Hello everyone!
Pretty much just before my vacation starts - and let me tell you I'm excited for THAT - I've finished reading another one of those books that's just a must-have even though you would think that there's so many floating around that it's just another.
But no.
It isn't just another.
I was super surprised when Hayley Reese Chow reached out to me to review the continuation of her Odriel's Heirs saga, and obviously I said yes. You don't say no when an opportunity like that comes knocking.
I do owe the author a small apology though since it took me a bit to get to the sequel, but it's here now, and around all the packing and insanity happening all around, let's have a look at just what makes Idriel's Children such a good book, shall we? It's time to dive into some fantasy mayhem, some low-key kind of dangerous stuff, and say hi to a sarcastic cat.
Links to the authors' previous works, including Odriel's Heirs and Burning Shadows will be found at the bottom of the page, as always!
We begin our story with Aza, a Shadow Heir, and in all honestly I thought we suddenly made a jump into the past for a flashback before I figured out this WAS our storyline, just happening decades after the first book.
As I hadn't been expecting a flash-forward and the time jump, this took me completely by surprise, but I rolled with it as soon as Klaus made an appearance.
See, if you remember, Klaus and Kaia saved the world in the first book, destroying Idriel, the bad guy and evil godly counterpart to Odriel, the deity who leads the deceased from one world to the next. Since then, they've managed to control the situation on the western border AND build the school of their dreams where youngsters train before returning to their homes, in the hopes that if the Heirs have need of an army in the future, this will help.
They also had time for two kids, Zephyr and Aza - Zephyr being the future Dragon Heir and Aza the one with shadows.
Both of them, but especially Aza have been riding with their parents on missions and assignments for at least three or four years now, and I think their ages are given as 18 for the boy and 16 for the girl, respectively.
Anyway, Aza's the one we focus on, because she's our POV protagonist who keeps doing what she thinks is the best thing despite the fact her father (with decades of experience) keeps telling her otherwise, but she's fine! She has the shadows! She gets the job done, eventually! It's all good, pops, stop worrying, she knows what she's doing.
Turns out, she doesn't, but we'll get to that in a second.
A familiar face turns up on Catalede's doorstep, aka the son of the guy Kaia burned years back, who they STILL don't know is a necromancer, but hey, gotta have suspense! He deposits a battered Shadmundar at the Heirs' feet and explains that the western border is threatened, by a heck of a lot, so the Heirs have no choice but to respond, since the dude is twisting things to look like the Heirs are the bad guys AND he wants to restore the monarchy. With instructions for their kids to keep to the school, they gather their dangerous, dragon-inspired allies, and ride off.
But of course it isn't as easy as THAT because another set of allies, the Maldibor, whose men were cursed by a female magus centuries ago, show up with an additional plea for help. Makeo, especially, is here specifically for Aza, but seeing as she does her best to ignore that, we'll ignore it for now too.
Anyway, the forest in which the magi once imprisoned all the bad, man-killing stuff, is sort of bursting at the seams and it looks like the spell is cracking. With the crochety Everard nowhere to be seen - even Shadmundar has no clue where he is - Aza and Zephyr make the decision to take a group of their students to go help.
Naturally, however, Aza has other plans.
You learn pretty soon in the book that she took all the lessons her parents taught her and spun them on her head, because for some reason she missed the most vital one of all: which is that the Heirs are always strongest when they work in union with other Heirs, not alone, like she's convinced she has to do things (and that she does them better while alone because, sniff, her older brother is SO full of himself, can't you see?). She takes off in the night to explore whispers she keeps hearing from the Shadow Plane, which is the area souls have to cross from one world to the other, and which she can walk with some difficulty as it depletes her magical reserves.
Now, Klaus, aka daddy dearest, has forbidden her from doing so and promised they would be visiting Everard's brother, Dorinar, once the situation in the land was back under control, but Aza believes she needs to go NOW, so she abandons her brother and takes off with Makeo, Shadmundar, and Witt, a young man Zephyr sends after her just so she has some backup (if you think she's grateful for it, think again).
