Monday, July 25, 2011

The Unfinished Song: Book One Initiate


Title:  The Unfinished Song: Initiate
Author: Tara Maya
Review Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by: Ebony Dreams
Publisher: Misque Press
Release Date: March 2010
ISBN: 0983107319

Book 1 of The Unfinished Song
Book Genre: Young Adult Romance

Blurb:
DEADLY INITIATION
A DETERMINED GIRL...

Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.

AN EXILED WARRIOR...

Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don't kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father's wars and his mother's curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her... assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.


Review:

This Young Adult Romance was filled with many twists some expected and some not so expected, but no less pleasant.

In a fantasy realm so vivid that you can see the world Tara Maya has made right along with the characters coming to screaming life before you. It took a bit for me to warm to it, the beginning did drag a bit, but once I held on and dug in my heels a bit deeper, I was pleasantly surprised.

The world was intricately woven of what reminded me of Native folklore with Fae Lore. I absolutely loved the feeling that was invoked by this imagery. The story is filled with all the folklore of the fae intertwined with the human world. Only some can see the fae. The hero and heroine happen to be two who can.

Dindi is the heroine, a young girl of the Rainbow Labyrinth Tribe who just wishes to become a Tavaedi of her clan. If she fails at becoming a Tavaedi, she can never dance again. Her connection to the fae helps with the perception that she is strange because of all the issues that arise from the every day life chores that get messed up because she is off dancing with the fae instead of doing them. She is always doing everything wrong and basically discounted when it comes to being able to accomplish anything. Kavio is the hero of the story that gets exiled and has to leave his clan because he was accused of a crime he didn't commit. He makes the choice that he will leave and become better than who he was.

I liked Dindi and Kavio because they are the underdog in this story but you get to see them perform acts of kindness, courage, decency, compassion and most of all young love and needs. Now I am hoping that in the sequel Kavio and Dindi will form a better relationship and fall in love. This book showed that there was interest, when they first meet.

The story ends on a cliffhanger. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next.

I have to admit that it was hard for me to read this at first, because of my age and it being a YA romance. The only other issue I had is the terminology. I feel that if there had been some sort of glossary with an explanation of the terms it would have been an easier read.

I give this story 4 stars for originality, sweetness, depth and young love.

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