Title: A Dawn of Onyx
Author: Kate Golden
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 3/5
Arwen has always known her abilities to heal people go far beyond the abilities of most healers. When enemy soldiers come knocking on her door, forcing her to either save one of their men or die beside him, she has no choice but to reveal these powers. As a result, she is taken prisoner to the kingdom of the ruthless Onyx King to become the healer for his army. Unable to escape on her own, Arwen must team up with a fellow prisoner to escape from the Onyx King’s grasp and gain her freedom once again. However, her growing feelings for the prisoner may very well be the thing that dooms her.
“Why did you think your life was worth less than his?”
I really enjoy reading fantasy books, however I find that a lot of them are very similar which can get repetitive. As you know, one of my favorite fantasy series is the popular A Court of Thorns and Roses. It seems like every other fantasy series that I read is trying to replicate this series, which may be the reason I don’t like most of them. If it is similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses then I will be comparing the two, and to me nothing compares to that series. I think it also shows a lack of creativity from the author. The most successful fantasy authors are those that display their creativity through never before seen magical worlds, creatures, challenges, etc. Some great examples are J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins. Others try to replicate them, but their ideas are completely their own and they truly set the stage for how creative the mind can be.
“Princess Amelia strolled inside and sat down on the bed. I scrambled to politely sit beside her, then tried to bow. It wasn’t pretty. She gave me a pitying glance. “No need for… whatever that is.”
The reason I didn’t rate A Dawn of Onyx lower is because although it wasn’t the most creative fantasy series that I have read, it still had a few interesting twists. As to not give away any spoilers, I will not mention what they are, but they genuinely caught me off guard and I like to say I am pretty skilled at identifying twists before they are revealed. In addition, compared to the other fantasy series that I have read that are similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses, I would say this one comes the closest to being successful. I may also just be bitter right now because I am currently reading another fantasy series that is AGAIN trying to be like A Court of Thorns and Roses. The second book to the series has not been released yet and I honestly am not sure if I will read it when it does come out, but I did have fun reading the first one so we shall see.
