Review: MARRIED TO THE WIND: WISEWOMAN’S DAUGHTER by Samantha Holloway
Married to the Wind: Wisewoman’s Daughter by Samantha Holloway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blurb:
Everything she thought she knew was wrong.
Annissa of Yorra knew she was the Wisewoman’s daughter. She knew she was to be married in just a few short months. She knew her tiny village near the Wall was unimportant. She knew her country was safe, the sacred homeland of the First Lady’s Chosen People. And she knew her life would be unremarkable, though such quiet left her restless.
She didn’t know destiny had so much more in store for her.
When she rescues a boy who falls from the sky the same moment an impossible evil returns from Over the Wall, everything changes. Soon, she must make a choice–safety, or the truth?
This was a very interesting read, and I don’t think I’ve ever read a first sentence that was just as captivating as the one that begins MARRIED TO THE WIND: WISEWOMAN’S DAUGHTER. It pulled me in straight away, and I really liked Holloway’s almost matter-of-fact tone with it.
I also loved the concept and premise of this book… and I can’t really say more than that, without giving spoilers!
The characters were all very well written and not at all flat, although I found it a little hard to separate them at the beginning, given just how many were introduced in the opening pages… but by the time I was a good way into the book, I could easily distinguish between each character and it wasn’t a problem at all.
What really made an impression on me with this book was how the author blends together a number of subgenres to create something new. I don’t really read a lot of epic fantasy–mainly because I prefer there to be aspects of realism–but I really liked Holloway’s writing style. It kept me engaged, and I was able to imagine many of the scenes, and whilst reading, a lot of the time, I forgot that it was classed as ‘epic fantasy’. It seemed ‘more real’ than that… if that makes sense?
At times, the writing seemed a bit ‘wordy’, with a lot of very long paragraphs (this is another thing that usually stops me from reading epic fantasy…) but the rhythm was varied by a few single-sentence paragraphs which really helped to renew my interest, and keep me reading.
I enjoyed the love story in it more than I initially expected to as well, given that I didn’t right away identify with the main character, and Annissa herself didn’t seem to like him as much as she should have, or was expected to. But this gave the plot a very realistic tone.
