“Two kidnapped sisters and a secret to ruin a kingdom.
As the race to find the rest of the written prophecy continues, Asta, servant and sister to the Norvege queen, holds a grim secret.
When a Lanarian guard secretly arrives to infiltrate the castle, Asta must make a betray her wounded sister, or betray the countries at risk of crumbling. Abused and broken by her sister's rule, it should be an easy decision.
But yet another secret ruins the reality Asta once the man commanding the Lanarian guard to capture the Norvege queen...is their father. She is offered freedom and refuge-possibly at the cost of her sister's life. Will she accept the new world offered to her, or will loyalty to her sister be her undoing?”
Series: Book #4 in the “Legends of Lanaria”. Review of Book #1, Here! Book #2 Here!, and Book #3 Here!
Spiritual Content- Three Scriptures at the beginning (Ephesians 4:8 and 11, Micah 7:7, & Isaiah 43:2); Scriptures are mentioned & remembered; This book is loosely inspired by the Biblical story of Joseph; Prayers (both Asta and Nicolas), Thanking God, & Crossing one’s self (Nicolas); Witnessing; Talks about God, following Him, & forgiveness; 'H's are capital when referring to God; At one point, it seems as if God speaks through Asta to her sister; Asta prays for the Lord to forgive her for lying to her sister (she doesn’t think the Lord would approve even though it’s being obedient to her mother); Asta follows God despite being in a pagan country (she tells Nicolas not to talk about God for his safety); Asta has the gift of dream interpretation (She isn’t sure if they are something that God ordains, but Nicolas tells her “The Lord offers gifts to His children. Whether we grow and use them for Him is up to us. He will grow and enhance those gifts if we serve Him faithfully. Or we can use those same gifts for personal gain, but it comes at a cost.”); Nicolas believes that God will forgive him for taking a life because of the circumstances; Asta tries to tell her friends about God but is ridiculed by them instead; Mentions of God, gifts from God, believers of Him, choosing Him, rejoicing in Him, witnessing, & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of a Prophecy & a woman having the gift of prophecy (Book #2); Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A couple mentions of those & events in the Bible; A couple mentions of Heaven/eternity; A mention of someone being executed for praying to God; A mention of a possible miracle; In the author’s note at the end of the book, the author shares about forgiveness;
*Note: Asta has a dream a few times where a snake is on someone’s arm (representing the darkness that person partakes in); *Spoiler* Asta’s sister believes that the darkness will come for and consume Asta for standing in her way and says about fools who pray to “imaginary gods”; Asta feels a strength in her that her sister is powerless in a battle and also that she can’t breathe due to a sudden heaviness in her; Asta tells her sister that she will always destroy everything she puts her hand to because of her choice of following the darkness; Later, Asta notes that her sister has been consumed by the “darkness she practiced” *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of evil, darkness, dark magicks, & witches (all portrayed negatively); A few mentions of pagans & heathens; A mention of not negotiating with demons; A mention of a man pleading to every deity; A mention of people believing that a country is cursed (Book #1, untrue).
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘biddy’, two ‘stupid’s, and five forms of ‘shut up’; A few mentions of curses (said, not written); A bit of eye rolling; Killing two people who had ill intentions (someone else finishes off one of the people, up to semi-detailed); Seeing someone executed & another knocked-out (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Being beaten, being slapped, being choked, being locked in a cell/tied up, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & throwing up (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Asta recalls being kidnapped as a child & locked in a prison-like cell (up to semi-detailed); Nicolas thinks that sometimes the best thing to do was “raze and rebuild” a country that wicked and that Norvege is the best example; Asta throws up when on a ship due to things that happened in the past (mistreatment as a child by kidnappers); Asta & Nicolas both lie for the sake of safety & their missions; Set during a war with mentions of the war, deaths, bodies, killing/murders, executions/hangings, & threatening harm and death (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of slavery, humans being sold for “labor or worse”, kidnappings of children, & children being sold to adults (the king says selling the children will benefit the kingdom; not said for what the children are sold for besides a man hinting to want to keep a child for himself while licking his lips); Mentions of abuse & mistreatment (including of children); Mentions of beatings, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of prisons & bandits; Mentions of nightmares (including of murders, deaths, & blood/bleeding, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deceit; Mentions of rumors & gossip; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of alcohol & drinking; Mentions of terrible smells of decay & animal carcasses (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of assassinations; A few mentions of poisons & deaths; A couple mentions of a woman being scalped and dying (no details); A couple mentions of a rumor about a man murdering his family that was suspected of treason; A couple mentions of stealing & thieving; A mention of someone believing her father murdered her mother; A mention of a possible beheading; A mention of someone being like a whipped dog; A mention of hunting;
*Note: Asta’s sister is verbally, physically and emotionally abusive to her (Asta is loyal to her despite this, thinking that whatever her sister does to her, her sister has had worse done to her; *Spoiler* Asta’s sister tried to sell her as children, but was tricked by the kidnappers and was also kidnapped after they killed the girls’ mother; Asta’s sister remembers this differently and blames their father for selling them and has made herself the victim in the story) *End of Spoiler*; Asta has a few signs of PTSD after some events in her life & says she feels broken some days (but aims to work towards healing with God’s help); Mentions of a country having disdain for human life & people killing others easily; Mentions of someone having hallucinations & self-harming from them (it is said that the women was broken even before then, *Spoiler* Asta’s sister *End of Spoiler*, barely-above-not-detailed).
