Today I'm reviewing two short stories by the wonderful Sarah Holman!
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| Cover retrieved from Goodreads page |
My Goodreads review can be found here.
My Amazon review can be found here.
As per usual, anything that does not directly relate to the topic at hand will be written in this color.
This short story is unique in that it is the start of two series, the main Tales of Taelis series and the Tales of Taelis Short Story series. So this story has a bigger need to hit all of the right notes so that it can be an interesting story in its own right but also keep the reader interested enough to continue the series/start the main series.
One of the first things I noticed about this series is that the story has a big focus on Christianity. Now, this is not a problem as I knew Ms. Holman is a Christian (and I am one also, in case the title of this blog wasn't clear lol) and I had read two of her books in her Destiny Trilogy where Christianity was a topic in the series. My surprise came from how it happened in fantasy.
I want to be clear: having Christianity in fantasy books are not a problem, especially if they are done well. I will say, the more subtle that you can be the better off the message will be received. Fantasy is not a genre that easily mixes with religious messages, but it can be done.
So back to my original point: the big focus on Christianity in this story was surprising, as the Destiny Trilogy did not focus on religion as much, but it was not as clunky or jarring as some of the stories I've read. Even though it was surprising, it matched the tone of the rest of the story well and complemented the story arc.
If you've been following my Goodreads, you'll know that I love how Ms. Holman writes her characters. All of her characters have depth and as someone who loves more character-focused stories, this one is nice because it had the chance to focus simply on plot, but instead the characters were given just as much thought and gives the story a more complete feeling; this is especially important as it is setting up two series.
This short story is a good beginning for the two series. If you are looking for a short story that has religious tones but is also has fantasy and good characters for the story's size, I would suggest that this story is one you should consider.
My Goodreads review can be found here.
My Amazon review can be found here.
As per usual, anything that does not directly relate to the topic at hand will be written in this color.
I really enjoyed this retelling, but my main enjoyment came from how the focus was on the relationship between Alex and Ella so that the reader has more background to the relationship, but then in turn also gives more quality to the Cinderella part.
Because of how this story is set up, the reader gets to see a deeper part of how the story of Cinderella could go if given good planning and care. The friendship makes the stakes higher during the "Cinderella" part, but also makes the reader care beyond the fairy tale aspect.
The relationship of Alex and Ella is beyond 10/10. Excuse me while I gush about it. In Christian books, especially Indie, there is a difficulty in keeping the romance clean but also realistic and engaging to the reader. This story had both and it is glorious. I haven't ever had an Indie story that was able to make me actually feel the relationship in a natural way. Let me explain.
In book relationships, you have the physical side (looking at you, A Court of Thorns and Roses) and then you also have the emotional side. Though it is up to the writer (and sometimes genre) to determine how much focus there is on each, any good book relationship will have both present and allow the reader to feel the relationship in a natural way that everyone can recognize. A good author will be able to take each of these aspects and highlight them when the story calls for it so that the reader can connect to the story in a better way.
This story definitely has this and it made reading the story so much more enjoyable. The setting of the ocean makes the scenes with their relationship 100/10 and it's adorable. If I could do my romance scenes even half as well as Ms. Holman, I would be so happy.
If you're looking for a short story that is more on the sweet side and less focused on harder/theological topics, I highly recommend this one.
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