The weather this weekend for forecast to be good, so I made sure to find a reading location with a good view of the outdoors so I could enjoy it whilst I read State of 
Sorrow. This was part of the March Fairyloot box, and lets be honest the cover is so beautiful its one you’d have to pick up and read if it wasn’t part of your regular book post.
This is book one in Melinda Salisbury’s new series ‘Sorrow’ which follows the Journey of Sorrow Ventaxis.
We start before Sorrow was born, at the signing of a peace treaty between two nations, Rhannon and Rhylla. Following the tricky crossing of the bridge between the two tragedy occurs and Rhannon changes, Smiling is outlawed, music is banned, colour disappears from their lives, in all ways. The world Sorrow knows is sad, and hard despite living in the palace, her father is not the Governor the people need and when Sorrow has to step in she realises how removed both she and her people are from the rest of the nations.
“Sorrow
For that is all she brings us”
First off, I really grew to love the name Sorrow, its so simple and effective. But the other names around her, Mael, Irris, Dain I just couldnt get on with, nor the similarity of the Rhannon and Rhylla – I got confused which one was which. repeatedly. The book is split into three, with each section providing a cryptic insight into the upcoming pages, my favourite was for Part Two, especially looking back it tells you so much.
We must not look at goblin men
we must not buy their fruits:
Who knows upon what soil they fed
Their hungry thirsty roots?
-Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”
The characters themselves were a different story, everyone had motives, questioned and the potential to be untrustworthy or traitorous. We only follow Sorrow so our view of the ‘truth’ is her view, but I’m sure in the following books some truths may be discovered to be less factual ( and I cant wait to discover which ones these are). I frequently found myself thinking ‘why dont you just….’ but then reminding myself that the easy solution isnt what Sorrows character would do ( and it would make a way shorter book!)
I dont want to spoil this book for you, so Im going to leave you with my view that this is definitely worth picking up and reading, Its one I would have chosen if I hadnt had it in my Fairyloot box, and I would have been happy with my choice.
One More Chapter 