Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Exile (Aurelia Series, Book 2)

by Anne Osterlund

Dedication: "For Tease, who I promised, and Dance, who made certain I followed through."

First Paragraph: "Hoofbeats thundered from behind. Imminent. Aurelia flung herself farther forward, low against the neck of her mare. Go, Bianca! she urged. The muscles beneath her shifted into a smooth firing of movement, and the gray horse burst into a more rapid pace, soaring over the stones and sand. The spring air turned cold as it sheeted across the exposed section of Aurelia's face, and the thinning fir trees along the road blurred into solid walls of forest green as the sounds of Bianca's hooves blended to a single continuous roar."

Review: I recently read and reviewed the first book in this series, Aurelia. This book review may contain some spoilers for the first book, which I highly recommend reading.

Exile starts right where Aurelia left off. Aurelia is on her way to learn more about her kingdom and its people, even if her leaving is not completely by choice. She'd always dreamed of traveling, exploring her kingdom. And now, she's more determined than ever to see the land, live as a commoner, and, most importantly, survive. Unfortunately, she never thought the surviving part would be so difficult.

Where to start? Oh yeah. Read Aurelia. Once you've read that pick of Exile and get started!

I really did enjoy this book. Aurelia is a very likeable character and she's always doing the right thing even if that means risking her own life to make it happen. Getting to see the way the main characters struggle with their choices they made in the first book can be frustrating and rewarding at the same time. You know it's not their fault but it's nice to get a sense that they are real. That they struggle with things any normal person would struggle with.

The only thing I did not like, just like in Aurelia, was the end. So far another book has not been announced but I can't imagine this series just ends the way Osterlund has it ending in Exile. At least with Aurelia there was some sort of closure. We figured out what was going on and who was responsible. At the end of Exile all we found out was that there has been a lot going on we weren't aware of and that Aurelia has a long fight ahead of her.

I'm just hoping this final book (assuming there will be a final book) is released sooner rather than later so I can read about it and hopefully remember what was going on.

Click here for Anne Osterlund's website.

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