The Blade in Your Heart, the Dagger in Your Back
Quell Marionne is touched with dangerous magic, a magic that causes matter to rot if she lets it flare out of control. But the story doesn’t start with her; it starts with an assassination.
Thus we learn that Quell’s magic makes her targeted by a lethal group, one sworn to eradicate her kind from the earth. But matters are more complicated than that.
Quell flees to a magical academy in which she hopes to find sanctuary and a place to belong. Supposedly she’ll be safe from the assassins who’ve marked her for death. But her refuge comes with considerable cost.
On the surface, this novel bears a resemblance with the Harry Potter novels. However, Quell is considerably smarter than Harry, learning early that she has magic and that it can do strange things with or without her control. She learns to hide her feelings AND aspects of her past from almost everyone, realizing that it might get her targeted. Also, Harry is a CHOSEN one, while Quell is merely favored—fawned over, inspected and sought after simply by the allure of her family name. Being a Marionne won’t save her if others find out her awful secret.
The magical rules are convoluted and require considerable concentration on the part of the reader to make any sense. But what enthralls are Quell’s clever ways of hiding her forbidden powers, of striving to fit in, learning her lessons, negotiating a world of tangled politics for which she is wholly unprepared by her life on the run and pleasing a strict grandmother, the matriarch of the Marionne line.
We understand that Headmistress Marionne’s seeming love of Quell is strictly conditional. Quell must do as she’s told, follow the rigid guidelines laid out for her by her house and family name and step into the prescribed role that the Headmistress expects. Her grandmother blows hot and cold with her and we cringe at Quell’s desperate attempts to please this demanding woman.
The magical tale possesses a tortured romance wrapped with thorns, a rebel assassin, a duplicitous debutante with designs of her own and a terrible secret that may prove to be our heroine’s undoing. This story contains plots and counter plots and it seizes you from the opening oath the house listings in the back.
Quell’s journey is only beginning. I can only hope to join her on it.
Thus we learn that Quell’s magic makes her targeted by a lethal group, one sworn to eradicate her kind from the earth. But matters are more complicated than that.
Quell flees to a magical academy in which she hopes to find sanctuary and a place to belong. Supposedly she’ll be safe from the assassins who’ve marked her for death. But her refuge comes with considerable cost.
On the surface, this novel bears a resemblance with the Harry Potter novels. However, Quell is considerably smarter than Harry, learning early that she has magic and that it can do strange things with or without her control. She learns to hide her feelings AND aspects of her past from almost everyone, realizing that it might get her targeted. Also, Harry is a CHOSEN one, while Quell is merely favored—fawned over, inspected and sought after simply by the allure of her family name. Being a Marionne won’t save her if others find out her awful secret.
The magical rules are convoluted and require considerable concentration on the part of the reader to make any sense. But what enthralls are Quell’s clever ways of hiding her forbidden powers, of striving to fit in, learning her lessons, negotiating a world of tangled politics for which she is wholly unprepared by her life on the run and pleasing a strict grandmother, the matriarch of the Marionne line.
We understand that Headmistress Marionne’s seeming love of Quell is strictly conditional. Quell must do as she’s told, follow the rigid guidelines laid out for her by her house and family name and step into the prescribed role that the Headmistress expects. Her grandmother blows hot and cold with her and we cringe at Quell’s desperate attempts to please this demanding woman.
The magical tale possesses a tortured romance wrapped with thorns, a rebel assassin, a duplicitous debutante with designs of her own and a terrible secret that may prove to be our heroine’s undoing. This story contains plots and counter plots and it seizes you from the opening oath the house listings in the back.
Quell’s journey is only beginning. I can only hope to join her on it.