The gauntlet is thrown. One must die. Refusal is not an option.
Arthur the High King of Breatein has fallen captive of a longtime enemy, the Saxon warrior-princess Camilla, who lusts to avenge the death of her betrothed at Gyan’s hands and will stop at nothing, even the black arts, to achieve her goal. Because Gyan and Arthur have grown estranged, she fears that Arthur may side with Camilla and make her his new queen.
To meet Camilla’s challenge, Gyan must face all her demons—public as well as private.
For a long time now I wanted to read Mrs. Kim Iverson Headlee’ s Dragon’s Dove Chronicles, but free time is usually not what I have.
Without knowing at first that The Challenge is part of this series, I thought that it will give me an image of the author’s style. After I read it, I can only say that now I am even more eager to read her stories.
The Dragon’s Dove Chronicles series has (at least until now) 2 volumes and each of them has around 400 pages. So, one of my big curiosities was to see if Mrs. Iverson will know how to play by the rules of the short story. Yep, in my opinion she did great!
But respecting the rules is not the only thing that she did great. The story is vivid, the imagines and emotions are flowing through the reader. It is not like watching a movie, but like you are there, in the thick of it. I saw, I heard and I wanted to step in.
In only a few words, the characters, good or bad, are presented with their strengths, flaws and sentiments. All of these are shown and not told to you. The rhythm is great. Much more is promised to be found in the main books of the series.
As part of the Dragon’s Dove Chronicles, The Challenge is a great addition that brings more power and gives more depth to the series that one could consider reading the descriptions of the books. The Happily Ever After is not the ending, but a lifelong challenge.
PS: checking the previous meetings with Mrs. Iverson Headlee, it was amusing to read again her "The Challenges of a Short Story" Guest Post. Actually, all of the author's articles hosted by us were good and pleasant to read.
Changing the Legend
The Challenges of a Short Story
The Plot of a Spiritual Romance
PS: checking the previous meetings with Mrs. Iverson Headlee, it was amusing to read again her "The Challenges of a Short Story" Guest Post. Actually, all of the author's articles hosted by us were good and pleasant to read.
Changing the Legend
The Challenges of a Short Story
The Plot of a Spiritual Romance
FREE for limited time
About the author:
Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, goats, and assorted wildlife. People & creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins—the latter having been occupied as recently as the mid-20th century—seem to be sticking around for a while yet.
Kim is a Seattle native (when she used to live in the Metro DC area, she loved telling people she was from "the other Washington") and a direct descendent of twentieth-century Russian nobility. Her grandmother was a childhood friend of the doomed Grand Duchess Anastasia, and the romantic yet tragic story of how Lydia escaped Communist Russia with the aid of her American husband will most certainly one day fuel one of Kim's novels. Another novel in the queue will involve her husband's ancestor, the seventh-century proto-Viking king of the Swedish colony in Russia.
For the time being, however, Kim has plenty of work to do in creating her projected 8-book Arthurian series, The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, and other novels under her new imprint, Pendragon Cove Press.
2 comments:
Thank you for your wonderful review and for participating in the Tour. Victoria at My Family's Heart
Thank you so much for your fantastic review of THE CHALLENGE; I'm glad you enjoyed it!
All my very best wishes,
Kim Headlee
Stories make us greater.
Post a Comment