I spent ages trying to understand why it was called Onyx and Ivory, then all of a sudden you get told. what a relief I hadnt missed something important. Im not joking, this is a big book and part of what I think is likely to be another popular series. Theres magic, romance and royalty and a king who may have been cut down in his prime. whats not to love? oh and my edition came with beautiful sprayed black pages thanks the fairyloot. Unfortunately the dogs have managed to sit on it & now it looks less appealing, so I’ll share a photo from good reads which is the publishers photo – but its worth looking on IG at how beautiful it looks.
This book is all about Kate, Traitor Kate to b
e precise. Her father attempted to assassinate the king and she was cast out and he executed. Luckily shes managed to find two very good friends to keep her company in her new life and they both know she has wilder magic, which is outlawed. She would be killed if anyone found out. Kates magic lets her communicate with the horses making her the perfect rider, or horse person in general but shes not popular with her colleagues and her talent is wasted.
The book centers on a fight for the crown, between two princes. One of whom grew up best friend with Kate. They also have to deal with drakes. Magic only works during the day, but the night drakes attack at night. you dont want to be about when they do. Suddenly they appear during the day, where they are coming from and who is controlling them is a mystery.
I liked Kate as a character, some who was desperate, to be like, wanted and welcomed. Desperate to get away from her past and what her father did, but also desperate for answers. Her ‘sidekicks’ are okay too, although having finished the book 12 hours ago I cant remember their names! Corwin, the prince is a bit of a dull boy, but I think his story is yet to come. There are two POVs in the book, and its obvious whose is whose. I much preferred the Kate narrative, as I think she was more involved in the story than Corwin.
This book is the first in another series – the Rime Chronicles. I’ll be keeping an eye out for the next book to follow the story, but Im conscious that at the moment there seems to be a continuing influx of fantasy sagas that awe in the YA bracket being pumped out. The storyline can only vary so much – and the more of them you read the more the characters can blur between books. Lets hope someone give us something completely different soon.
Official Description:
They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast, clinging to the fringes of society as a member of the Relay, the imperial courier service. Only those most skilled in riding and bow hunting ride for the Relay; and only the fastest survive, for when dark falls, the nightdrakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But it’s this magic that she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden, punishable by death or exile. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor her childhood friend, her first love, the boy she swore to forget, the boy who broke her heart.
The high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. Even as he waits for the uror—the once-in-a-generation ritual to decide which of the king’s children will succeed him—he knows it’s always been his brother who will assume the throne. And that’s fine by him. He’d rather spend his days away from the palace, away from the sight of his father, broken with sickness from the attempt on his life. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate.
With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime
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