Author: Mande Matthews
A brief synopsis; (Via Goodreads)
From the #1 Bestselling Norse Fantasy Author, comes The Light Keepers, a prequel to the ShadowLight Saga.Isolated because of what she is -- because of the power she holds inside -- Astrid longs for contact with another human being. Her well-intentioned mother locks her away from society in order to protect her from an evil that seeks to use Astrid's abilities for his own means. But the resulting loneliness drives Astrid deeper into the shadowwalk -- a power she is forbidden to use, a magic that lands her directly into the arms of the Shadow. This short prequel to the ShadowLight Saga offers a revealing glimpse into the history of the beautiful and mysterious warrior maiden known as Swan, called Astrid in this prequel. It takes place a few moons before Bonded begins and is a self-contained novelette of approximately 10,000 words.
Now, before I begin talking about this story, let me just say one thing: I am a sucker for free books. If it doesn't cost anything, has relatively good reviews and is a genre I like, I will more than likely download it. This is what happened with this prequel.
The genre is Fantasy, and the cover looked pretty kick ass (I admit, I judge books by their cover, sometimes. Usually.) so I was like; "Hey, Paige, download it. It looks cool. It has more than 3 stars. The feedback is positive. And it's free."
Most of the reviews contained the generic statements of "I couldn't put this book down!" or "I was hooked from the very beginning!"
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for me.
The beginning of this book seemed very choppy. The writing, at best, was looking simplistic. It was all "She did this. Then she did that. Accompanied by one further action here." It wasn't very exciting, the writing, and I didn't possible understand why people 'couldn't put [the book] down.'
But then I sort of realised, as I ploughed through - this book is short, by the way, only something like 80 pages, I think, if my Kindle is right, so just over an hour's read, I think - that maybe people weren't enjoying it for the writing.
Maybe they were enjoying it for the characters, for the sense of action and adventure. Which were all things I enjoyed, ironically.
Astrid is a good narrator. What makes her different to all those 'rebellious teens' is the fact that she doesn't want to be rebellious. In that sense, the book reminds me of the film Tangled, with Astrid being akin to Rapunzel. And instead of the long, life saving hair, Astrid is a mute. She doesn't talk, but oh, how she wishes she did!
Her anger and frustration at not being able to talk is adequately portrayed in this, which is why, I think, it is so easy to connect with Astrid as a person. The overbearing mother. The over protective father figure.
An act of rebellion, that is met by anger and disappointment.
We've all been there, right? Done that one thing that makes us feel ashamed, think that we're not worthy of our parents.
This prequel revolves around that act, and the repercussions from it.
The next book in the ShadowLight Series is called 'Bonded'. I have yet to buy it (though my copy of 'The Light Keepers' did come with an 8 chaptered preview of the book that I have yet to read) and despite my reservations of the writing, I think I am going to buy it.
I would recommend it, too. It just might take you a few pages to get into it.
Star Rating: 3/5
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