About this book:
““Don’t you know? Animals like you have no soul.”
Could God ever love a half-blood all of society looks upon with such fear and disdain? Jace once believed so, but when a tragic loss shatters the only peace he’s ever known, his faith crumbles as the nagging doubts he’s tried to put behind him descend on his grieving heart. With them come the haunting memories of the bloodstained past he longs to forget, but can never escape.
Taken from home at a young age and raised to serve the emperor, Kyrin Altair lives every day under a dangerous pretense of loyalty. After her unique observation skills and perfect memory place her into direct service to the emperor, Kyrin finds herself in further jeopardy as it becomes increasingly difficult to hide her belief in Elôm, the one true God.
Following the emperor’s declaration to enforce the worship of false gods under the penalty of death, many lives are endangered. But there are those willing to risk everything to take a stand and offer aid to the persecuted. With their lives traveling paths they never could have imagined, Jace and Kyrin must fight to overcome their own fears and conflicts with society as they become part of the resistance.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Ilyon Chronicles” series.
Spiritual Content- Psalm 95:3 & 135:14-18 at the beginning; God is called “Elôm” in this world and also referred to as the King; Many talks about Elôm, trusting Him, Him being with us, & having faith; ‘H’s are capital when referring to Elôm; Many Prayers, Thanking and praising God/ Elôm, & Blessings over food; Characters who believe in Elôm have to hide their faith due to the emperor’s laws about worshiping his false gods and his hatred towards other religions; Kyrin has the opportunity to witness to someone about Elôm, but doesn’t do it and feels like a coward afterwards (and apologizes to Elôm); *Spoilers* Halfway through the book, Kyrin is dragged to the false gods’ temple by the emperor and while she ponders about bowing because she’ll know she doesn’t mean it, she quickly feels strength and makes a stand for her faith in Elôm by not bowing to the false gods; The emperor orders for her to be tortured and executed (as an example to others); Kyrin never once regrets standing for her faith and prays for strength to endure what is to come; *Major Spoilers* Towards the end, Kyrin’s brother, Kaden, is a taken to the temple as well by the emperor and he also stands for Elôm, so the emperor also has him tortured for information and planned to be executed; Neither Kaden or Kyrin’s executions happen *End of Spoilers*; Many mentions of Elôm (God), trusting Him, believing in Elôm trusting Him, & having faith; Many mentions of prayers, praying, thanking and praising Elôm, & blessings over food; Mentions of witnessing; Mentions of deceased people being with King Elôm; A few mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of the early volumes of history being missing from an academy because they spoke about Elôm and the first kings’ devotion to Him; A couple mentions of martyrs & near-martyrs; A mention of a man’s family turning him in for his belief in Elôm;
*Note: The emperor wants everyone to worship the male and female moon gods (called Aertus and Vilai) & orders arrests and executions of those who believe in any other religion and disrespect his gods; Those who do not believe in Elôm call Him a myth; Those who are loyal to the emperor (including one of Kyrin’s grandfathers) are also very loyal to the gods; The academy that Kyrin and her brother are at teach that the gods bring the kings/emperors power and prosperity to their land; Many years prior to this book, the race of the “ryriks” (who are known to be very cruel) led a revolt against the Creator and it changed the land’s belief in Him; Some call ryriks’ painful reaction to air pollution a “curse” that was put on them for being to first to “follow the path of evil”; Ryriks are said to be more animal than human and some believe them to be soulless; Jace wonders if it is true that he has no soul and if Elôm even hears his prayers (he struggles with this throughout the book, but others tell him that is not true; One character tells Jace that he doesn’t believe that Elôm created an intelligent race of people without souls and that even if He did, Jace’s human part of him has a soul); Jace hears these lies in his head and it makes him doubt about Elôm caring for him; One man is very vocal about Jace being evil because of being part ryrik (due to his own past experiences and tragedies with ryriks, *Spoiler* but asks for Jace’s forgiveness at the end of the book *End of Spoiler*); *Spoilers* After feeling prompted by Elôm to do it, Kyrin tries to become friends with Jace and prays for him; After being around him, she believes he has a soul as well; Towards the end, Jace has a noticeable change in him and starts praying again *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of daily worship being required at the temples to the false gods; Mentions of evil & standing against it; Mentions of some people believing black wolves to be evil and/or possessed with a demonic spirit; Mentions of luck & being lucky; Mentions of dragons; A few mentions of superstitions; A few mentions of a devilish smirk & wicked smiles; A mention of demons from someone’s past; A mention of someone idolizing a family member.