Covenant's End - Ari Marmell

The thief Widdershins and her own "personal god," Olgun, return to their home city of Davillon after almost a year away. While Shins expects only to face the difficulty of making up with her friends, what she actually finds is far, far worse. Her nemesis, Lisette, has returned, and she is not alone. Lisette has made a dark pact with supernatural powers that have granted her abilities far greater than anything Widdershins and Olgun can match. 

Together, Widdershins and Olgun will face enemies on both sides of the law, for Lisette's schemes have given her power in both Davillon's government and its underworld. For even a slim chance, Shins must call on both old friends--some of whom haven't yet forgiven her--and new allies. 

Even with their help, Widdershins may be required to make the hardest sacrifice of her life, if she is to rid Davillon--and herself--of Lisette once and for all. 

Hardcover, 250 pages
Expected publication: February 3rd 2015 by Pyr
Widdershins Adventures #4
YA / Fantasy
For review

My thoughts:

The end, that is always sad. But a good series has to end sometime. And better it end good, then go on and on...

Widdershin is back in the city she left. Old friends are happy, and angry to see her. Old enemies want her dead. Well Lisette wants her dead, and Lisette is such a B.

The city is in trouble in this one. Monsters outside, thieves killing and robbing inside. The noble Houses are fighting. The police are patrolling and everyone is on edge. Not to mention she is on their bad list.

Widdershins kicks ass as always, but she is not indestructible and she does get hurt too. She has bad enemies, and not even Olgun can help her. Awww Olgun, I think I like him most of all. Our favorite God who talks to her as she is his only follower and if she dies, then no one will remember him. Olgun never says anything, but it's not needed, she talks to him and it's like I hear him too.

Conclusion:

A book with a bang to end this series. Though...I want more! Yes it ended, it ended well. Everything fixed but but, I'd like more! Like what is she up to after 10 years? No good, I presume, or maybe all good. See I am curious :) I do want more.

cover

Good

Review: Lost Covenant - Ari Marmell

This third YA novel starring the young thief Widdershins combines the angst and vulnerability of any teenage girl with the high action of the best fantasy adventures.

It’s been six months since Widdershins and her own “personal god” Olgun fled the city of Davillon. During their travels, Widdershins unwittingly discovers that a noble house is preparing to move against the last surviving bastion of the Delacroix family.

Determined to help the distant relatives of her deceased adopted father, Alexandre Delacroix, she travels to a small town at the edge of the nation. There, she works at unraveling a plot involving this rival house and a local criminal organization, all while under intense suspicion from the very people she’s trying to rescue.

Along the way she’ll have to deal with a traitor inside the Delacroix family, a mad alchemist, and an infatuated young nobleman who won’t take no for an answer.

My thoughts:

This ia YA, light and dark at the same time. She never has it easy and people always die in this series.

Yes poor Widdershins, she can't seem to be able to just be happy and do what she want. She is also very very angry and on the run. We do get glimpses if Davillion and the life she left behind. Something is brewing there and will set the game plan for book 4. But that is that book and this is this book (still ohhh exciting stuff!)

The book takes place in a smaller city where she at once comes across something fishy.  Loyal as she is she sets out to investiage. The local thieves, nobles, yes she always finds the truth and she always gets in trouble.

Widdershins is a great kick-ass YA heroine. The pace is fast, there is fighting, running and evil things afoot.

Conclusion:

I look forward to reading more. Maybe I will even get to see her happy

Would I read more?

yes

Cover

I like it

Hardcover, 277 pages
Expected publication: December 3rd 2013 by Pyr
Widdershins Adventures #3
Fantasy
For review

Review: False Covenant - Ari Marmell

False Covenant

A creature of the other world, an unnatural entity bent on chaos and carnage, has come to stalk the nighttime streets of the Galicien city of Davillon. There’s never a good time for murder and panic, but for a community already in the midst of its own inner turmoil, this couldn’t possibly have come at a worse one.

Not for Davillon, and not for a young thief who calls herself Widdershins.

It’s been over half a year since the brutal murder of Archbishop Wil­liam de Laurent during his pilgrimage to Davillon. And in all that time, Widdershins has truly tried her best. She has tried to take care of Genevieve’s tavern and tried to make a semihonest living in a city slowly stagnating under the weight of an angry and disapproving Church. She has tried to keep out of trouble, away from the attentions of the Davillon Guard and above the secrets and schemes of the city’s new bishop.

