Fiona McIntosh - Myrren's Gift

For the sake of an imperiled kingdom, the line between "traitor"and "savior" must blur . . . and vanish.
Though barely a teenager, Wyl Thirsk must now assume the role he has been destined for since commander of the Morgravian army -- an awesome responsibility that calls him to the royal palace of the crown prince Celimus. Already a cruel despot who delights in the suffering of others, Celimus enjoys forcing his new general to witness his depraved "entertainments." 

But a kindness to a condemned witch in her final, agonizing hours earns young Thirsk a miraculous bequest, while inflaming the wrath of his liege lord. With war looming in the north, Wyl must obey Celimus's treacherous dictates and undertake a suicidal journey to an enemy court -- armed with a mysterious power that could prove both boon and curse. For unless he accepts Myrren's gift, it will surely destroy him . . . and the land he must defend.

Comment: Another book I purchased years ago (in 2011 to be exact) with the hope it would be a great first book in a trilogy and I'd have more to read afterwards.

In this fantasy story, we follow the adventures and misadventures of Wyl Thirsk, the son of the Morgravian general. His father dies in battle and the king Magnus, who is also a friend, promises him Wyl will be general like his father, even though he is only a young man at the moment. He also promises his son Celimus, the future king, will be a blood brother to Wyl, just like the two old friends have been. The biggest issue is that Celimus is a cruel young man and Wyl, upon arriving at the riyal city, can't seem to hide his opinion. Everything comes to a final twist when old king Magnus dies and his son is now free to do as he pleases. Betrayals and hidden plans follow but Wyl has a secret: Wyl had a kind gesture towards Myrren, a woman condemned and killed for being a witch, and she bestowed a gift on him. When the unthinkable happens, Wyl's gift is finally revealed and he can't believe what he is now able to do. Will there be any way to escape Celimus' influence and terrible pursuit?

There will be some spoilers included ahead!

High fantasy isn't usually the genre I look for the most but here and there, something does catch my eye. However, I must confess that, once more after so long in the pile, I was no longer as excited to read this one and, having had another book in a different genre by the author in 2019 and it being only average to me, I was really more interested in just getting another book out of the pile.

I'll start with what I liked the most: the world building of any fantasy world, no matter the actual genre, is probably the best thing about any fantasy story. It can be true author would use influences of other authors or things but to me it is always such a thrill to think someone had to think and imagine and plan so many details and situations, and often in big books as fantasy ones tend to be, that can certainly be a feat. There were elements in this world I liked, not as much for their uniqueness but for the sheer ability to place them all together in something that somehow made sense.

That said, no fantasy world is as captivating if not for the characters in it and in that regard, I must start my complaints... Wyl is a great hero and protagonist because he is one of those amazing characters who can be only good! Even in doing things we might label as being in "grey areas", his attitude and moral code never falters. The issue is with everyone else, or someone is bad or someone is good but no one has true complexity. Besides, the really bad characters always do awful things and I started to become incredibly annoyed at their actions and reasoning.

The book has four main moments, the way I see it: a prologue, in which we see Wyl's father die and king Magnus making promises; the first chapters when Wyl is starting to live in the royal palace and must learn how Celimus truly is like; then a few more chapters as Wyl must deal with the events following Magnus' death; and then until the end, the events following the big twist caused by the "gift" he received from the witch. All this happens in sequenced chapters, without any graphic clue as to the jump in time, except the chapter's number. It could be a bit confusing to get used to place situations in time in the early chapters.

The plot is very basic, Wyl has to maintain his good deeds while trying to fulfill the promises of helping Celimus any way he could, although Celimus is a master manipulator and doesn't want to change, while also dealing with military issues and then, to act as general when a possible renewal of the war against a neighbor kingdom - the reason his father died - might bring even more problems. One way to delay this might be a truce with the other king, an older man with no heir but with a daughter. Wyl travels as envoy to secure a possible marriage treaty but he falls for the young woman, Valentyna, and can't imagine her with someone as cruel as Celimus. All these steps and sequences are mixed up with countless secondary situations which aren't always interesting, with the addition of many characters who I struggled to like or even understand why they mattered.

