Since I have been in love with starting new segments recently, I figured what the hell, let me start another one. This one is called Richard Reads, mostly because it sounds cool. And of course, I love to read. And maybe, just maybe, I am proud that I can read… wait what? At this point I am simply rambling, so lets get on to the book.
Okay, so let me get this confession out of the way. I am a bit of a S.M. Boyce fanatic. Not in like a borderline stalker way or anything, I just love her books. I discovered this series by following Boyce on Twitter. I think one of my other followers did a Follow Friday or something, and that’s how I found her. If I remember correctly the first book was free for a time on Kindle so I bought it (I think it is permanent free now). I hate Kindle books but gave it a read anyway. And at that point I was hooked. I bought the paperback of both the first and second book, and the rest is history.
Heritage is book three in her Grimoire Saga. I’d strongly suggest you read books 1 and 2 first, but you could probably follow along if you started with Book 3. I won’t go into a long synopsis of the book, you can read that anywhere. But the this book jumps right in with the main Character Kara, a human who has found herself in Ourea, a world accessed from our world through Lichgates. Through a rather odd series of events, Kara is a Vagabond and has a powerful book called a Grimoire.
Book three starts with training. Kara’s Training, Braeden training someone, the recent Vagabonds are training, everyone is training. And to be honest we spend a number of chapters on training. This is my only problem with the book. The first two books have an aggressive story pace. A lot is happening, even between the lines. But book three starts out much slower. A little too slow compared to the other books. It became clear to me that the third book was deliberately putting things in place for the grand finale in Book 4.
But the thing with S.M. Boyce is that that even when things slow down you are not bored. As a writer there are are certain authors that when I read them I think, I wish I could write this well. S.M. Boyce is one of those writers.
Characters: All your favorites are back and still kicking ass in their own ways. The characters are continuing to grow. And I found myself thinking back to Kara and Braeden in book one, and you really see the growth. But even looking back to the start of book 3 to the end, you see there is some big time growth in these characters. These really feel like real people. I sometimes wonder if Boyce is writing fiction, or if she has stumbled through a Lichgate and really met these people.
Plot: This is a book where the whole point is to thicken the overall plot of the saga. The book’s individual plot is a bit soft. With the training, romance, and self discovery really keeping the timeline fairly stagnant. If you have read the first two books you will have little problem with the plot of this book, because you will see the big picture.
So here is the thing folks, this is a saga. You can’t expect Book 3 to really stand alone. Boyce does a pretty good job of trying to make sure even new readers won’t be lost. But, lets face it: You need to read the first two books in this series. Not just because I said so, but because so many other say so. This is a fantasy series that is set up to stand the tests of time. I suspect you will see this series brought up time and time again. Boyce knows what she is doing, and you can bet I will have the fourth Paperback in hand just as soon as it releases.
Here is my suggestion. If you are new to Boyce. Go get Lichgates, the first book, free on your Kindle. Read it. You will fall in love with it. So then go buy the paperbacks of all three books. Then take those books, read them, hold them, and fall in love with them too. And by the time you are done, you will be as in love with Boyce’s work as I am.
LINKS:
S.M Boyce on Twitter, Facebook, and Patreon
