Crystal Smith

As the people of Achlev struggle to survive the instability fueled by Dominic Castillion, Aurelia is determined to save them and her loved ones at any cost.

Greythorne

Jennifer

I've read Crystal Smith's debut Bloodleaf and thought it was a politically intriguing fairytale retelling. There were some really cool concepts and I thought Aurelia's emotional headspace was explored quite well. The sophmore effort Greythorne, continues to explore Aurelia's character and her internal conflict through a more expansive scope.

I would say that the characterisation is the biggest improvement from the debut. While Bloodlead focused mostly on Aurelia's narrative, Greythorne managed to accomplish character studies in other support characters as well - particularly Onal and Aurelia's brother. This was done by illustrating Aurelia's dreams and visions stretching generations back. I also thought Aurelia's familial love with his brother was pretty heartwarming and served as a relief to the tense moments in the novel.

I also likd Crystal Smith's writing style. I found both of her books quite effortless of plough through even with the political intrigue. I applaud her ability to keep the language straightforward and emotionally relatable. Even if the prose isn't fancy, I think the relatively quick pacing worked quite well here redeeming it a page-turning material.

While the characterisation improved amongst most of the characters, I still have concerns with the portrayal of the antagonists. I thought more fleshing out are required as right now they're easily the least likeable personnels in the novel. I often find myself wanting to skip past their narratives in favour of the chapters narrated by Aurelia. Another minor issue is the worldbuilding details. I thought the worldbuilding was quite good (without being convoluting) in Bloodleaf but I think a few more details in this historical Europe-inspired world would be useful in Greythorne as I sometimes found the transition between present and the dream scenes a little blurry.

Apart from these minor issues, I found Greythorne a pretty satisfying sequel and sophmore effort of the Bloodleaf series. Given the cliffhanger, I would be interested in finding out how everything wraps up in the next book!

N.B. This novel contains following content warnings: death, weapons, blood, and abuse
 
(3.5 stars out of 5)

Greythorne

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