They head for the nearest town where they might be able to hire a boat to take them to Dorinar, and HOPEFULLY even beat Zephyr to his destination, but of course they get attacked by the Lost even before they reach town, then again after they already cash in some favours (and Everard's dangerous influence) and sail down the river on the boat.
It's not all doom and gloom though since Makeo is able to celebrate the dark moon night, which is the one night in three weeks when his shaggy, doggy form changes back to fully human for 24 hours, so Aza gets to see just who he's grown up into because she's been avoiding him like the plague since their accidental encounter with Mogens, he of the Heir-killing fame and dead body trolling around, when they were young, leaving scars on both of them.
Good thing she does since they get shipwrecked, but finally make it to Dorinar, where we get to see just who it was that cursed the Maldibor - Ivanora, another magi sister, who delivers the news that Aza's parents are dead.
This leads Aza and her friends to diverge further from their path as they visit a monastery in the cliff-side where, according to Dorinar's accounts, a group of people dwell who can walk the Shadow Plane, but aren't Shadow Heirs themselves, and actually they seem to worship an ancient Shadow Heir who got caught in the Shadow Plane while trapping a monster within, called the Dolobra.
Aza is convinced this is going to help her in the long run, so they make camp at said monastery where they can FINALLY rest without getting attacked by these wicked new Lost every five minutes (normally, the Lost are clumsy and not really that overwhelming except in numbers, but these new guys seem to have purpose, which is to kill what's in their path and not stop; since the only way to kill them is by beheading or with fire, you can see why Zephyr might be needed here). Aza makes rapid progress, taking her natural talents and spinning them further, eventually able to hear through the Shadow Plane and traverse it, though it brings her nothing but grief as she can hear Zephyr and their allies in trouble, among other things.
She also learns that the Dolobra WAS actually imprisoned in the Shadow Plane - and in the forest of the Maldibor. His physical body is there, while his spirit, or spiritual one, is in the Shadow Plane. Aza rescues the Shadow Heir who secured the Dolobra in its prison, only to get the shock of her life when, SURPRISE! it was all a trick.
Mogens and the human necromancer had been cat-calling her through the Shadow Plane, and she was convinced it was actually something to follow, but they just needed her to free the Dolobra - that Shadow Heir who went mad and who got caught with it? He actually SACRIFICED himself so that the Dolobra would stay locked away.
But now she's set the thing free, and not only is it hunting through the Shadow Plane, it's rampaging through the forest and gunning for her brother.
Managing NOT to get killed, and with her friends returning to her after she brutally sent them away because, you know, Aza knows best and can do stuff on her own, and no one will get hurt that way in her infinite wisdom, it's a race against the clock to reach the forest and help Zephyr out with the situation she herself created. Unfortunately, this is also where we say goodbye to Witt, as he disobeys Aza's order to leave in the first place and ends up dying when Mogens sacks the monastery, but Aza's powers are now so mixed with the Shadow Plane that she can see the spirits walking if she allows herself to, which is how she's convinced he's still about.
But no, sadly, he's dead, and that broke my heart. Seriously!
In the forest, Zephyr and the Maldibor have managed to get the village out of the direct hitting line, but now the Dolobra is on the loose so they need to kill it, and Aza finally gets that she'll need some help, so she sets her brother on it in reality while she heads to the Shadow Plane to kill the thing there, as it's the only way for the beast to be defeated for good.
They succeed - barely - and she gets the icing on the cake when she gets rid of Mogens, FOR GOOD this time, though the true danger is yet to come as Ivanora reveals herself to be working with Conrad, since she hates all humans because, spoiled little girl that she is, when she was spurned by the guy who eventually got cursed as the first Maldibor, she forgot to decide she hated them all. Now she's the one who frees all the man-killers from the forest and almost kills Makeo, but just when things look bleakest there's a ripple in the shadows as another Shadow Heir joins the fight - and the legendary Dragon Heir unleashes her flames because, scuse me everybody, but WHO DARES THREATEN HER CHILDREN AND LIVE?!?
That's right, Kaia and Klaus are alive and well, and incredibly happy to see their kids alive, but even though THEY are happy, Ivanora and Conrad have other plans. See, they'll be resurrecting Idriel and using the Dolobra's body to do it.