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘shut up’ and four ‘stupid’s; ‘What in Ilyon’ is also said once; Mentions of curses (said, not written); Lies/Lying (some due to hiding feelings and some to protect their faith or others’ safety); Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Killing (in self-defense), Fighting, Shooting others, Almost being killed and executed (a few times), Being attacked (including by ryriks), Being beat-up and tortured (including having a finger nearly cut-off and an eye almost injured), Being slapped and kicked, Being locked in a dungeon, Being tied-up and nearly abducted, Holding others at knife-point, Being cursed at and trash is thrown at a character by an angry mob, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Nightmares (of deaths and killing), & Grief (semi-detailed); Shooting, Hunting, & skinning animals for food (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Wanting to slap & punch others; Seeing the bodies of loved ones (who were murdered) and having to bury them (up to semi-detailed); Seeing executions, fights/fighting, others being tortured, beat-up, whipped, held at knife-point, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a gladiator fight, a near murder, & people calling for the death of the loser (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a pet (wolf) kicked and injured/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Jace was a slave for the majority of his life, forced to be in gladiator fights where he killed men while others watched, and would be whipped/beaten by his master and others; After meeting the emperor, Kyrin wonders if she and other followers of Elôm have been mistaken about him being their enemy because he appears to be friendly (Others warn her about him; *Spoiler* Later, she sees other sides of him, however, and realizes how wrong she was about this because he is evil *End of Spoiler*); Kyrin feels guilty over her part in others’ deaths (due to her abilities that are being misused by the emperor) & sobs in great grief over it (up to semi-detailed); Kyrin drinks wine at dinners/parties; A side character also drinks wine (who is a part of the emperor’s people); Many mentions of executions, deaths, murders, murderers, & grief (barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of torture, beatings, being whipped, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of bodies & burying them (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of fights/fighting, gladiator fighting, men killing others for sport, & slaves being forced to fight and kill; Mentions of possible war; Mentions of slaves & slavery (including slaves like Jace being forced to fight to the death or kill their opponents); Mentions of fires, smoke, & a home burning down; Mentions of criminals, crimes, arrests, & jails/dungeons; Mentions of robberies, stealing, & thieves/bandits; Mentions of threats; Mentions of bullies & being bullied; Mentions of young gifted children being taken from their homes to be enrolled into an academy to be trained to work for the emperor (including Kyrin and her brother); Mentions of nightmares (including of deaths and killing, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of alcohol/wine & drinking at parties and dinners; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of hunting & skinning/gutting animals for food (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deception; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of a young boy’s parents being tortured and killed in front of him by ryriks (barely-above-not-detailed); A mention of suicide; A mention of tattoos;
*Note: Because of Jace being of mixed blood (half human, half ryrik), he is called an “animal” and a “monster” & has faced lots of prejudice and fear from others because of his ryrik side (Ryriks are known to be bloodthirsty and violent); Jace calls himself an “animal” and believes the lies others have told him about himself (including others telling him he is part animal and thus has no soul); When baited to a fight, Jace struggles to keep his ryrik side from taking over (it’s described as “energy” and “anger” flowing through his veins); *Spoilers* Towards the middle of the book, Jace starts to lose his will to live and while Rayad isn’t concerned that Jace would take his own life, he might let it deteriorate by not eating; *Major Spoiler* Towards the end, Jace starts to stop believing the lies he has been told *End of Spoilers*; Jace has bad reactions to being around smoke due to his ryrik heritage (to the point of coughing up blood); Because of Kyrin being able to remember anything she sees or hears, she often has bad headaches; Due to her ability of remembering everything, Kyrin is used by teachers as a snitch on her classmates; Kyrin can also tell when someone is lying and is able to read most people; Kyrin is not close to her mother and doesn’t remember much about her (due to being away from home for so long), but is very close to her father; A side character asks Kyrin what is is like to have a good relationship with her father (because he doesn’t have one with his father); Mentions of prejudice & hatred due to someone’s race (Jace faces this often and on-page); A few mentions of Kyrin’s grandfather belittling one of her brothers (due to his expectations for all of his grandchildren);
