Greythorne by Crystal Smith
This is the sequel to BLOODLEAF which I previously reviewed (just click the word).
So, it's been quite a process to read this book and finish it. It's currently the 2020 pandemic of COVID-19, and life it just rough. It took me a couple months to finish this after I received it in September. I also thought this was the final book in the series, but like, that was entirely silly of me. I just looked it up on Amazon, book 2 of 3. Sun of a onion!
I was also reminded by an email not too long ago that I even have a book blog, which I haven't updated since February. Again, it's a pandemic. Just remaining functional throughout the ordeal has been an achievement in itself. Remember that: The world has been CRAZY lately, so just take extra time to give yourself the moments to read books over months instead of days. It's all good. A lot of rules are arbitrary and self-imposed/maintained because someone said something one time and it went everywhere. Run the dishwasher twice.
....anyways.
So, admittedly, it has been roughly two years and many books/moments inbetween the last book and this book. If I hadn't been randomly staring at book 1, Bloodleaf, on my bookshelf randomly one day, we wouldn't be here.
A fun brief recap of what I recall from book one (this is after reading book 2, without looking anything up, including my previous review): There's a lady who is a blood mage, which is a very bad thing according to some people who have power within the world, the throne is up for grabs but should go to her baby brother, she needs to protect her baby brother. There's a soldier dude and some kind of monk who bonded their lives to hers (and maybe her mom's?) for extra protection since she needs to live... for plot reasons probably. Lady sets off to another place to find protection from the organization that hates blood mages, while also not really knowing how to blood mage, sometimes there's a different language involved for spells. They get there, she dabbles about the area to see what is what, tries to help/persuade area to do better??? Save her kingdom??? Help her brother??? Falls in love with man who is important. He also loves her (?). Someone important dies?????? Book ends.
.....so based on that, I still wanted to read book 2 because there was something about the lady character that stuck with me. Obligatory amazon summary, "Princess Aurelia’s life is upended when the kingdom she thought she saved falls to ruin, a loved one is tragically killed in a shipwreck, and her home country turns against her. With no place left to call her own, Aurelia returns to Greythorne Manor—her best friend’s family mansion—only to find that Greythorne has sinister secrets of its own. With enemies closing in on all sides, Aurelia is caught in a mad fight to protect the only people she has left—her family. In her darkest moments, when all seems grim, will Aurelia find a spark of hope from a love she thought long lost? " AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Alright, so here's what shakes out in the first third of the book.
Turns out the lady's name is Aurelia, and she is currently staying at a pub/inn swindling people. She has a tiny broom closet of a room (which is pointed out a LOT), she plays a game of cards (which has a funny name, betwixt and between or something), and gets along famously with the staff at the pub/inn which is known as the Quiet Canary. Aurelia is trying to save up money to get on someone's boat, drinking something called Sombersweet wine (which induces visions of something that looks like her talking to her in mirrors). She ends up sneaking in to her brother's coronation at Greythorne manor (even though she didn't want to go). People find out she's there after lots of historical details are given about Greythorne manor. BUT, who should be in attendance at her brother's coronation? WHY THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KILL THE BLOOD MAGES OF COURSE! They're called the Tribunal(? - I am refusing to look things up for my amusement now) and man, do they ever want the princess Aurelia dead. So then she runs away to the Quiet Canary, but somewhere in there she picked up Zan, who was her love interest last book, and he allegedly died I guess, but surprise, he's still alive and relevant! But also, they engage in some bedsheet antics, and he accidentally kills her! Whoops! But, remember there's a blood pact from book one, so actually the monk man (Simon) dies instead! Dun dun dunnnnnn It turns out that if she touches him, his very being starts just stealing her soul.... for plot reasons. They're off to figure out some kind of magic thing in the woods because plot!
That's about a third of the way through the book. The rest of this is spoilers because I want to leave something here for my future self to find.
Aurelia goes to the woods with Kellan (soldier man who also is blood pact with her). They have Onal with them (who is like the maid/caretaker to Aurelia when she was growing up). It turns out, Onal is the sister of some guardian who lives in the woods who has lost their bell. They are a guardian between the other world, the Gray, and this world. However, somehow Aurelia has been dreaming in the gray, and the protector is like WHATTT and she can also turn into a fox and do any number of neat spells which we don't get to see much of. So anyways, Onal and foxladyprotectorthing argue in a sisterly manner, but it turns out they had an older sister who DIED under mysterious circumstances, maybe with a man they rescued one day. Backstory about them, things, but to be a TRUE protector, you need to wield THE BELL. The Bell has been lost since the older sister was murdered though and her lover/rescued man thing disappeared. So they got to find the bell. Aurelia goes on a spirit vision quest in the gray. yay.
They go on quest for Bell which is full of random hijinks because the people who hate blood mages have been using different forms of magic to make vessels. They kill people/animals, and then take the soul stuff of dead people and put it in the body to reanimate it with the new soul. ....so yeah. They're inconsistently problematic.
There's also another conqueror dude, who through various things, was left to die? And Aurelia left him to die after blowing a ship in a way we've never seen her use magic before? And this is also what kills Onal?
At some point we lost Kellan and Zan, but like, yeah whatever.
At the end, Aurelia marches on Greythorne, which is where she believes the BELL to be. The people who hate Blood Mages have a bunch of reanimated dead things and she basically like EXTINGUISHES THEM all at once with very powerful magic... that seems to have very little impact on her? Where before she's like, ugh, I cast a spell, I'm very aware of how much power I've used -woe is meeee-.
Aurelia proceeds to go into Greythorne, has expositional conversation with person who hates Blood Mages, figures out that particular person is actually Onal's daughter because of a piece of clothing she's wearing with four buttons shaped like LILLIES. Oh, Zan is also there because he's been tormented or something in order to make a portal to get a goddess that Onal's daughter wants to be the vessel for. Kellan is there at some point with fox lady? But his hand gets chopped off by Aurelia to release him from blood pact in order to save his life. She makes a point to think about how she's ending his current lifestyle of being a brilliant guard, etc, but still is like chop chop saving your life.... which, I want to know why she didn't just chop her own hand off instead....whatever. So she runs around to find the bell, and ends up finding it in the bell tower with onal's daughter who has given her mortal wound. BUT YOU KNOW, TIME FOR BELL MAGIC. So the Bell lets the wielder travel into the Gray with their body and soul. Aurelia goes on another vision quest, but this time, she goes to Simon (monk blood pact man) before he died in time and had him sever her soul from her body and keep it safe. Then she prances around through time with Bell powers to see other people and give them key items (like a vial of her blood to her brother Conrad, the King, and calls in some favor with the conqueror on the sinking ship) before letting actual time continue to play out her fight with onal's daughter. EXCEPT, she uses the BELL and her own bloodline (since spoilers, turns out she's actually the granddaughter of Onal through her father), and makes Onal's daughter the next guardian of the forest spirit realm or something. Which, kicks the bad goddess out of Onal's daughter and makes her magical (this is unclear). With her last strength or something, Aurelia goes to Zan and is like KISSY KISS and gives him what's left of her life as she dies.... but she whispers to him, "Come Find ME!"
Book ends. But, there's an epilogue which implies that Zan had people help him find her soul where Simon hid it? Which is why I thought this was the end. BUT NO, there is a BOOK THREE.
....so anyways. If you have managed to stick around at this point, I'm upset with the book, but I still finished it, and I will read book three but probably out of anger more than anything. I guess there is still some aspect of kingdom saving to be done on some level.
Happy reading!
