Check Out Smoke Summons (Numina, #1) Engineered By Charlie N. Holmberg Distributed In Visual Format
to get ready for therd book in the series!! WOO HOOO!
/Demon Stars
update.
. . take back what I said about the author being male, . . hahaha sorry. I jumped the gun on that one before reading the authors profile,
I received this book as a First Read from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this story.
I normally am skeptical about male author's writing about female protagonist s but this author did a wonderful job of capturing true emotions and had me finishing this book rather quickly.
And the cliffhanger, . . Wow I can't wait until April when the next book in this series is released,
The beginning was a bit confusing but once everything started to fall into place, I zipped right through and couldn't wait to find out how everything was going to play out.
Fantastic job!.Kindle sale, May,. Pretty good YA fantasy, the start of a new series the second book has just been published,.stars. Final review, first posted on sitelinkFantasy Literature:
Smoke amp Summons is the start of a new YA fantasy trilogy by Charlie N.
Holmberg, with an interesting, rather dark occult concept underlying it, Demons and spirits, called numina, from the ethereal plane are able to be summoned and controlled by those who know the necessary rituals, which include painfully branding a persons back with golden script and tattooing the demons name in blood above it.
Kazen, an evil man in his sixties seriously, he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever has figured out a system to use these ancient powers for his own ambitions: he finds teens and children who have no family to protect them and who have the qualities necessary to be a vessel for a demon good health, no piercings, virginity and a cryptically described but vital quality called an “open spirit” and enslaves them.
Then he can trot out the demon at will to terrorize and injure people so theyll do what he wants, like sign over certain assets to him.
What Kazen is doing is also highly illegal, so if any of his young vessels gets caught by the police, its an immediate death sentence for them, despite their innocence.
One of Kazens slaves is ouryearold heroine, Sandis, whos been chafing under Kazens control and cruelties.
Though shes supposed to have total amnesia when Ireth, a fiery horse numina, possesses her, she has some vague recollections of events and feels a connection with Ireth.
When Kazen does something particularly horrifying, Sandis finally musters up her courage and runs away, Her family is dead, but during her last outing with Kazen she saw the name of a person sharing her unusual last name.
Sandis pins her hope on finding this Talbur Gwenwig, hoping hes a longlost relative who will protect her.
What Sandis finds instead is Rone, a twentysomething thief who has an ancient magical artifact, called an amarinth, that he can spin once everyhours, giving him protection for sixty seconds against any mortal wounds and, conveniently, healing any that hes already gotten.
When Sandis swipes the amarinth while Rone is protecting her against Kazens henchmen who are chasing her down, Rones and Sandiss fates become tied together.
Sandis also knows that Kazen is bent on summoning a far more dangerous demon, Kolosos, who might destroy their city of Dresberg.
Shes not sure how to prevent him from doing this, but she wants to try, even if it means keeping her connection to Ireth.
I thought Smoke amp Summons was an engaging novel, easy to read and get lost in, and teen readers who like dark magical fantasies with a romance subplot are likely to enjoy it.
The plot has several weaknesses, though the type that start to bother you once the excitement of reading the novel starts to wear off.
I frequently wanted to shake Sandis and Rone, who occasionally make blindingly imprudent decisions, One that Sandis makes at the very end of the novel was the final straw for me, though Holmberg offers justification for her choice that may satisfy other readers.
And once you cut through all the chasing mostly by Kazen and his goons and running around which takes up most of the story this novel feels like its mostly a long setup for the next novels in the NUMINA TRILOGY.
Dresberg and the entire country of Kolingrad are a dirty, corrupt place, one that most people except the wealthy and powerful would love to escape from, were it not that the borders are so strictly controlled.
Sandis and Rone are a fairly typical YA fiction couple, dancing around their attraction and having their relationship nearly torpedoed with misunderstandings and external pressures.
Kazen and his “grafter” henchmen are entirely villainous, without nuances to make them more sympathetic or at least understandable.
Im of the opinion that Kazen isnt the only numina summoner in Kolingrad, Perhaps that would an interesting way for the plot to develop in next books
What I appreciated most in Smoke amp
Summons were some of the secondary characters and subplots, especially those involving Rones longlost father this was a memorable episode, fraught with emotion, and a hard message about selfserving choices and his former mentor Arnae Kurtz.
Rones relationship with and devotion to his rather saintly and definitely longsuffering mother also ends up playing a key role in the plot.
Smoke amp Summons is a darker novel than I would have expected from Holmberg, though not as dark as some YA fantasies Ive run across, and Holmberg does pull her punches with the sexual content, if not with violence and death.
This novel has a killer cliffhanger at the end the one with the aforementioned hardtoswallow choice by Sandis.
Overall, its an interesting story and world, and despite some shortcomings in the plot and characterizations, Im interested in seeing what happens in the next book in this series.
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher,North, and the publicist.
Thank you! Meh.
This was a kindle first reads for January, Maybe this will appeal to a much more juvenile audience than myself
Because this is classic YA paranormal schmaltz Girl with exemplary powers even for her 'kind' can be possessed and used as a tool whether she likes it or not, girl miraculously ESCAPES and right away! meets a boy with exemplary powers of his own, they this will shock you, i know! fall in love in two days, , spend time doubting their love, , etc.
etc. etc. etc. been there done that.
And I'm okay with formulaic stuff but beyond the formula, this book is only okay, Definitely not bad, but not much more than okay, I don't regret reading it especially for free! but I won't be continuing on in the series because I just don't particularly care what happens to any of the characters, or the world they live in.
okay, maybe I'm a little interested in finding out what happens with Rone's mom but not interested enough to put up with the musings and questionable teen choices of the other characters.
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