera is to be groomed to step into her place when the time comes. And it does.
Conflicts arise when—to protect her—Thera is sent from harm’s way before the coming battle. Only Memteth killers viciously attack her party, and kill her protectors. Seeking revenge, she learns to use her powers and lessons begin one after the other until she becomes a Salvai the people have waited for.

This is a compelling book, very different it’s true, but because it’s extremely well written, the tale flows and time just fades away.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Elanraigh: The Vow Reviewed by Rebecca Ryals Russell January 201

Elanraigh: The Vow
Reviewed by Rebecca Ryals Russell
January 2013
5 Flaming Stars




Wow! By the time I was twenty percent into this story I knew I would love it.
And I did.
I have to say this is one of the best-written books I’ve read lately. The writing is so descriptive and poetic it had me in tears at several points. Read on my Kindle Fire, I highlighted huge passages I want to go back and review to see how S. A. Hunter came up with such exquisite wording. Look at this example:
“Here, far from the pearly mists of Bridal Veil Falls, the sunlight slanted through the evergreens like sheets of molten copper, illuminating the mossy trunks of the largest trees Thera had ever seen…She approached the nearest forest giant. Its base was so wide that all of the troop, finger-tip to finger-tip, could not have spanned its width. The sitka’s huge base spread to grip the earth like the paw of some mythical beast.”
The story was cool, too. 
I really enjoyed the mixture of Native cultural concepts with Mythology and Wicca and Druidism and Fantasy. S. A. Hunter obviously did her share of research in order to design such plausible cultures and rituals. I felt every bit of the love Thera felt for the forest and the elementals, the animals and plants.
But it wasn’t sappy. Thera is a genuine bad-ass teenaged character with a lot of charm and … character. I wouldn’t mind knowing her … or being her mother. She held her own in some pretty nasty battles and the antagonists were truly disgusting.
Overall I flew through this book in a matter of hours because I couldn’t stop turning the page to see what would happen next.

Hmmmm

Loved Scary Mary. Will I be impressed or disappointed?-Just Wondering

P.S. Answer with title as " Book Advice". Thanks!

(Source: I won a copy of this book!) 14-year-old Princess Thera

(Source: I won a copy of this book!)
14-year-old Princess Thera can speak with the forest mind, the spirit of the woods and animals. This is a very special gift that is becoming very rare among her people.

Thera has had a dream of ships with black sails arriving though, which means that her home (Allenholme) will soon be attacked by the Memteth – their ancient enemy.
In an attempt to raise a defence again Memtath, Allenholme decide to join with a once enemy, the Ttamarini, who are also afraid of Memtath’s wrath.

Thera has feelings for the Ttamarini man Chamak, who has similar gifts to hers, but as she is the only one with gifts, she knows she must be the next ‘Salvai’, which means she will be shut away to commune with the forest, and not allowed to marry.
Chamakin asks Thera’s father if he may court her, and her father refuses – he thinks she’s too young, even though her 15th birthday is only 2 days away, and she will officially be a woman.

Thera, her nanny, and a two swordsman go on a journey away from Allenholme, hoping to avoid the battle. On the way they come across the Memtath and their black sailed ship. Thera and Nan run while the men stay behind to fight, but once Thera is safe Nan goes back to the battle.
When Thera awakes, she returns to the battle site to find all 3 dead. She joins with a hawk and the forest mind to sink the ship in which the memtath sail.

Thera is later found by some warrior women, who look after her.
Thera then has a vision on the memtath attacking the place where her aunt the salvia lives, and the troop run to get there in time. The salvia is wounded, and Thera is saved from an attack with a Memtath man by her grey wolf.

This book had an interesting storyline, with promising ideas, but for me it was just a little too slow. I found my attention waning quite early on, and ended up speed reading for quite a lot of the book. Several times I gave up on this book and then went back to it, just because I wanted to know how it ended, but I found myself reading less and less every time I picked it up. I’m afraid I fully gave up on it at 60%
Just too slow; didn’t do it for me unfortunately.
5 out of 10.

Loved this book!

I finished this in 2 days! I cannot wait to see what will happen in the next book