The Amaranthine Chronicles Complete Series by Tiffany ShandMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Amaranthine Chronicles – made up of Betrayed By Blood, Dark Revenge, and The Final Battle – was a fun quick read, although it wasn’t quite all that I had expected.
The story promises us so much: lies and deception, chaos and the promise of justice, centuries of outlaws, deadly magic, lost love, the missing and the murdered, past enemies, unnatural creatures, betrayal, powerful artefacts, and many other aspects. It’s a lot to deliver, and the books make a serious attempt to give it us all. However, I feel as though there was far too much attempted in so few pages.
Rather than showing us these things, we’re told about them. We know each of these things exist, to some degree, but rather than slowly coming to light they are thrown at us in full. I know some people enjoy such stories – they like to know that this and that exist, they like to know how things are without any questions hanging in the air – and such things are extremely frequent in these short stories that come together to make one short series, but I favour when things slowly emerge. I like the mystery of the unknown; I like to watch as things slowly unfold. I like it when things slowly come to light, instead of simply being. Sadly, for me, it felt as though things simply were with this one.
That is not to say this is a bad read – far from that – it simply means it wasn’t quite the read for me. I appreciate the story, I think it had a lot to it, but it just wasn’t told in a way that appealed to me.
I think, truthfully, the big issue for me was my lack of real understanding. As I’ve already said, things simply seemed to be. Mostly, this applies to the world building. I feel as though I never really understood the world. Certain aspects of the world, sure; but the world as a whole, not so much. I felt as though only the most important aspects were explained: I kept waiting for a light to be shone on the other aspects that were never quite in the clear. In large, this applies to the magic. There was a lot of fun to be hand with the magic, yet I never really came to understand it. I did not expect to know all the ins and outs – even in some of my favourite books this isn’t always the case – but I wanted to understand it better than I did. I felt as though I spent more time questioning aspects, curious as to how things worked, than appreciating what was occurring.
Had I understood things better, rather than simply knowing things were, I could have enjoyed this one a lot more – hence my statement of saying I believe the style of storytelling simply wasn’t for me. After all, there were many fun aspects to the story. A lot did happen, one thing quickly leading on to another without giving you a chance to catch your breath. It was nonstop action throughout, ensuring you were unable to put the book down. There were lots of twists, even if some of the twists were somewhat predictable, and there always seemed to be something more to find out. The characters were a lot of fun, watching the interaction between them was extremely enjoyable. As a whole, there was a lot to the story – it just wasn’t quite for me, in the end, and such a thing saddens me.
Whilst not quite the story for me, this one will appeal to a lot of people. It won’t be for everyone, as I’ve demonstrated, but it does have a lot going for it.
As a final note, I would like to thank the author for allowing me to advance read this.
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