Nocturne
By Kat Ross
(Fourth Talisman, #1)
Pages:
Publication date: October 15th 2017
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Loved It
- I received this book free though Xpresso Book Tours.
Synopsis:
Nocturne, a wilderness of eternal night. Solis, a wasteland of endless day.
Nazafareen is a Breaker, a mortal who has the rare ability to shatter spell magic—although her power carries a high price. With the memories of her former self erased and nowhere else to turn, she comes to Nocturne hoping to start a new life under the triple moons of the darklands.
But when an assassin forces Nazafareen to flee to the sunlit mortal city of Delphi, she finds herself embroiled in a deeper mystery whose origins lie far in the past. Why was the continent sundered into light and dark a thousand years before? And what really happened to the elegant but ruthless creatures who nearly reduced the world to ashes? The new Oracle might know, but she’s outlawed magic and executes anyone caught practicing it. Nazafareen must hide her powers and find a way out of the city—before it’s too late.
As the net slowly tightens, something ancient and vengeful begins to stir in the arid death zone called the Kiln. A dashing daeva named Darius is pursuing Nazafareen, but so are a multitude of enemies. War is brewing again. Can she stay alive long enough to stop it?
So begins the first installment in an epic new fantasy series from the author of the Fourth Element Trilogy!
Review:
The Fourth Talisman series picks up the story of Nazafareen and Darius from the Fourth Element trilogy (See my reviews of books 1 & 2 here and book 3 here.) While it’s not necessary to have read them first, I recommend doing so because Nocturne will have a much bigger emotional impact.
Nazafareen has lost her memory and her homeland. Coming to the strange world of Nocturne, a place in perpetual twilight. Sharing this strange world is Solis, a place in perpetual sunlight. In between the two is the formidable Umbra, a place of unpredictable storms and harsh terrain.
Nazafareen is an odd duck in the community of immortal, elemental working Danai. Her relationship with Darius is strained because of his reluctance to tell her of their past together. As the saying goes, “secrets have a price.” In this book the secrets pile up and the price keeps rising.
Along side the story of Nazafareen and Darius is the story of Culach. Once the handsome prince of the Valkirins, this dashing leader has been reduced to a pitiful state after his run-in with Nazafereen. The Valkirin army was decimated and Culach returned to his mountain top home defeated, blinded and crippled. To top off this disgrace he may be loosing his mind, and his father’s attempts at vengeance aren’t going well.
All of the characters are so rich, with deep motivations, real conflicts (both internal and external) and complicated relationships. Set in a world of magic and mystery that feels lived in, but is foreign to the reader and strangely familiar at the same time, add to it the layers of secrets and intrigue all of which make Nocturne a fantastic fantasy read.
This story started out much slower than some of the other Kat Ross books, but then when it picks up steam… watch out! I couldn’t put it down for the last half of the book, and then it left off at an impossible place or at least the characters seemed to be in impossible situations. It couldn’t have left off there. Could it?
(Luckily for me I had already signed up for the ARC tour of Solis, the next book in the series, and I knew it would be coming shortly.)
Bottom Line:
BINGE WORTHY! I suggest reading the Forth Element trilogy and then picking up both Nocturne and Solis at the same time. Trust me at the end of Nocturne you won’t want to stop, you’ll NEED to read on.
Sidenote: Kat Ross is one of the awesome authors on Twitter who will respond to you. Follow her @katrossauthor .
Poor Darius. I was mumbling apologies to him throughout the draft.
— Kat Ross (@katrossauthor) January 21, 2018
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