THE TIDES OF BÁRA by Jeffe Kennedy is book three in the
lovely Sorcerous Moons fantasy series. Princess
Oria is of the royal house of Bára. She's grown up
isolated, buffeted by her inability to achieve true
calm in the midst of flowing and disruptive energies when
surrounded by others. She is too restless to meditate and
too fragile to even be with her family very much, much less
anyone else. She is sequestered in a tower with her
familiar, a derkesthai or little dragonette. Until the
Barbaric Destrye attack and her people's lives depend on her.
How Oria can handle the barbarian leader, Lonen when she can
barely handle her own power? Kennedy
does a great job of world-building here.
Lonen is a prince of Destrye whose father the king
is killed when Destrye fights back against the evil Bárans
who are stealing the Destryans' water and leaving Destrye
corpses behind in Dru. The Bárans have been using magic to
create golems, the Tron, to capture water in order to feed
the Bárans' insatiable desire for the wealth and power of
water in their desert kingdom. Lonen takes the reins of
leadership (he really does make a great hero), and Lonen
and Oria contract a marriage of convenience in order to
forge a peace between their kingdoms.
In book three Oria and Lonen must flee Bára after Oria's
secrets are exposed before the temple rulers. But being
outside Báran's walls may be a slow death sentence for
Oria. As Orian and Lonen fight to stay alive on their
flight through the desert to Dru, Lonen's home, they have
to rely heavily on each other despite Oria wanting to
remain aloof. The trials they endure do a great job of
bringing them closer, and this book definitely has the slow-
build epic-fantasy feel as they travel.
I like both Oria and Lonen. Oria has been kept
untutored because of her supposed incompetence, and I love
seeing her grow in knowledge and confidence as the series
progresses. I don't like that she turns around and does
the same thing to Lonen, trying to keep him in the dark.
But I can forgive her for her naïve ways. I adore how
Lonen is trying so hard to provide Oria with what she needs to
grow and succeed, even finding ways around Oria's inability
to be touched by human hands. The growing trust and love
between Oria and Lonen is touching.
I expect that the next release will be the last in the
series, so I'm looking forward to Oria and Lonen figuring
out how to safely make love, and also anticipating Oria
conquering the hearts of the Destrye. I especially can't
wait to see the evil Báran nobility get their comeuppance.
This is a very diverting fantasy series, and
Kennedy's THE TIDES OF BÁRA showcases our hero and
heroine's epic quest through inhospitable lands against
impossible odds. Come on, book four!
Book Three in the adult fantasy romance series, Sorcerous
Moons. The novel, The Tides of Bára, is a paranormal kindle
book of magic and sorcery - and a war culminating in a
marriage of convenience between enemy kingdoms.