And here you thought it would have a happy ending. I think we'll have to wait for the third book before we get one!
Fantastical, whimsical, a little bit egotistical depending on which character you look at, Idriel's Children is a brilliant sequel to Odriel's Heirs, in my opinion. If you remember, one of the things I was a bit on the fence about in the first book was that it had SO MUCH STUFF going on, all the time. Here, it was pared down to just the one main plot with Aza and her journey, and narrowed to three major locations with action happening there before we moved along, and we got snippets from the rest through the Shadow Plane and with Aza's help.
I could see the Ivanora twist coming from a mile away given that the first time we meet her she's insufferable to a T, but it'll be interesting to see just HOW they'll all band together to stop her. I think Everard's going to have to come out of whatever hole he's hiding in to get his sister back in line, eventually, but we'll see!
The prospect of Idriel returning from the dead is a dreadful one, he was a problem even for Kaia and Klaus together, who by all accounts are the stronger of the Heirs as their children still have a lot to learn, so having him come BACK is going to be a blow to everybody, if you ask me. I wonder how Ivanora's going to do it - time to wait for the third book then!
As far as characters go, I was really happy to see Shadmundar again (though I still think his sarcasm could have been more all over the place, as there's never enough of this cat, let me tell you), a bit sad there was no Everard, but content to get used to this new set of characters.
And actually, it might have been interesting to have a dual POV, with both Aza and Zephyr. Obviously, as the first book covered the Dragon Heir so well, it was natural this second one would focus on the Shadow Heir, but at the same time, Zephyr feels like a missed opportunity. He comes across as a very happy-go-lucky, slightly flighty, all-in kind of guy who has a deep sense of responsibility and honour within him, and that would have been really great to explore in my opinion. Still, we got to see SOME of him, so there's that.
Makeo of the Maldibor was a good addition in the sense that he had a good head on his shoulders and could see what the deal was with Aza when she couldn't - aka she almost got SO addicted to the Shadow Plane she died, but what else is new in these fantasy books? - and also, he was cute with his love for the girl. I was happy they got together at the end of the book, because really, we deserve SOME happy ending here!
Now we come to Aza, and I'm beginning to suspect it's just me who has an issue with female heroines in books nowadays. But I feel like her ending was a bit more unresolved. Would her parents not, I don't know, hound her about the mistakes she'd made? Or, even more importantly, expand on the line 'Nobody expects you to do it all alone'? I feel like Klaus in particular would have noted the fact that his daughter has managed to miss the most important lesson of all his teachings, so that conclusion feels a bit too rushed for me, because I don't think either Kaia or Klaus could have been just calmly happy about how everything turned out, especially with Ivanora and the man-killers now on the loose.
And all in all, she was not the most endearing person for three quarters of the book. I suppose I can see the point in that she grows through the story and ends up learning her lesson through mistakes, but by the end I still don't really feel like she got it - in fact, she's still got a huge hole in her logic, in my opinion.
BUT don't let that fool you. I absolutely loved this book. Sure I had some tiffs with the main character but that's beside the point when the STORY itself was so well-developed. We're uncovering more about the history, the land, and the people within now, and I love it.
Now I'm hoping the third book will give us some answers on the elusive Time Heirs, because the one in Odriel's Heirs got shanked pretty early on, and in this book we only hear there's a girl destined to be the next one since her father's dead, but we never actually see her, which is another departure from the way the original story was handled, in that the Heirs do NOT actually walk together on this path.
I'm eager to see how it all unfolds though! And gosh darn it but Idriel best believe he's getting his butt kicked right back where he's coming from.
I'll accept nothing less!
So if you ever feel the need for some good, entertaining and engaging fantasy story, pick up Ms Chow's books! I highly recommend them, because her writing style will definitely suck you in, and then some. Also, the covers are GORGEOUS - and I did not in fact do a little victory dance OR cry for joy when Kaia and Klaus exploded into the forest fight. I didn't!
Okay fine, I did.
Until next time!
xx
*image not mine
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