Sexual Content- A forehead kiss and a barely-above-not-detailed kiss; Some touches, dancing, nearness, warmth, butterflies, & noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; A couple moments of wanting to touch (barely-above-not-detailed);Asta and her sister were kidnapped as children and later became the then-prince’s concubines when they were of age (her sister later married the prince); It’s said that Asta has faced the king’s lusts and has been used as a concubine at times (including when her sister, the queen, would push him on Asta, threaten her with him visiting her, and that later Asta would return with bruises); A man licks his lips when looking for a child he is trying to kidnap (a little girl); Mentions of the king of Norvege and his allies using women to “entertain” them and later disposing of the women (this “pleasure” is called an addiction by Nicolas, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of the king having concubines & seeking out other women if he gets bored (ordering them to come to him, implied sexually); A few mentions of comments from men about Nicolas getting/finding a women to be with at night (with a couple mentions of hoots and crude comments that aren’t written out); A couple mentions of scantily-clad women trying to earn a few coins or “exchange themselves for a meal” (they call out to Nicolas but he ignores it); Some love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Asta
-Nicolas
P.O.V. switches between them
187 pages
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New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
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My personal Rating-
{ Warning for those sensitive to wars/evil in them, deaths, & mistreatment of children. }
The fourth book in this series defitnely takes a different turn than the prior books with being about a Christian young woman who lives a pagan country and is abused often. It did feel a bit rushed at the beginning with what felt like everything happen at once, but at the same time it was good because then I didn’t have to wait for answers and things to happen, I suppose! I think had the book been longer things could have been fleshed out better, but at the same time, then we would be in the midst of the evil and abuse that Asta is facing. So, I guess it was better this way in my opinion—pros and cons to both ways.
This book does have some subject matter and mentions of human trafficking and women being discarded after being used, so it is the first book in the series I would caution about it being better for slightly older girls. It’s kept with no details, but you know what’s happening and being hinted about. It was darker than the prior books in the series because of that, but it also makes sense as it’s set in a country that worships the darkness and Asta is caught in the middle of it. I got chills at some of the events in the book because even though I don’t usually like books with a Spiritual Warfare element, this book’s Light vs Darkness was well-done and goosebump worthy. Had this book been longer and went into more of the darker content, I honestly don’t think I would have enjoyed it and/or would have given it a lower rating. But because the author stopped at certain points, it made it not over-the-top at all. That said, though, it could be easy to read into at some parts, I would give a caution to those with active imaginations about this book. (Personally, it was right on the line for me with what I’m comfortable with.)
I have to comment that I’m very impressed—and very thankful—that when Asta cleans Nicolas’ wounds on his chest/stomach, it doesn’t get sexual tension filled at all as she is focused on cleaning his injury. That’s it. Thank you! I need more authors to take note of this. I also did really like a certain twist that was revealed about halfway. I was very excited to see how that was going to work out and glad it happened.
Even though the romance suddenly happened, this is almost a novella length of a book, so I didn’t let it bother me. I would say they are my second favorite couple in this series though because of his kindness and patience with her and just what a good guy he was for her. That ending was a bit of a cliffhanger though and it makes me eager—and nervous—for the next book.
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.
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