“Some things are dealt when broken…
Sold for the price of a pig, trained into the most expensive male escort in the peninsula, Hasheem, the Silver Sparrow of Azalea, finds himself running from his hard-earned life of privilege when a woman decides to die in his room. Forced to flee into the most hostile territory belonging to deadly desert warriors, he is captured by Djari, the dutiful daughter of a tribe leader who offers him a choice between death and a lifetime of servitude. Raised from birth as the chosen one to end the conflict, Djari drags him screaming into the blood sport of war and politics, guided by the schemes of her oracle brother who continues to withhold the most important part of his vision.
On the other side of the desert, Zahara, captured bride of Salar Muradi, Djari’s enemy and the empire’s undefeated ruler, discovers her husband’s only weakness in the form of his conflicting feelings for her. Having lived solely to see him die, Zahara must decide if she can lay down her hatred in exchange for the power to move the most powerful man in the peninsula. Meanwhile, their wayward son’s indecision on which land to fight for throws everything into chaos, and a mysterious mastermind lurks behind them all to make sure everyone dances to his tune.
A tale of humanity that unflinchingly explores the darker aspects of human nature, the complexity of interpersonal relationships, and the brutal, agonizing choices they are forced to make for love, honor, and loyalty.”
Title: Obsidian: Awakening
Series: Obsidian #1
Author: Sienna Frost
Page Count: 500
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: August 21st, 2023
| Obsidian: Awakening was an early addition to my personal SPFBO-9 list. I had this slated for the month of August as it became a buddy read with Dom’s Book Club discord server. I had been anxiously waiting to get to this one. It didn’t let me down! I will state that this was a surprisingly brutal story. I don’t feel it ever detracted from the other all story. I’ve had some reads in the past where it seemed like the author was just going for that shock value and it didn’t really seem to add much to the story itself. Not this one thankfully! The pacing was smooth. This isn’t a short novel by any means but the pages do tend to fly by fairly quickly whenever I got the chance to pick it up. There are a lot of characters and names to get used to in this one so be prepared. This may slow some readers down just to keep up with what is going on with who. But this didn’t seem to trip me up much while I was progressing through. The world building was really good in this one. There are some various regions where our story is taking place but more importantly some reach cultures within this world. In my opinion the author did a great job in teach us readers about these different cultures, their differences and their relationships with each other. The character development was also done really well. As previously mentioned there are a lot of characters to share with this one. We spend quite a bit of time in book one seeing these characters both grow and struggle. We also see some relationships grow stronger as well as some that appear to be crumbling. I always find these characters more relatable as they seem more human to me rather than the constantly strong character or the ones accidentally find ways to prevail. Overall, I found this read very enjoyable and I will be looking forward to continuing this series in the future. I’d recommend this read to those who enjoy their fantasy stories more on the darker side. As I mentioned there are a lot of brutal aspects to this one, so be ready for that! World Building 4.5/5 Pacing 4/5 Character Development 4.5/5 |
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