But she’s in way over her head, with no idea which way to turn. The Guard doesn’t trust her. The Church doesn’t trust her. Her own Thieves’ Guild doesn’t trust her.

Too bad for everyone, then, that she and her personal god, Olgun, may be their only real weapon against a new evil like nothing the city has ever seen.

My thoughts:

First I have to say, evil author alert (in a good way of course!). This time I stopped reading and shouted no!!! (and by now my poor bf is used to me going crazy over a book). So he "listened" while I rambled on and cursed the author and then hurried and finished the rest of the book. I think Marmell might just take the first place for biggest shock in a book this year. *still in shock*. Well done there.

As for the book, I do like Widdershins and her constant companion Olgun, and I am so curious about him. I do want to know more about this Northern God that no one knows about anymore.  And Widdershins is kick-ass and cool. A great thief, not so great at keeping a tavern though. And a knack for getting into trouble, with everyone! This time with the church, among others as things are not good in Davillion at the moment.

There is action, adventure and even a hint of romance, a tiny hint but hey I do not need much and I like Julian who is everything she should stay away from, a Guard. But there is something there and he is also someone she can trust. And of course I like him, he is also a great side character to just have around. Poor Widdershins needs some good people around her.

Now I starting to feel at a loss for words again. Great book, and it sure made me want more. I need more! More please with sugar on top. Like now.

Final thoughts: 

Recommended series that will keep you on the edge of your seats. Widdershins is my kind of heroine. Go forth and read.

Cover:

Cool

Series: Widdershins Adventures #2
Genre: YA / fantasy
Pages: 281
Published: June 26th 2012 by PYR
Source: For review

Review: Thief's Covenant - Ari Marmell

Once she was Adrienne Satti. An orphan of Davillon, she had somehow escaped destitution and climbed to the ranks of the city’s aristocracy in a rags-to-riches story straight from an ancient fairy tale. Until one horrid night, when a conspiracy of forces—human and other—stole it all away in a flurry of blood and murder. 


Today she is Widdershins, a thief making her way through Davillon’s underbelly with a sharp blade, a sharper wit, and the mystical aid of Olgun, a foreign god with no other worshippers but Widdershins herself. It’s not a great life, certainly nothing compared to the one she once had, but it’s hers. 


But now, in the midst of Davillon’s political turmoil, an array of hands are once again rising up against her, prepared to tear down all that she’s built. The City Guard wants her in prison. Members of her own Guild want her dead. And something horrid, something dark, something ancient is reaching out for her, a past that refuses to let her go. Widdershins and Olgun are going to find answers, and justice, for what happened to her—but only if those who almost destroyed her in those years gone by don’t finish the job first.

Series: Widdershins #1, Genre: Fantasy/ YA, Pages: 240, Published: Feb 21, 2012, Publisher: PYR, Source: For review

My thoughts:

I have read other books by Marmell, and even though this one is YA it's still bloody, but not that violent. How to explain, people die, a lot, but it's not shown as it would be in an adult book. Still, poor Widdershins.

At first I was not sure if I would like how it jumped in time, but it worked perfectly. Because each flashback showed me something new. First we got Widdershins as she is now, a young thief with few friends. Then there is poor Adrienne, alone on the streets, a pick-pocket among others. Then there is Adrienne, a young woman of means (and it sure made me wonder how she got there, but I found out.) Things that happened two years ago made Adrienne stop being Adrienne, and Widdershins was born. I liked her, she was tough and she has the best sidekick. A God who she can hear, but that the reader can't hear. But I could still see him in my mind and he was too funny.

The story is about a lot of people hunting Widdershins, for different reasons. But it is all connected, even if I will not say how and why. The story worked so well and there was even a surprise gasp from me, oh I loved that surprise. Bravo. But I am being  tease now since I will not tell you what that was.

Being the girl I am I am hoping for a romance to blossom, how it would work I do not know, but it is there ;) I am looking forward to book 2 to see if anything happens.

