~ About the Book ~
Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.
As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy–a legacy that supports her people–or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.
Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.
One path holds glory and power, and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?
Genre: Fantasy
Series: #1 The Ravenwood Saga
Release date: 6 November 2018
Pages: 352
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Amazon US // Amazon AU // iTunes // Goodreads // Koorong
~ Excerpt ~
Selene lay in bed, the furs pulled up across her lower half, and stared out the window. For as long as she could remember, her mother had drilled into her the responsibility she would have some day for the Ravenwood family, and the impending gift that would come. A gift that would allow her to enter the dreams of others. But no other details. Only hints that House Ravenwood and the mountain nation depended on that gift. Just training. Day in and day out.
Don’t trust anyone.
You can only count on yourself.
You must be prepared for anything.
We will never be wiped out again.
Her mother’s mantra, spoken every morning during training. Mother drover her and Amara hard, teaching them their secret family history and training them the moment they could lift a sword.
Someday when you have your gift, you will think you can rely solely on that. But you can’t. You need to know how to protect yourself. Always. Because no one else will.
But never a reason why. Never an answer to all the question that Selene longed to ask. Nothing to ease the yoke that had been upon her since birth.
“Someday,” her mother would say. “When your gifting comes, I will reveal to you why. Until then, train. Train hard.”
“Well, Mother. I am your heir now. And I am ready for answers,” Selene whispered.
~ Review ~
Well, I am well and truly sucked into this new series from Morgan L. Busse. I felt the story was a little slow to start out as the reader was introduced to Lady Selene and her newly bestowed gift of dreamwalking, but as the world-building continued and more characters were introduced, I was drawn further and further into the drama that was unfolding within and around Lady Selene.
The politics of this world are intriguing, particularly because of the bonds and strictures that arise through marriage, but the dreamwalking and the associated moral dilemmas Lady Selene must grapple with were the most compelling parts of this story for me. I loved the vivid imagery of light and darkness and they way they pull against each other in Selene. And I loved the concept of being able to see a person’s soulsphere. The spiritual parallels were obvious, but no less powerful for being so.
There were some parts of the narrative that felt a little repetitious, as though the author didn’t quite trust the reader to have grasped and retained a full understanding of the world she had created and then apply that knowledge as the story unfolded, but overall, it was a story that not only held my interest but increased it as time went on. And the ending held a few surprises that have definitely whet my appetite for the next book in the series!
~ About the Author ~
Morgan L. Busse is a writer by day and a mother by night. She’s the author of the epic fantasy Follower of the Word series and the award-winning steampunk series, The Soul Chronicles. Her debut novel, Daughter of Light, was a Christy and Carol Award finalist. Mark of the Raven, a new fantasy series, releases Fall of 2018 from Bethany House. During her spare time she enjoys playing games, taking long walks, and dreaming about her next novel.
Connect with Morgan:
Website // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
Wow! This looks like a really fun book. I didn’t know this publisher did fantasy books. I’ve never read any Christian fantasy other then the Chronicles of Narnia. I’ll have to check this out!
They don’t do a lot of fantasy, but there are definitely some. Hope you enjoy it!
Read this one recently myself. I thought the world-building was good, and the dream scenes were fascinating.
My girls and I listened to this one on a road trip and LOVED it.😁 can’t wait for book two to come out this spring!
Hallo, Hallo again,
I wanted to see what your thoughts were within the scope of the first installment — I’m unsure which aspects you felt were repetitive and I was so emotionally anchoured into Selene in the first quarter of the novel it was hard to pull myself away from what she was experiencing – mostly as I find it hard to read story-lines feat. overbearing and oppressive Mums. Not to mention what she has to swallow in regards to the Ravenwood’s House secret — it felt almost like the yoke of that burden was quite too difficult to bear on one’s shoulders,..
I liked the originality of the duality of Light vs the Dark Lady – it gave a fantastical feeling to the spirituality knitted into the backdrop of this world without being overtly pragmatic about it, too.
I do agree – when Busse explored the dreamspheres and the dreamer’s walk whilst she first encountered a person’s soul was one of my favourite passages by far!! The visuals of that moment and the layers she added to give that moment a dimensional shift to be reflected upon later as it worked in with Selene’s personal journey towards self-identity and agency of her own actions — wells, it became a favourite central scope of narrative for me.
So thrilled to see more readers enjoying a series which left me with a bookish hangover and a heart full of gratitude!!