Disclaimer! This was granted to me by Open Road Integrated Media through NetGalley in return for a fair and unbiased review.
Aerin is the lonely, ostracized daughter of the ruler of Damar. She has pale skin and fiery red hair amongst a people who are bronzed with dark hair. She cannot even remember who first told her the story, but she has known for as long as she can remember that her mother was a commoner witch-woman who came from the North, who ensorcelled the king into marrying her, swearing she would bear him an heir. When she bore a daughter, she died of despair. While most of the common folk and the servants love her for her gentle, generous and unspoiled manner and the fact that she has taken upon herself to rid the countryside of the small, yet fierce dragons who threaten livestock and snatch the occasional baby to eat. The higher born, especially most of her royal cousins are deeply scornful of her, calling her names, mocking her and never letting her forget her half-blood status.
The one exception is Tor, the heir to the throne, one of her cousins. Since she was young, he has been kind to her, and he has taught her to ride, to use a sword and other soldierly arts. As she comes of age, it becomes very obvious to everyone in Damar that Tor is in love with the witch-woman’s daughter. That she has managed to combine herbs to make a fire-proof ointment to help her hunt dragons or successfully trained the king’s old, injured war horse back to health is turned into sinister and negative things rather than admirable and impressive ones.
There is more discord spreading in Damar, and the common belief is that all the problems would be solved if the ancient crown, lost some generations ago, was found. Even after Aerin is nearly killed, becoming severely damaged when single-handedly killing Maur, one of the enormous, ancient dragons, the popular opinion of the court is against her. While recovering, she has dreams about a mysterious man, who claims she needs to find him, so he can aid her further in saving Damar, and when she’s at her absolute lowest, convinced everyone will be better off without her, she goes off to find him. Can Luthe, this stranger from her dreams, heal her and train her into facing her greatest fears? If she fails, it means the destruction of Damar and all the people she loves.
In late September, I started reading Robin McKinley’s most recent book, Shadows, which I didn’t even make it a third through before I had to abandon it. It was written in some made up teen speak and the characters and story was so unengaging that I just didn’t have the patience to finish it. Now, considering the literary quality of some of the books I HAVE managed to read this year, this says a lot. So when I was offered one of her classic works through Netgalley, the prequel to possibly my favourite of her booksThe Blue Sword, which I will be re-reading as soon as I can dig out my paperback (as it sadly doesn’t exist in e-book format yet), it seemed like a very good way of getting the figurative bad taste out of my mouth.
Full review here.
This is one of my favorites. I haven’t read it in years, but when I was younger (you’re right — probably was reading this around 10 years old?) I literally ruined the book from reading it too much, and had to buy a new copy. Now I really want to read it again!