Sexual Content- An couple embraces (for comfort); A bit of staring; A few moments of being flustered around someone of the opposite gender; A side character is courting another & there are glimpses of their romance (blushes and mentions of kisses); Kyrin is told that if she is found to be with child, she is required to see a palace physician to have it “dealt with promptly” (with a follow-up mention of women often taking certain drugs to end their pregnancies; Kyrin feels repugnance at this conversation); *Spoiler* When locked in the dungeon, Kyrin is told to take off most of her clothing and some of the guards peer in at her when she is removing everything but her shift *End of Spoiler*; A ryrik man leers at Kyrin and plans to take her (which she knows would be her death); Mentions of crushes & flirting; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of kisses & stolen kisses; A couple mentions of abortions (see above); A couple mentions of men leering at women;
*Note: Carvings and banners of the female moon god show a “shapely woman” wearing revealing clothing; A young woman wears a revealing dress and tries to get a male character to break during an interrogation (he knows what she is doing, however, and keeps his gaze on her face despite her touching his chest and getting into his personal space); Another woman forces Kyrin to wear a dress with a lower neckline than she prefers and comments on Kyrin possibly filling out one day (in regards to her figure); A few mentions of women wearing revealing gowns; A couple mentions of women not surviving ryrik attacks (which is why everyone is shocked over Jace being half human and half ryrik); A mention of Ryriks having a “poor view of women” and see them as more of a possession than a partner.
-Kyrin, age 17
-Jace
P.O.V. switches between them, Rayad, and a handful of side characters
524 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’ve heard from many book friends over the years that if you like “The Blades of Acktar”, you’ll like this series and vice versa. After finishing that series last month, I can definitely see the similarities—more on that in a minute—but it had more fantasy elements like different races and mentions of creatures like dragons. Because of this, the intimidating size of the book, and the list of characters and other details shared at the beginning, I’m pretty sure I did a nervous gulp as I started reading. That said, I think the author did really well in describing and introducing everyone because I only had to refer to that list a few times for the whole 500+ paged story.
Pacing wise, this book did feel slow to me and it took about 200 pages in for me to be more interested in the plot. Once our main characters finally met at over 300 pages in, however, I didn’t want to put it down. This looks like it’s going to be a very slow-burn romance, but honestly? I think that makes sense for the scars Jace has and the walls Kyrim has to get through—plus the whole fighting against an evil emperor interrupting any potential cute romance scenes. (Down with the emperor for making people bow to fake gods and for delaying the romance for the main characters due to his evil plans! 😠) This aside, I did really like the emphasis on family bonds like Kyrin with her family (especially her twin brother) and also Jace with Rayad in an almost like a father/son dynamic. It warmed my heart to see those scenes.
“The Blades of Acktar” was a lot more straight forward in my eyes because it didn’t have another name for God and didn’t have any fantasy elements like this one, but this book had its charm and interesting moments as well. I wasn’t sure about Jace and Kyrin at first, but I did want them to be safe, have happiness, and trust in God. Kyrin’s faith was incredibly strong and definitely the highlight of this book for me. I kept thinking “Atta girl!” when she would make a bold choice for God. I love seeing strong faiths in Christian Fiction and her faith was particularly great to see.
Overall verdict? So far, not bad. I’m bracing for more violence and deaths of characters that have wormed their way into my feelings for the rest of the series, but I look forward to continuing. For this first book, I would suggest ages 16+ personally, but that might change as the series continues and more violence enters into the books.
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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