Photo credits: Reimund Bertrams (pixabay), GeorgeB2 (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Title: Lullaby Scars Series: Warriors of the Five Realms 0.5 Author: Hollee Mands Publisher: Holder Children's Books Year of Publication: 2019 Format: E-book/kindle copy Genre/Themes: Fantasy romance, Magic, Paranormal romance, fae, standalone novella Review... ➜ Epic world-scape ➜ Cutthroat society ➜ Adventurous world-building ➜ Celibate heroine AND hero pair ➜ Inexorable heroine and a soft/strong hero ➜ Half-blood Oriental heroine on a freedom mission ➜ Warrior protector in servitude; fluent in the mother tongue of self-deprecation ➜ A penitentiary island habitated by the downright wretched
I kick off this review with easy recognition because who knew prequel novels could complete the trifecta of applied imagination, interesting storytelling components and locational adventure? Or perhaps I should dub this a 'quad-fecta' because it effectively frames a setting for a larger standalone series so well too? If the job of a series beginner is to gather notice and garner appeal, consider Lullaby Scars a notice caller and appeal establisher. Hollee Mands imagines up a world of crime, savagery, thrall, bias, iniquity and arrant injustice. But one with magic too. Whether ranked with privilege or not, as is the case with both Mailin and Killian, the world is safe for no one. Especially women. Outside of the romance, which is flush with gentle affinity, the surrounding elements designates this prequel a darker read. Every introduced character is trapped by something; whether it be Leisa - who along with women everywhere in great number - pleasure work in Jachuana's brothels to circumvent the more grievous offenses against them. Without the safety of the hedonistic parlours they resort to for safekeeping, their lives would be fair game. Or Mailin, who's still at the mercy of cruel parentage and would likely have been sold like each of her sisters had she been void of her mother's Fae blood. Or dolorous, blighted Killian. This guy. Self-sentenced and collared by a travesty that had made him sink to a life of no life, a life to serve. A life of contrition. I just wanted to suck this incarcerated hero dry of his self-sorrow and perceived criminality and give him a gigantic injection of self-worth and a belief in a better life. This guy. But no need because by the end? Mailin's all the medicinal nostrum he needs. Whenever I find myself eager for answers, I know I must be in the central hold of a story. There's mention of Fae, magic, those of mageborn ability, powers gifted and some systems of order and control through particular lines, and as thus, the world-building readily applies itself appropriately and appointedly to the critical parts of the story by exposing just enough and never too much. Hypocritically, I did find myself wanting more detail in places, so in that respect, the building of the world isn't discovered in greater express. But what's brilliant is that the world setting feels big, wide open and capable of featuring many stories without ever losing the space and creativity for more romances to take hold and take up in adventurous terrain. Within this particular story there were many threats, mostly against Mailin due to her gender, and the danger of a large island of unpardonable offenders was both a really interesting part of the world-building and elevated the level of threat all the same. A world of safety this is not, and the author makes zero attempts in quarrelling that point, but you can't read this and see Mailin as anything other than a woman not hellbent on finding her freedom from it. I loved her as a heroine. A personal plot point that didn’t feel fully refined though, was the conflict between Vale and Killian. Killian is so morally good and yet Vale is profoundly - and immorally - selfish, and yet there’s so much history there which feels flat in what presently manifests as their relationship. It was half-hearted, in that Killian was the sole bearer of all the heart, and Vale had none. The female populous doesn't have it easy. They're abused, flesh trafficked, sold and violated. Crimes against women are common and normalised, and it's within a misogynistic culture with male-dominated systems that it becomes a choice of lesser evils and familiar ones. No lack of them at all. And that finds Mailin using every bit of gumption, cunning and spunk to scheme her way into marrying a foreign high mage just to get away from her father. Because it's only a matter of time before she's trafficked for gain, profit or favour. As such, Vale Teranos was hand chosen by her for a specific set of reasons (not ones quite Liam Neeson style) as she manipulates her way into judiciously earning a high Mage's favour to become his bride. She didn't count on his visibly scarred bondsman to be the man she'd been cornered by in an alley the night before. But as she desperately fumbles to outrun her betrothed as she doggedly determines to never be possessed by a man, Mailin winds up storm-tossed by