Then, among so much cruelty and violence and people dying and many more unnecessary scenes which add nothing to what matters in this story, we finally learn what gift Wyl really received from the witch. It was actually quite exciting to be honest, so Wyl can change bodies if he is killed. When this happened, I was surprised the author would kill off the main character too (others had already been killed for the sake of drama) but then what an amazing twist... however, you know all those special things Wyl could now achieve with this incredible element of surprise? Spying, planning, helping friends, deceiving enemies under the disguise of a new identity? 

Ahh, unfortunately in fact, Wyl is as surprised as we are and he makes mistakes, which he should prevent so others couldn't guess but then some immediately realize the truth and I can't explain how irritating that was, which means Wyl is always running against time or putting himself in complicated situations he didn't have to in the first place! This, along with the confusing parts and the annoying stuff the bad guys kept doing, kind of ruined part of the reading for me. Not even the possible romance between Wyl (in another body) with Valentyna was enough to make me change my mind.

Sadly, this ended up being average for me, as the other book by the author had been. In both I suppose I can say the ideas were great, but not the plot choices nor the general execution. After finishing this one, I've read reviews on the rest of the trilogy and that proved to be quite entertaining. I now have a good idea on how this probably developed and I sigh with satisfaction I don't feel like I need to read them myself to have an inkling on how everything ended anyway.

Grade: 5/10

Fiona McIntosh - The Perfumer's Secret

On the eve of the First World War, Fleurette, the only daughter of the wealthy Delacroix perfume house, is being forced to marry a man she loathes, Aimery De Lasset, head of the pre-eminent perfume manufacturer in France. It is only the cathedral bells tolling the rally to the frontlines on her wedding night that save her from sharing his bed.
When she receives a letter from Aimery's estranged brother warning against their union, Fleurette is left with the burden of a terrible secret. It is one that has the power to shatter the two families and their perfume empires once and for all.



Comment: I brought this book from the library the last time I was there. I was not really looking for it, but since it was available, I thought why not, hoping this would be an interesting story set during WWI, when WWII is a lot more popular in terms of setting.

In this book we meet Fleurette, a young woman who, when the story starts, is about to be married to a man she doesn't really like but since he is of an important family that also produces perfumes, her older brother thought it would be a good idea for them to marry, to unite the power of the two families as perfumers of excellence.

However, since WWI starts precisely at the moment and all the men of the area have to leave, the marriage isn't consummated which happens to be something quite important, considering the secret the brother of her newly acquired husband is about to tell her. How will things be after the men return from war? How can Fleurette deal with the repercussions of what the secret will mean to the family? And how can she resist the fact her husband's brother is much more in tune with what she always imagined a husband should be?

I actually had the notion this author wrote fantasy. I checked and she did but more recently her releases have been more in the romantic historical field. I was quite surprised but since these days I'm not as devoted to pure fantasy as I was in the past, I imagined this would be a good way to "test" the author's writing voice and to see if I'd like to read more things by her. I'm still debating that...

This story started out well. I think the emotions and the situation depicted, the time in which the story was set, it all made it understandable why the characters acted a little stiff and why there was no obvious connection between the couple, so recently married. I was looking for to see how being away from her husband would influence Fleurette's behavior, since it was rather obvious she was to fall in love with his brother Sebastian. We are even told Fleurette was never in love.

In general, I'd also say none of the characters is really developed beyond the basics and the expected. Not very well developed nor with enough characterization layers for me.

It was also interesting to have so many references to the art of creating perfumes and how the different elements are blended together... although this information, inserted in the narrative, was not as detailed as perfume lovers might like. However, in the end of the story there is a note by the author on how she did her research and how she visited places to see live how the plants/flowers are taken care of before being used. This was quite interesting but, again, it's just superficial information so those who want to know more can look for it, those who don't don't feel overwhelmed by details.

The problems, for me, begin as the story moves along. The arrival of the husband's brother and the secret he brings turn things into quite a drama fest. This wouldn't be so negative if the characters were easy to connect with but the way things are written makes it look as if they are quite clichéd in some of their behavior. Then the secret affects people's lives, who they can be with and marry, how the families could be seen by outsiders, and the way the author chose to move things along was to simply turn the discovery of the secret into a melodramatic confrontation and the solution was just...silly, in my opinion.

The end seems to intend to show us the main couple, Fleurette and Sebastian, have their HEA, the perfume business doesn't change at all in the big scheme of things which leads me to conclude this was just average and not that captivating, overall. Some details were interesting but nothing so amazing that would make me runt o read more by the author.

Grade: 6/10