Review: Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley

Eye of the Sword (The Angeleon Circle #2) by Karyn Henley
Young Adult Fantasy (clean read)
Paperback, 233 pgs.
Published March 13th, 2012 by Doubleday 
Source: Amazon Vine for Review

Where angels walk the ground and the future is told in song, does a man of low rank have a chance at love with a princess?

In Camrithia, a land of shadows and mystical secrets, Trevin lives to serve King Laetham. But his heart belongs to the princess, Melaia. When the King sends Trevin on on a dangerous quest to find the missing comains—captains in the king’s army—he must leave Melaia to the advances of a swaggering Dregmoorian prince.

Challenged to prove his worth, Trevin throws himself into his quest. Striving to prove his love, Trevin undertakes a second mission—find the harps Melaia seeks in order to restore the stairway to heaven. Through fire caves, rogue winds, and murderous threats, Trevin remains steadfastly dedicated to his quest—even when he is falsely accused of a heinous crime. As Trevin’s time runs out, he realizes he must face the shame and horror of his own past and the nightmare that has come to life. Will he have the courage to finish what he has started?

Okay, so I'm a bit of an idiot.  When I accepted this one I thought it was the first in a series or a standalone.  I was depending on an app on my phone and it was wrong, it's the second in a series.  Because of the fact it was a Christian publisher I was a bit on the fence.  I like *some* Christian fiction but only when the Christian aspect isn't obvious.  I don't want to have religion shoved in my face or be preached at.  (Sorry, that's just my opinion on the matter, lots of books considered Christian fiction are great.)  But for that reason I decided I'd just try the second book in the series and not bother buying the first and possibly wasting my money on something I didn't like.  But the book did sound good so I was hoping it might be one I'd like.  And I'm so glad I gave it a try!  This book was awesome!


Now since I didn't read the first one you'd think there would be some confusion but it wasn't really that bad.  The author didn't really reiterate what happened previously, but we see bits and pieces from Trevin's memory.  The biggest confusion was understanding the angels and the history of who and what they are.  But I guess I gathered enough information as I read it was never a big issue for me.  However, I wish I'd read the first one just because I loved this one so much!  


Books about angels are popular these days but most are urban fantasy's.  Books that take place in the here and now.  And this was a high fantasy.  It was a made up place with a whole unique angel perspective.  The world was creatively done and I totally loved the medieval feel to everything.  

Trevin was a fabulous MC.  I love male characters and it became clear straight away that Trevin had been through a lot in his life already and he had more to go through.  He discovers all sorts of things about himself and finds strength to become even more then he was originally.  He strives to be good, to do the right thing, to travel the right path and his love for Melaia is just one thing he fights for.  He has surprise after surprise and some things go right and some things go horribly wrong, but he sticks to his path and survives to reach his goals.  At least some of them... (the series isn't over yet!)

This is a fast paced fantasy.  While we get enough vivid descriptions to picture the world clearly we never get lengthy explanations that send us on a snooze fest.  I felt like the author did perfect in the pacing as there were no long journeys where we grow bored or anything.  It felt like we got the meat of the story and it came to us perfectly.   And the author had several passages that I thought were absolutely beautiful.  Her writing is truly stunning.


Now the Christian aspect- you know what?  There's nothing that tags this as Christian fiction to me.  There are subtle things and messages woven in like that we can make mistakes and be forgiven and that we should forgive others for their mistakes and I think it doesn't matter if your religious or not, that's a great message for everybody, even if your atheist.  This was also clean (no sex, no cursing).  I may not be seeing all the 'messages' or whatever that are maybe suppose to be there, but I think that's probably a good thing, it means it was woven in carefully.  Either way, this was a great read and I don't want the fact that it's a Christian author and publisher to put off you reading it.


I'll most definitely be continuing the series and will most likely work at getting my hands on the first book so I can find out the entire story in the beginning.  

I recommend this one to young adult and adult readers alike who enjoy high fantasy, reading about angels and historical type books.  While the characters are in their late teens it's a clean read and I would recommend it for middle grade up.


I give it 4/5 stars.


Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.