WOMS: Star of the Morning

I’ve been reading murder mystery non-stop for a little over a year now. Fantasy just wasn’t cutting it for me. It was all the same tropes, all the same plot beats; chosen one gets chosen goes on quest and saves the world.

Of course, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but for some reason…I was sick of it. Like, I love Mexican food and could eat it everyday. Almost do. But sometimes I get sick of it and I need to cleanse my palate with either sushi (though, now it’s replacement is poké) or falafel.

(Except bagels. I never get sick of bagels.)

Only I’ve been eating poké so often—that new and fresh taste that’s so different than Mexican, but so similar to what I love—now I’m getting bored with it, too.

What then do I do? I start eating Mexican again.

Hopefully by now you’ve realized I’m not solely discussing my eating habits, and that Mexican food is to fantasy fiction as poké is to murder mysteries, which should lead to the organic question: “If you’re eating Mexican food—err, reading fantasy—again, then what brought you back?”

Easy: Lynn Kurland’s Nine Kingdoms series.

How I found this gem is maybe not as simple.

They tell you to read what you want write, that it will help you learn your genre and craft. What I write, primarily, is fantasy romance. Most of the fantasy romances I know about are the contemporary Sarah J. Maas series and others like it. I do not write anything like those. So, in the attempt to see if there were any other fantasy romance books which might be similar to my own, I did what anyone else would do and searched for fantasy romance books on Goodreads.

One thing led to another, and I stumbled upon a little book called Star of the Morning.

It seemed interesting enough, so I placed a hold at my local library. Picked up about a day or two later, and started reading it instead of finishing the historical romance I had also started about a week earlier.

Within the first three chapters, I was in love. By the fifth, I bought the first three books of the series off Thriftbooks.

Not only is Lynn Kurland’s voice so similar to mine (I think), in an almost modernized archaic tone, but she has humour, she has adventure, and she has sap—so much sap—it made my little heart burst.

Star of the Morning begins as any would be fantasy novel, an unknowing character gets thrust into an unlikely situation only to find out they were chosen, destined, to help save or protect the world from an all-powerful evil seeking revenge. However, where it gets good, juicy good, is that her character-driven story is rich with these tiny moments of interaction spiced with deceptively insignificant battles and a sprinkle of deepening the world’s mythos, which all slowly build, crescendoing to an epic finish—and whoa, what a finale!

I did NOT see that plot twist coming at all. That was some crazy Holly Black stuff. This is one of those books where you keep thinking to yourself, “There’s not much book left, and I’m not sure what more could happen,” then BAM! It all happens with less than ten pages left to read. I may or may not have screamed.

Furthermore, Kurland’s worldbuilding and integral mythos was so simplistic, but so lush and rich I felt as if I could sit with these characters for weeks and still not learn enough about their history from them. Her characters felt real, and I love stories that come alive in that way.

I cannot recommend Kurland’s A Star of the Morning enough, so you’ll just have to go read it yourself to find out why I love it so much. These books are without a doubt some of my new all-time favourites, up there with Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series.

Stay tuned for my review of book two, The Mage’s Daughter.

If you want to hear me talk more about my love, possible obsession, with bagels, then follow me on Instagram. If you want to see what I might review next, head on over to Goodreads and check out my reading list!