reckless waters and wakes up only to find herself on Prison Island, where only the worst of worst reprobates are sentenced. Perhaps the worst place a woman can find herself in on any soil...unless a certain bondsman also happens to have been washed upon that same shore, and becomes the only thing standing between a desperate woman and an island sprawling with Railea's depraved and perverted, men who wouldn't think twice over ruining her. Killian's backstory made me want to weep. I could feel the damage, vacancy and alienation that materialised from a day that became the existential end of him. He really had nobody for so long, and only did that score settle when Mailin comes along did he start to see what life could be. There was a part of me that wanted to Killian to fight for himself harder. He seemed so readily available to accept what he was given, what he thought he deserved and how Vale treated him. It rankled sometimes; knowing this hero had such considerable power but was leashed mostly by his own doing and never wanted to rebel from the cruelty keeping him in place. And similarly, the overall span of the power dynamic between Mailin and Killian vs. everybody else felt a shade imbalanced. It mostly felt that they were more or less powerless against every adversarial force. The scene of realisation where Killian suddenly decides he wants to be with Mailin didn’t feel well-written when he seemed to change his mind in the span of a second. It was a case of him adamantly denying her, and in a split second, deciding he's all in. I think I would have preferred more fluency in that moment. But really, Killian I-can't-share-his-last-name-because-spoilers doesn't possess a foul bone in his body, and each one sits around a heart so good and gentle that he's never given himself the gift of being free. Like i didn't say it already but, this guy. If Hollee Mands stocks surplus supply of Killians I'd like to formally make a request for one because, this guy. If Mailin were a temple, Killian would kneel before it daily in prayer position. I've never been short of confessing how much I love the survival scenario; it’s just winsome for me, perhaps because real bonding and real primitive engagement is typically born from paired survival. There are no airs and graces, it's all real grit, subsistence, endurance and survivorship - and If I’m lucky, a love born from the intensity of the ordeal. But it could be silenced by something else that taunts my imaginings just a bit more, searching for in the cracks of this genre like an amateur sleuth-hound for a needle in a haystack. And that is a celibate hero. I couldn't stop the thought chain of 'there are so many celibate heroines, but where are the celibate heroes in this genre?' You may gasp, because It’s a best kept secret unsung to find such precious specimens of the male variety. I have an unofficial inspection in practice to seek out and spy upon the fictional male population, spyglass in hand. This mission isn’t born from a niche fetish, really. Male celibacy isn’t a commonality with the male protagonist profile, and I relish reading from heroes who can exist in a space where abstinence does not equate to a mortal sin. Who aren’t monopolised by both the fear of real intimacy and the ego-hedonistic experience that demands the ownership of the female gaze. What I’m usually regaled with though are overtly masculine figures who swarm about with a silently expressed energy of sexual voracity and womanise their way through the world. When I pick up a book and read about a hero making leave with a one-night stand already forgotten, files through the many women he’s been with like a rolodex on ice or boasts a fragile ego complex that imperils the heroine, I really do heave a long-suffering sigh. I prefer to read from men who know how to have and hold meaningful relationships, and who aren’t threatened by a lack of female partners. Killian (admittedly) has never had the chance to get involved with women though, and it has something to do with his facial disfigurement. When approached, it's his scars that people see, not he who bears them. But even still, 500+ years of age and he's remained abstinent? I might very well be in love with him. Can I benevolently appeal for more male heroes like this please? Let me know if I may have to visit a polling station to claim my ballot. The romantic intrigue did feel a somewhat too immediate for me, but I have mild objections with my first waltz with Hollee Mands fantasy romance. To be more accurate, it was a great time, and I had a great time between the pages. I didn’t feel particularly confident with the sense of zeitgeist, though certain items of clothing and mild descriptory details seemed to suggest an oriental/Asian cultural setting. Like I mentioned earlier, this easily amounts to a fascinating prequel novella, though It’s noticeably longer than most in length. Beautiful cover design that also beautifully captures our scarred hero. The fates are unpredictable, divided and based upon those who master them. And then there