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kitvaria_sarene's review
3.0
The sappy romance in the prologue/summary (what is it btw??) almost made me give up early on, it gets better in chapter one though and I enjoyed chapter two and three!
There is a whole annoying love triangle in there - thankfully not too big a plot part, but I had to roll my eyes quite a bit - if you follow my reviews you'll know I abhor romance in my fantasy, so it might not annoy others even half as much....
Wounds are treated extremely unrealistic.
The magic felt unclear. I have no idea at all what magic can or can't do. I would have liked to know some rules about it.
She uses rings to talk to him (kind of magic artefacts), then he finds out she doesn't need the rings, it is her having the magic. Then she tells him she can't speak to him in his mind without the rings (but does so just a few pages from when she tells him she can't. I think she might not be able to HEAR him, but not speak to him, but then it is unclearly stated). When he wears the ring she can understand languages he can understand, when they hack his finger off (with the ring on it) she can't anymore. So does or doesn't she need the rings now? This is what I mean - I'd have liked to have a bit more rules and explanations about how the magic works.
It had fluent prose and pacing, though some sentences jarred me a bit. I wanted to strangle the main character at times, but I liked him and the princess (who does not need to be saved!) anyway. I loved the twist in the last third. I like how the arc of the first book is wrapped up enough to not leave one with a big cliffhanger, but still has enough open mysteries to make people want to read on.
All in all it was a good read and I don't regret the time I spend on it!
There is a whole annoying love triangle in there - thankfully not too big a plot part, but I had to roll my eyes quite a bit - if you follow my reviews you'll know I abhor romance in my fantasy, so it might not annoy others even half as much....
Spoiler
His GF tellls him that he smells of the princess (which name he has tatooed on his breast...) and is pissed of. He then drunkenly tells the GF that SHE is his princess.She then fetches water and washes his breast and "their bodies move against each other on her pallet" while the window of the princess shines bright in the background... *sighs* I HATE love triangles! Just choose one! *grumbles* And it ends even worse... He is so in love with a princess (who hasn't spoken to him in three years!) that he tattoes her name onto his breast. He then gets to know the princess again! Woohoo - and they tell each other that they love each other. She has to marry in a week - but he knocks her up with a baby girl first (and due to magic she already knows this moments after having sex). He then goes back to his old girlfriend, right into her bed, and asks to have her as his assistent in future, as he wants to stay with her. (FOR GODS SAKE CHOOSE ONE! If you chose the princess, you obviously didn't love the other one. It is not as if it said he loved both and couldn't choose!)Wounds are treated extremely unrealistic.
Spoiler
He gets an arrow in the shoulder and is told it hit the bone, and he needs a healer within two days or get blood poisoning. He then flees for two days on horseback (poor horse who can carry TWO people for two days at a fast pace...), then they find some poeple and are attacked again - another 2 days flight on horseback through a sort of desert.... Then they get attacked again - and he is still able to fight well! They hack his finger off and he bleeds a lot (magic blade, won't stop bleeding) but he still fights on. They break his arm! He still fights on - and can hang from a rope and hold his weight and the princesses.... She does grab the rope soon too, but with arms, shoulders and fingers like that, I hardly believe you would be able to even just hold on, never the less the charring stop after dropping...The magic felt unclear. I have no idea at all what magic can or can't do. I would have liked to know some rules about it.
She uses rings to talk to him (kind of magic artefacts), then he finds out she doesn't need the rings, it is her having the magic. Then she tells him she can't speak to him in his mind without the rings (but does so just a few pages from when she tells him she can't. I think she might not be able to HEAR him, but not speak to him, but then it is unclearly stated). When he wears the ring she can understand languages he can understand, when they hack his finger off (with the ring on it) she can't anymore. So does or doesn't she need the rings now? This is what I mean - I'd have liked to have a bit more rules and explanations about how the magic works.
It had fluent prose and pacing, though some sentences jarred me a bit. I wanted to strangle the main character at times, but I liked him and the princess (who does not need to be saved!) anyway. I loved the twist in the last third. I like how the arc of the first book is wrapped up enough to not leave one with a big cliffhanger, but still has enough open mysteries to make people want to read on.
All in all it was a good read and I don't regret the time I spend on it!
reviewerlarissa's review against another edition
**Review coming soon for Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell**
jamesnotlatimer's review
5.0
Clearwater Dawn is a tightly-woven, almost claustrophobic mystery-adventure tale, focusing on the role of one pivotal minor player in major affairs. It features a lot of traditional tropes (a princess, a stable-boy, political intrigue, assassins) but is definitely a grown-up rather than YA story (in theme – I don’t want to imply it’s X- or even R-rated). Some of our readers appreciated the focus on one POV, and the nuanced worldbuilding. Others found the love story – among other elements – less believable. Character introspection often slows the pace down a bit, but after a rough start this rumbles along nicely and reaches a self-contained conclusion while leaving room for continuing adventures.
(This is from my longer review for Fantasy Faction: http://fantasy-faction.com/2017/spfbo-review-clearwater-dawn-by-scott-fitzgerald-gray)
(This is from my longer review for Fantasy Faction: http://fantasy-faction.com/2017/spfbo-review-clearwater-dawn-by-scott-fitzgerald-gray)
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