When her brother duels the world’s most powerful wizard, Aino is cursed; if she can’t break the spell in time, she’ll be trapped—forever.
To Aino, the idea of spending her life warming the bed of a wrinkled old man—especially when it means life without her secretly betrothed love—is horrifying. But that is the fate that awaits her because her brother, Jouko, has dueled the famed wizard Vane—and lost.
At the last moment, the old man agreed to spare Jouko’s life in exchange for Aino’s hand, and the contract is sealed with magic that cannot be undone by anyone but Vane himself.
Aino swears she’ll never marry against her will, yet with only two days until the wizard comes for her, she must find a way to break the deep magic of the contract, or she’ll be Vane’s prisoner for life. Her efforts might free her from the old wizard, but her escape could mean merely exchanging one kind of prison for another.
Based on a Nordic myth in the Finnish Kalevala, which inspired Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Gandalf himself, comes Song Breaker from a USA Today bestselling author.
I was intrigued by the title and premise of this story.Its a great read for a the YA readers. Its full of magic and adventure I loved it.
I will say also that most every character in the book has some sort of growth in this way, except the mom. Oh, heavens. She was an interesting character for sure. The whole time I was reading I kept thinking A & E Pride and Prejudice's Mrs. Bennett. Constant, incessant, nagging, poking, whining, complaining...you get the picture. Now, although she wasn't my favorite character from the book, this personality worked for her. And I think it really helped Aino in her resolve of what she was going to do to protect her heart. Aino's dad is pretty much non-existent.
There's a sweet love story behind the tension of Aino, Vane and Jouko that had some sweet moments. It is in all reality what drives the story, because Aino loves Paavo, she refuses to attach herself to Vane.
The magical aspects were interesting and I liked the way they worked in the story. I'm interested to know if the way it is written in this story is how it is portrayed in the Finnish mythology story. How closely did the author follow the myth and how much was creative licensing to bring about this story?
I think if you're interested in mythology, this might be a fun read for you. Other readers are really enjoying it but for me it wasn't an absolutely love it read, but one that was ok. I have read many other books by this author and enjoyed those a lot. This one didn't quite catch me like the others did. I will say there were quite a few typos needing to be fixed that were distracting. A handful doesn't bother me but there were several scattered throughout.
4 stars
Annette Lyon is a USA Today bestselling author, a 4-time recipient of Utah’s Best in State medal for fiction (twice for novel-length works and twice for short fiction), and a Whitney Award winner for BAND OF SISTERS. She's the author of over a dozen novels, at least that many novellas, a cookbook, a popular grammar guide, and over a hundred magazine articles.
She’s a founder and regular contributor of the Timeless Romance Anthologies line of sweet romance stories, which she served as editor for its first three years. She's also one of the four co-authors of The Newport Ladies Book Club series. She graduated cum laude from BYU with a degree in English.
Annette is represented by Heather Karpas at ICM Partners.
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