are those who circumvent them, like Mailin, and those who finally decide to fight against the binding, like Killian. All in the repute of love and freedom. A gruff, gentle giant and a plucky heroine with an inflexible hankering to take the leap for a better life are destined for more than a late night passing in a darkened alley. Like getting shipwrecked in the worst place currently imaginable and defying entitled lords and powerful power keepers. Lullaby Scars is a gentle, protective romance, laced with threat, fleshed with fantasy and misted with magic. The author did great with this; a strapping standalone (a description that also seamlessly befits Mands’s hero) and a world of more adventure unexplored. I gave this book 4 stars - Content Warning: Sexual violence/sexual & physical abuse. Mentions rape/a few attempted rapes. Bodily injuries. Drinking & smoking. Sexual assault. Male privilege and entitlement. Gore, violence. Some swearing (minimal). Describes Torture and violence. Death of parents. Tragedy. Human selling/trafficking. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- Favourite Quotes! 'No one knew him, and no one knew the sins and shame he carried beneath his scars. Until now. Until a woman with dreams larger than her spirit had kissed him with such fervent desire and looked at him as though he were some kind of hero. Only he was no hero. He was a soul so wretched he deserved no name.' 'Mamma had wasted her life on a heartless man. Mailin wouldn’t waste hers wondering what it would be like to be with the man who held her heart.' 'Trapped on an island of bloodthirsty prisoners, ensconced in his arms in the darkness of this dank hollow, with the taste of him still fresh on her lips . . . Mailin couldn’t remember a time she’d felt happier.' 'Killian released Vale as though he was a poisonous snake. In that instant, he saw Vale for who he truly was. Over a century had passed, yet Vale remained the boy he’d always been— the second son striving to outshine the first— even though the sun and moon were never meant to shine at the same time.' 'Instead, he bit down on his tongue and told her the truth. “I am not a man you want to be involved with, Mailin. I have nothing to my name. Nothing to offer but a history soaked with blood and pain.” She remained silent, seeming to weigh his words. Good. Killian shifted toward the opening of the tunnel so he didn’t have to see her withdrawal. The rain was slowly coming to a halt, and fog rose from the warmth of the earth, dimming the moon and shrouding them in hazy darkness . She was so quiet he could almost imagine he was completely alone, as he always had been, as he always would be. Then she whispered, “I’m no stranger to blood or pain.” 'She had made a fanatic out of him, the soul-stirring temptress with her tender touches and lusty kisses. Never had he wanted a woman with such reckless zest , only to be welcomed with such wanton zeal. She might have spent most the night beneath him, but it felt as though she’d lifted rocks from his shoulders. He might never fully atone for his sins, but she had given him a taste of what life could be, and he wanted so desperately to live.' 'She swallowed. Make me yours, she’d said. His. All her life Mailin had yearned to escape possession— from societal expectations of her halfbreed abilities, from her father’s oppression, from a possible life at the Keep. Now she wanted nothing more than to belong to this one man.' 'Though the moon barely breached the tunnel , it seemed every sliver of light sought to tease the edges of his profile and highlight the angles of his face. He faced her where the light illuminated only the part of him untouched by violence, leaving the scarred side in the dark. In this angle, he was undeniably attractive even with his unkempt hair and scruffy beard. Handsome, in a rough and rugged kind of way. Yet she itched to turn his face so she could see his scarred side. To her healer’s eyes, his scar was shocking and savage and brutal— yet strangely beautiful . It was silent evidence of a survivor’s tale. A survivor who possessed a wild beauty that was the tempest of the sea before it swallowed her whole.' 'They were not so different after all. Her dreams were as unattainable as his own, and somehow, that stung him more than his own abandoned wants. Compared to the verve and vim of her dreams, his aspirations were prosaic and pale. She was a restless soul. A little reckless, a little rash, but filled with vivacity bright enough to blot out the sun. Killian wanted her to see the brilliance of the starlit skies from Amereen’s rugged coastline. He wanted to see her skip through the frigid riverbanks of Flen lit only by the shine of the moon , and dance upon the rolling dunes of Teti Unas beneath the glorious flare of the setting sun. He wanted to place the world at her fingertips, yet he was nothing but a helpless bondsman with nothing to give.' 'Any man fortunate enough to call her his had to see beyond her beauty and her bloodline to the stunning rarity of her spirit.' 