“As lady-in-waiting to the crown princess, Thalassa d’Acton is used to hectic palace life. The bustle is a good excuse to avoid thinking of the insecurities that plague her. But when a usurper takes over the throne, Thalassa finds herself and her princess imprisoned in a lonely tower—and with all the time in the world to worry.
Outlawed Azaziah has roamed the land for years with his band of Inseparables. Playing knight errant was a God-given task, and helps him bear the knowledge that evil is spreading over his land unopposed. But now he alone knows the secret plans of the usurpers… and he isn’t enough to overturn the peril himself.
As personal and political turmoil heightens, despair floods over the hearts of Thalassa and Azaziah. What can comfort them even in the face of defeat? And can their inadequacy and loneliness possibly be the very opening the Eternal needs to change the course of their country’s destiny?”
Series: Book #16 in the multi-author series, “Cornerstone”. It does not seem to be connected to any other books, however. A stand-alone novel. Click on the books to be taken to that review: Book #1, Book #2, Book #3, Book #4, Book #5, Book #6, Book #7, Book #8, Book #9, Book #10, Book #11, and Book #12! The rest will be reviewed in the upcoming weeks.
Spiritual Content- Every chapter starts with a Scripture (or more); Many Scriptures are quoted, read, remembered, & thought over; Many Prayers & Thanking God; God is often called ‘the Eternal’ throughout this book; Talks about God, His will, & trusting Him; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; *Spoilers* Around halfway, Azaziah realizes that the Eternal cannot be defeated and is always in control; He takes comfort and confidence in this; Later, he thinks that the Eternal has equipped him to fight a battle against evil, but towards the end, realizes that it is God who will decide the outcome, not Azaziah *End of Spoilers*; *Spoilers about Thalassa’s depression and anxiety* When imprisoned, Thalassa wonders what her faith really means if she could abandon it so quickly in hard times; When Constanza asks if she’s prayed about it, Thalassa thinks that it never occurred to her to seek help for her struggles with inferiority and depression as she thought it was a flaw she shouldn’t have and shouldn’t have to bother God with; She realizes how senseless that is and starts to pray and read the Bible more, trying to hold onto the truths she reads even when the darkness tries to come back; This is a major part of the book with her recognizing the fact of the Eternal creating her and receiving His love *End of Spoilers*; Many mentions of God/the Eternal, Jesus Christ, His will, & trusting Him; Many mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & those and events in the Bible; Mentions of miracles; A few mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A mention of someone being persecuted for their religious beliefs; A mention of meditating (implied on Scripture);
*Note: Someone says that the deity ‘Ekklesia’ herself is behind his plans (Alexios thinks that this deity may have“sincere, God-seeking souls in her ranks”, but for the most part is assembled by “religious yet unconverted beings, and her upper layers were little more than a political organization”; No other information about this deity is given after this comment); Thalassa realizes that if she was perfect, she would be a god (realizing that perfection is unrealistic and unattainable); Mentions of defeating evil; A mention of the unholy hours of an early morning; A mention of Cupid; A mention of something not being a talisman.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: 2 ‘balderdash!’s are exclaimed; Being imprisoned & potentially facing a death penalty; A bit of jealousy (from Thalassa to Constanza); Azaziah believes that everyone he has loved is lost to him (either by death or the person walking away); Mentions of potential wars; Mentions of possible assassins & assassination attempts (including being mauled by a tiger); Mentions of possible executions, beheadings, & deaths for treason; Mentions of grief & a man being cruel to his daughter for being the cause of his wife’s death following childbirth; Mentions of prisons, prisoners, & being imprisoned; Mentions of injuries & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of hunting; A mention of a death (due to a duel); A mention of a rumor of a woman doing cruel acts in fits of anger; A mention of possible murderers or robbers;
*Note: Thalassa struggles with feeling inferior & due to circumstances, she also battles depression and anxiety (*Spoiler, but notes about the depression and anxiety parts* Once held in a prison with Constanza, Thalassa struggles with having nothing to live for and difficultly waking up in the morning; Her depression is also said to be her “falling into the darkness” and halfway, she reads the Bible and prays about it, which helps though she still feels that the darkness is not easily vanquished *End of Spoilers*); A man catches a moth to burn it in a candle’s flame; A mention of others slandering a princess, saying she is a “bundle of defects”.
Sexual Content- A bit of jealousy (from Thalassa to Constanza and being on the end of a smitten smile from someone); Azaziah says another man is blessed because he doesn’t know what it is to love someone and be rejected; Thalassa craves affection and longs to be the most important person to someone, such as being chosen as a man’s lifelong partner; Mentions of jealousy/envy; A mention of flirtation;
*Note: Thalassa thinks negatively about her appearance and figure a couple of times (*Spoiler* but realizes that the Eternal had “fashioned [made] her [H]imself”; Towards the end, she makes a comment of self-depreciation *End of Spoiler*).
-Thalassa,
-Azaziah
P.O.V. switches between them & Alexios (x1)
197 pages
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My personal Rating-
Whenever I have the opportunity to read a book that was written by a dear book friend, I’m always excited but also a bit nervous! Yay, I get to read their book! But what if I don’t enjoy the plot or the characters? It can put a reader in an awkward position, but I’m a firm believer that kind honesty in the best policy in many ways.
I’m happy to say that I did enjoy many elements of this story! I’ll admit that there was a lot of characters and they all had very unique names, so I did have a bit of a challenge with that at times and used the search feature on my Kindle then. Because of this and all the unfamiliar names of the fictional places and characters, the book definitely felt longer than it’s 190 pages so I did struggle throughout reading the book and it keeping my interest because of this and trying to keep everyone straight.
I was curious about Azaziah and we get hints about his past throughout the book, but once it all came to light, I got a little excited to see what would happen next. The last 30% of this book is where it really picked up for me and I got invested into the plot. I really liked the writing style and was able to visualize a lot of different parts while reading because of the descriptive writing style, which was neat.
Out of the 13 (of 16 total) books I’ve read from this series, I would say this one has the most faith content by far! I really liked how personal it became to Thalassa and how we see her try to trust God while struggling with depression over the circumstances she’s in. It was beautifully done and obviously a topic neat to the author’s heart, which she shared in the author’s note at the end of the book.
Personally, I would have loved pictures of everyone’s outfits and the items described, but I snooped on the author’s Instagram and Pinterest, which helped quite a bit with that. ;)
There’s really not a romance in this book, but the message of trusting God no matter what (including through anxiety and depression) took center stage, which I thought was carefully done with sincere encouragement. I would put this book in my top five for the series so far!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.
