Reviews

The Jewels of Elvish by Nancy Varian Berberick

winterscape's review

3.0

While certainly not a page-turner, The Jewels of Elvish is still an interesting and well imagined fantasy novel that should appeal to lovers of traditional fantasy.

Pros:
- Fun fantasy locations and medieval settings. It has a real feel of a medieval world and kept many authentic aspects of life back then. Such as the

Spoiler

numerous miscarriages that mothers would face and politically arranged marriages.

- The word "Mannish". I very much like it paired with "Elvish".

- The side characters, like Dail, are pretty enjoyable and adventurous.

- Satisfying story that resolves all loose ends.

Cons:
- Very slow paced in parts and it didn't hold my attention very well.

-

Spoiler

Nikia

is a bit of a dunderhead who doesn't do much. They are very weak of body and mind and stay that way for the most part. This character did not grow as much as I would have liked them to over the course of the novel.

- I think that the characters made too many leaps with piecing together some puzzles. I don't think they had enough pieces to realize that there was a puzzle, let alone figure it out.

Still, this was not a bad book to read. It was an enjoyable fantasy and a lover of this genre with some time to kill wouldn't be remiss to check this one out.

I give it three stars and an "I liked it".