'He could only stare, baffled by the beguiling blend of blushing cheeks and brazen will. Suddenly, it no longer seemed egregious that she’d jumped off a ship in the height of a storm. A woman audacious enough to lure a high mage into an engagement contract seemed precisely like the reckless sort who had no qualms tempting fate. Or him, for that matter.' 'Goddess of mercy, the rough bass of his voice was even deeper than she remembered, filling her ears like low thunder in a summer storm.' “Know this, my lady. Vale did not send me. I jumped in after you because there was no other way.” Her heart skipped, but her lips pinched. “Fool. If you had left me to my fate, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” His smile was pensive. “Your life is worth a hundred of mine.” Mailin frowned. She had spent all her life scrap-healing for the poor, and if there was one thing she’d never questioned, it was the immeasurable worth of life—all life. “You can’t possibly believe that.” “Of course I do.”“That’s absurd. Even the goddess herself doesn’t value life that way.” One side of his lips quirked in a half smile, lifting his scar and lighting his face in a way that made her heart rollick in her chest. “I don’t need Railea’s judgment to see true value for myself. You have the power to save a life, while my worth lies in how quickly I can end one.” 'Mailin might be a lady born, but she was not a lady bred. She was little more than a liar and a cheat.' 'He couldn’t remember the last time he’d lost his wits at the sight of a woman . Then agai , he’d never encountered a woman quite so . . . perfect? He frowned. No. Her jaw had been too square to fit the molds of conventional beauty, her eyes a little too narrow, and her lips a touch too wide. Yet her features worked in perfect synchrony to stir his blood. Everything about her demanded his attention, from the glossiness of her pin-straight hair to the warm sandalwood hue of her flawless skin to her arresting gaze. She had stared right back at him, unflinching and bold, as though she saw past his scarred skin and truly saw him.' 'Regardless of his off-putting scar, there was an undeniable savage beauty about him. A wildness contained within the civil facade of this man kept her paralyzed like a deer staring into the face of a lion.' 'Never had she seen anyone more menacing, yet . . . she couldn’t look away. Despite the hardness of his features, an unexpected kindness pervaded his eyes. Dark eyes that drew a woman’s gaze as surely as the moon did the rising tide. Mailin blinked, trying to break the hypnotic spell of his eyes, only to see his pupils dilate as they focused. He was staring down at her as though he’d found a rare jewel among a river of stones.' 'He loomed over her, a formidable figure with alarmingly masculine features. His hair was tied back, baring a widow’s peak that accentuated the hard-hewn lines of a bearded face. His strong nose might have once been straight but was now slightly crooked. A brawler. The lines lacerating the swarthy bronze of his cheek were testament to that fact. His scar was not some rugged souvenir soldiers sometimes wore with battle-won pride but a brow-raisingly stark monument to terror. Thick, white, and ropy, it bisected one brow— as though a dagger had scraped past his eye and carved down to his cheek— before it forked like a snake’s tongue to disappear into his beard. Hideous. Mailin swallowed hard.' 'Of course the brute came from her caste. In all her years scrap-healing, Mailin had witnessed sexual violence in all its forms, meted out by men of all stations, but the jade caste lords were the worst perpetrators— misogynistic monsters hiding behind placid smiles and polished boots who derived pleasure from a woman’s pain. Monsters just like her father.' 'Most sold their souls to serve in Jirin’s whorehouses. Mailin couldn’t blame them. In a land where women were worth less than chattel, and rape resulted in nothing more than an averted gaze, brothels became safe houses. Sanctuaries. If she were human, or a mage born into the impoverished caste, she might have done the same. At the very least, whorehouses gave women access to coin in exchange for what invariably happened out on the streets. Brothels ensured a roof over their heads, warm beds, and food for their bellies.' I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK Leave a comment and let's talk about |
VaishaliBorn in the UK Archives
February 2024
Categories
All
2019 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 15 books toward
her goal of
30 books.
hide
2020 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [Vicarious Living] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
20 books.
hide
2021 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 1 book toward
her goal of
10 books.
hide
2022 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
2023 Reading Challenge
Vaishali • [V.L. Book Reviews] has
read 0 books toward
her goal of
5 books.
hide
DisclaimerAll images of book covers on this site belong to the authors and publishers of the books.
|