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2.0
The Beast and The Swallow (Tales of Norden, #1)
ByPublisher Description
In Limeria, magic is a long-forgotten myth. But rumors say that up north lay a land where the border between dreams and reality is thin. Where the offspring of gods mingle with mortals. Where the dead never truly sleep.
When Lorelei, the illegitimate daughter of Count Orten, is forced to marry the bastard son of the Emperor, her future seems grim. Her husband, Noah, is the Duke of Norden, famed for his beastly nature and brutal habits, feared by enemies and allies, and known to mingle with demons. Yet when the Beast shows more humanity than her own blood relatives, Lorelei begins to reevaluate her views and has to face her budding feelings for Noah.
But happiness must be earned.
Lorelei is thrust into an unknown world of schemes, secrets, and murder. Her stepdaughter is a living deity. Her husband's most trusted knight isn’t exactly human either. There is a prophecy tying Noah to the fate of Norden, and an evil cult that wants to bring chaos to the land. As if this isn’t enough, a single act of kindness gets Lorelei kidnapped and almost killed by a monster from beyond the grave.
As Lorelei and Noah fight to protect what they hold dear, a new prophecy binds and separates them:
“When the Beas falls, the Swallow shall triumph.
For the Sun to shine over Norden, the Swallow must be devoured.”
______________________________
"The Beast and The Swallow" marks the beginning of the "Tales of Norden" saga, describing the struggles and adventures of Noah and Lorelei. Ghosts, fiends, knights in shining armor, mighty shamans, prophecies, political intrigue, and dark schemes - they all shape the path our protagonists would take. Will their romance bud to fruition? Will they escape the fate dictated by the Heavens? What price would they be willing to pay for their happiness?
There is only one way to find out.
When Lorelei, the illegitimate daughter of Count Orten, is forced to marry the bastard son of the Emperor, her future seems grim. Her husband, Noah, is the Duke of Norden, famed for his beastly nature and brutal habits, feared by enemies and allies, and known to mingle with demons. Yet when the Beast shows more humanity than her own blood relatives, Lorelei begins to reevaluate her views and has to face her budding feelings for Noah.
But happiness must be earned.
Lorelei is thrust into an unknown world of schemes, secrets, and murder. Her stepdaughter is a living deity. Her husband's most trusted knight isn’t exactly human either. There is a prophecy tying Noah to the fate of Norden, and an evil cult that wants to bring chaos to the land. As if this isn’t enough, a single act of kindness gets Lorelei kidnapped and almost killed by a monster from beyond the grave.
As Lorelei and Noah fight to protect what they hold dear, a new prophecy binds and separates them:
“When the Beas falls, the Swallow shall triumph.
For the Sun to shine over Norden, the Swallow must be devoured.”
______________________________
"The Beast and The Swallow" marks the beginning of the "Tales of Norden" saga, describing the struggles and adventures of Noah and Lorelei. Ghosts, fiends, knights in shining armor, mighty shamans, prophecies, political intrigue, and dark schemes - they all shape the path our protagonists would take. Will their romance bud to fruition? Will they escape the fate dictated by the Heavens? What price would they be willing to pay for their happiness?
There is only one way to find out.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Beast and The Swallow (Tales of Norden, #1) Reviews
2.0
“(Transparency: This review was commissioned by the author, however this does not at all affect my rating)
I want to start by saying that some of my issues here are just a “it’s not you, it’s me”, thing, because while making notes I realized that lots of what I wasn’t enjoying was simply my own personal tastes.
We had a really strong start in the beginning where our two main characters meet and there’s tension, and we have these great introductory moments both individually and together. I had very high hopes for how this would progress. Our characters meet, part, and then the next thing they know they’re forced into a marriage by the emperor. The emperor is the dude MC’s half brother and he’s evil. Like, channeling Joffrey Baratheon.
Our woman main character is Lorelei and she’s a healer. She’s trained with this dude who is the best of the best. So she gets into a lot of positions where there’s a medical issue and she’s THE ONE to solve it. And while I liked this idea, this was her only personality trait. I wanted so much more from her, to know her quirks and her likes and her dislikes. But she’s extremely one note.
She and her now-husband travel to the region he’s in charge of, he’s a Duke, and I was really hoping to see conversations between the two of them that gave us an idea of who they were both separately and together. Unfortunately that’s just not what happened. There was a moment in the text where it says: “There was also something else that had changed. Her daily reports to the Duke had become long conversations, and Lorelei, to her own surprise, started opening more and more to her husband. She unexpectedly enjoyed the time they spent together.”
These long conversations missing from the book means we missed out on the two of them cultivating a relationship and us learning about who they are separately. Which was a huge shame. It caused me as a reader to feel like, by the time feelings had cultivated, I wasn’t sure why, because I missed the real meat of them getting to know each other.
The dude is the Duke, as I said, and he took over at age 15. And it stated that he did a lot of good, because there was a lot of fighting between the people who had colonized the area and the indigenous folks (Binshi) of the area, and that he was able to like mediate, essentially. But in present day, it feels a little wishy-washy, because on the one hand, it says that he’s a great Duke, and that he cares about his people, but on the other hand many of his people are starving. And at one point there’s a half Binshi little boy who steals some food so he can feed his sick sister. And he gets caught and whipped. And the only person to say something against it is Lorelei, who’s new there. Like why doesn’t the Duke, if he’s this dude who cares about his people, have systems in place to combat hunger especially for the Binshi seeing as his people are responsible for colonizing their land. This issue isn’t dealt with until a stranger shows up and says something… and I think that’s weird. It just seems like he was a competent Duke when it worked for the narrative and an incompetent one when it worked for the narrative.
I think that where this book does well is in its unique and interesting uses of magic. There’s some really cool magical features in here I enjoyed. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of the setting. The author really succeeds in bringing the unique places in the story to life.
I think the author can definitely write, but in the next book I hope to see more care taken in the cultivation of the characters and their relationships.”
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