Conclusion:

The ever so cool Widdershins made this my fav Marmell book to date. I liked that the book was dark, yet light and it did not end with a cliffie either which is always appreciated. But still I do want to know what happens next, because things are far from over. I would recommend this one to fantasy lovers, young and old.

Cover:

I really like it.

Review: The Warlord's Legacy - Ari Marmell

Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400
Published: May 2011 Gollancz

The war is over; Audriss the Serpent and his plans for tyranny have been put to an end. But for a man like Corvis Rebaine - whose past is full of horror and atrocities - there is no rest; especially not when word begins to spread that he's going around killing key members of the ruling aristocracy and the merchant Guilds... because it's not actually Corvis doing it. If he's going to clear his name, and find out who's using it for their own nefarious purposes, then he will have to enter the murky world of politics and assassination once again. And he's not going to be very pleased about it.

My thoughts:

This book takes places 6 years after the events in Conqueror's Shadow, and sure you can read it as a stand alone novel. But if you really want to get to the bottom of things then you should read CS first.

I do like Corvis, why? Well I do not know because I honestly should not. Over 20 years ago he brought death and destruction and killed..and then killed some more. He was one crazy warlord. Then he came back and killed some more but the point is that he always had an idea behind it. He wanted to make the country better since now everyone is suffering beneath the guilds and the nobles. Sure he may just have gone about it the wrong way *whistles*, but I like a good anti-hero.

In this book someone is massacring nobles and the Guild and it seems to be Corvis. Though it is not so he has to clear his name, or take the easy way and just kill the person behind it all. I was also saddened to see that his wife had taken the kids and left him because she felt he would not change. Awww poor Corvis. He could not find a way to bring his nice protective personality and the killing machine to work together. Such a shame because I liked Cerris as he called himself.

So he is not a good person, but he tries to be. And those that think they are good are not good either, in the end it does not matter. Nothing is black and white in this book. People do what they think is the best and it does not always work out.

Conclusion.

A bit more gritty fantasy where you will like the bad guys and dislike the good guys. And considering how it ended there must be more to come. It was a nice solid ending, but then there was that promise of more that may happen. 

And I promise you that you will like Corvis, the best of bad guys.

Rating:

Good

Cover:

Ok

Review: The Conqueror's Shadow - Ari Marmell

Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 480
Published: December 2010 Gollancz

They called him the Terror of the East. Hidden beneath a suit of enchanted black armor and wielding a demon-forged axe, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, compelled by a desire to see the land governed with some degree of honesty. Yet just when victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered, then vanished, taking a single hostage, a young noblewoman named Tyannon, to guarantee his escape.

Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married and raising their children. Rebaine has given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of the upstart warlord Audriss can stir the retired warrior to action, until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss's goons.

Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebaine once more dons the armor of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda . . . well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement.

But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: Does he dare to reawaken the part of him that gloried in cruelty, blood, and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?
 

Plot:

It says what it should say

My thoughts:

I liked it, a lot. There was something light over the whole book, even in the darkness. Corvis is not someone you should like, but how could I not like him. At the beginning of the book he does his name credit, he is not a nice person, quite the opposite. The he disappears and marries, haves children, only to see the world break again. And again he shows that he truly is The Terror of The East. But sometimes you just have to love the evil guy, because at least this time he wants to protect his wife and children. Marmell sure does a great job creating this character you just fall for.

There is humour and a streak of light through out the book. Much comes from Khanda, his "pet" demon. That demon has a tongue on him and says what he wants. To my horror I like him too, even when he is feasting on souls. There is also his once trusted friends, great sidekicks there.

The book does what fantasy should do. It sweeps you into a new world and make you feel right at home there. A kingdom that can not stand together, the guilds wants one thing, the nobles another thing, and a new enemy that wants to have it all. There are battles, death, destruction, and one good plot that had me guessing.

But the thing I did like the best was how much I liked these characters, and how I wanted to read more about them. The book ends where it ends. A nice conclusion and that is it. But it leaves an opening and there will be another book, and I want that book.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

Of course I am recommending this book, I could not put it down, and I did not want to put it down either. It was fun, it was light, it was dark, it was a great ride. I have to give it a 4 and I hope he keeps up the good work.

So go read it, and I promise you will like Corvis too.

Reason for reading:

I love fantasy

Cover:

Not what I like, but it does say fantasy