Exceptional characters and world-building, with backstory gently woven in and a pulse of tension starting on page one. I love how Karin Lowachee's writing is so simple yet powerful, with not one wasted or extraneous word, and never does the writing get in its own way. Oh, and did I mention dragons?
War between the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor has left no one unscathed. Meka's nomadic people, the Ba'Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Those who remained were forced to live under the Kattakan yoke, to serve their greed for gold alongside the dragons with whom the Ba'Suon share an empathic connection.
A decade later and under a fragile truce, Meka returns home from her exile for an ancient, necessary rite: gathering a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country. But Meka's…
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic
Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island
not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank,
Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the
Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they
are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has
taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first
heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen,
has…
Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister, Constance, and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
United by one family, hunted by another. He’s the only one who can heal her. She’s the only one who can redeem him.
He’s killed three men in the few days she’s known him. Yes, it’s self-defense. But when he tried to kill her, it wasn’t. Her peaceful mountain refuge has been invaded, her inexplicable nausea linked to his physical presence. She’s captive in his house for her “protection,” with a churning stomach, his bad attitude, and no safe way home.
All that changed the night the stars aligned.
Now he’s talking about ancient bloodlines and celestial alignments … and other things she only believes because of what she’s seen him do. He’s heading out for revenge against the family who wronged him, and he needs her help. All she has to do is ingest one homemade dissolving tablet to allow him into her mind—to train her to be just like him.
The answer would be a definite no if she had anything of her world left. If she hadn’t fallen in love with him.
