Hey everyone! Happy Thursday and welcome one and all to my tour stop for Stolen Moon by Kimber Leigh Wheaton. Here on the stop today I will be featuring my thoughts on this incredible second outing in the Light Chronicles series, as well as hosting an awesome giveaway! Before we get to my thoughts, here's a bit about the book and our author:
Stolen Moon by Kimber Leigh Wheaton
(Light Chronicles #2)
Publication date: August 19th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult
Ethan ~ a mercenary leader trapped between his growing attraction to Katarina and his responsibility to protect his friends from the evil pursuing her.
Zebulon ~ a malicious sorcerer waging war as though it’s a game, caring nothing for the lives he destroys in his quest for power.
Drawn together by a moonstone medallion—an indestructible relic with immense magical power.
Katarina steals the medallion from Zebulon and flees in the dead of night. Together with Ethan and his mercenaries, she struggles to stay one step ahead of the sorcerer and his minions in a race against time to save her homeland. Fierce battles, ravenous monsters, and bloodthirsty brigands—those are no surprise. But Katarina never dreamed her greatest obstacle could be falling in love.
Kimber Leigh Wheaton
Kimber Leigh Wheaton is a YA/NA author with a soft spot for sweet romance and is a member of Romance Writers of America.She is married to her soul mate, has a teenage son, and shares her home with three dogs and four cats. No, she doesn’t live on a farm, she just loves animals. Her house is filled with dragons, though she does lament that they are the porcelain, non-flying variety.
Kimber Leigh is addicted to romance, videogames, superheroes, villains, and chocolate—not necessarily in that order. (If she has to choose, she’ll take a chocolate covered superhero!)
Her debut novel, Shadow Fire, is the first book in the Light Chronicles series. Watch for book two, Stolen Moon, a standalone sequel, coming August 2014.
Find Kimber Leigh Wheaton
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My Thoughts:
A few months ago, I was blessed enough to be chosen to review Shadow Fire (book one in this series) for its' blog tour. I was a little skeptical, as I hadn't been having much luck with the fantasy genre before I picked it up. Long story short (you can read my review of Shadow Fire by clicking here), I fell in love with Shadow Fire from the very first page. It didn't take long for me to decide that I had to get my hands on book two ASAP! Although I took a bit of a break between books, I was still just as excited to start this one!
Stolen Moon tells the stories of Katarina and Ethan in their adventure to take down the evil Zebulon! In terms of the plot, it does kind of read a little but like Shadow Fire, but the characters were different enough that the story really was its' own.
I guess I will start out with the plot this time. The plot to this one was actually a whole lot deeper than that of the first novel. This second outing had so much... more? Dare I say. More emotion, more love, more rage, just so much.. more! For instance, in book one Ashlyn had a pretty sad story, being chosen to save her village from evil forces and leaving her family behind to face the dangers of the unknown, right? Well... That's nothing compared to Katarina's family killing themselves to prevent being captured and sold as sex slaves, while Katarina was fighting from being defiled by pirates. Woah, deep, right? I won't go too much farther into the plot, but I will say that if you thought book one was lacking and were asking for more, book two did NOT disappoint.
You may be asking yourself, "this is the second book in this series, but can I read it as a standalone?" Although the blurbs and Goodreads say yet, I'm actually going to say no. Although I believe the intent was to have this be a standalone, I think it really relies a whole lot on knowing who some of the important players are. If you don't know how evil Delistaire was, you won't understand why Zebulon is such a big deal. If you didn't read the end of Shadow Fire, you don't know how some of our main characters came into being. That being said, Kimber Leigh does a pretty good job of recapping the first book, but still leaves out some of the more important things such as Freya's origins and Ashlyn/Zane's relationship. I would strongly suggest reading book one before tackling this one, if for no other reason than 'because it was amazing"!
As per the characters. I will just cover the main three. I LOVED the huge cast of this novel, it got a little confusing trying to place each person where, but once I did, I fell in love with everything Kimber Leigh had done. Katarina was one of the more interesting characters of hers that I have read. She was so strong, physically and mentally, and she was so loving. Katarina suffers great loss and still finds the strength to go on a fight for what is right. She is passionate and loves just as hard as she fights. Ethan was probably my favorite character. Can you possible imagine why? No seriously. He was such a well written male character that it was hard for him to not be my favorite. He was also both strong and passionate. Ethan was also strikingly emotional and we get to see that side of him that we often don't see in YA novels. We see many of Ethan's aspirations, hobbies, and passions throughout the story, and I thought that was a great touch to making him more personable. He also loves kids. Kimber Leigh, did you write this Ethan based on me? I'm beginning to thing yes... :P When it comes to our villain Zebulon, I won't beat around the bush, this dude was creepy. He says a few crude things to Katarina that left me with chills, but he is seriously evil. Seriously. He and Delistaire are so well written. I can always appreciate a great villain!
The fantasy element of this novel was spot on. Magic, mythical creatures, lore, etc, this novel had it all. I know I mentioned this in my review for the first novel , but I love a good fantasy novel. Can't get enough of them, but sometimes, sometimes I just can't do the "high" fantasy thing. Something about everyone wielding magic, dragons, etc just all has that "too much of a video game feel for me" and I have a hard time enjoying it. When I started reading Shadow Fire, I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, I have deemed this series "high fantasy", but it's unlike ANYTHING I have ever read before!
This book was an easy read that is suitable for mature-YA readers. It is a YA, but there are a few scenes of strong sexual tension, but nothing that YA readers aren't already used to reading!
There is so much I would like to continue to say about this book, but I think I will leave it at this. Kimber Leigh Wheaton has an absolutely phenomenal writing voice and I am so fortunate to have found this series. It is perfect for YA fantasy lovers who are looking for a great new read to get them out of their slumps! Clocking in at nearly 300 pages, this one isn't a light volume, but definitely worth your time investment.
All-in-all I am granting Stolen Moon, a well-deserved 4-star review! Much like its' predecessor, it was fun, fast paced, and a huge change of pace. One of the most unique and original fantasy reads I have read! Definitely save a space for this one on your TBR shelf folks!
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a Rafflecopter giveaway
BUY LINKS
Thank you all so much for stopping by for my stop on the Stolen Moon blog tour! Be sure to enter that great giveaway before you leave. Also, Mrs. Wheaton is an awesome lady who is super nice to all of her fans to give her a shout out! I learned last time that Kimber Leigh is a big Zelda fan, like myself, so she is A-OK in my books! What do you guys love about the fantasy genre? Let me know what you thought in the comments and thanks again for stopping by! Huge shout out to Giselle and the amazing team at XPresso Book Tours for allowing me to participate in this awesome tour! Until next time, Happy Reading!
Thanks for reviewing, Ethan. I'm glad you liked Stolen Moon! Ethan is by far one of my favorite male characters-- he evolved quite a bit while I was writing him.
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