Oh em gee. It's a book review. Yup! I don't think anyone else has been posting here (I haven't checked lol). Don't forget about this place!!! This will be relatively short, I think. I just finished this book last night, so I might as well review while it is fresh!
Title: The Northern Girl
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
Series: Chronicles of Tornor (book 3)
# Pages: 470
Main Characters: Sorren, Arré, Paxe, Isak
Warnings: girlxgirl sexuality, hints to sex scenes but nothing graphic, alcohol/drug use (warning? Uh, I guess?)
First I will talk a bit about the author. I love her to death. <3 If it weren't for her books, I wouldn't have gotten into reading at all. The first book I read by her was Dragon's Winter; my friend let me borrow it in 9th grade...and this friend, well, she hardly ever read. EVER. Wasn't her thing, so if she read it and enjoyed it, I could, too. Ever since reading that book, I've enjoyed reading, and really...only reading fantasy! Fantasy is the way to go! And that is the genre Lynn sticks to (and sci-fi). But she is specialized indeed. She was a pioneer of her time because she was one of the first (if not THE first) authors to incorporate LGBT characters into fantasy novels and make them the stars; she is a lesbian herself, so yeah. The majority of her books have gay characters, but this one I just read has lesbian characters.
The Northern Girl is the third and last book in the Chronicles of Tornor series. The copyright date is 1980! I read the first book for a school project in 11th grade, and that one was written in '78 or '79. Yeah, wow. But that doesn't matter. Anyhoo, all three of these books are loosely related. The only things similar really are the locations. I found the second book to have even less to do with the first and third. TNG really ties into the first book quite well, so it would've been nice if it came after this one...because there are parts of the plot that deal with characters in the first book, although in this one, they are simply legends, people that may or may not have existed.
So what's it about? Well, I can honestly tell you that there isn't much to it. 470 pages of rather bland stuff! Lol. That's sad, isn't it? I described to my mom that this book was like a straight line on a graph. There were no real ups or downs. It was just "good" all the way through. Something to read and be slightly entertained by, but nothing that was like "OMG" or incredibly exciting or sad or bad.
Sorren is a girl living as a bondservant to a nice lady named Arré Med. She lost her parents years ago, so she came to live and work on the Med land. She isn't anything like the other people in the area though because she is tall and blonde. Everyone else is rather short and dark-skinned, dark-haired. They call her the "northern girl" because of her features...and her name, Sorren, is one of a legendary woman from the North (an actual character in the first book of the series). She has powers that let her see the past, and she keeps seeing visions of this tower/keep. It is Tornor Keep of the North, and she plans on traveling there when her time as a bondservant is up. This is the underlying premise for most of the story, but there are other problems afoot!! But first I must say that Paxe is her lover...she is the guard captain of the area, and a whopping 23 (?) years older than her. Lol. Yes, quite the age difference!
Anyhoo, the main conflicts in the story have to do with swords being smuggled into the city. In the city there has been a ban on any edged weapons for years and years, and then all of a sudden, swords keep appearing. The Council brings this up, and the blame is put on the Ismenin family. Smuggling, attempted assassinations, and some other suspicious things later and...well, there's a solution. I can't really go into it because I don't want to spoil stuff! Although, with the way I'm describing it, there doesn't seem to be much to spoil, eh? XD
It's gotten late, which is why I have to rush. ^^; Uh, but yeah. I would recommend this book if you are looking for something low-stress to read...something to keep you busy. Honestly. There is little romance, very little action, and yet I somehow enjoyed it still. Just not an incredible amount. The ending left a lot to be desired, too. Oh well.
Rating: C+
