Emberhawk by Jamie Foley: Review!

Happy release day to this incredible adventuresome fantasy that I adored! Read on for my review, A.K.A. why you need to read this book at once. 😉

Title: Emberhawk

Author: Jamie Foley

• Series: The Katrosi Revolution, #1
• Date read: March 6-10, 2020
• Rating: 5 stars
• Genre: Fantasy
• Age: YA
• Year pub: 2020
• Pages: 337 (paperback)
• Fave character: Ryon, Felix, and two slightly-spoiler-ish characters. 😀
• Source: The author
• Notes: I received a free ARC from the author and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.
• Links: Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Signed Copies • Other Bookstores • Author’s Website

Emberhawk is an absolutely delicious book, with swashbuckling adventure, a richly detailed world, and snarky characters I had a total blast reading about! I loved it so much!

I’m a huge fan of Jamie Foley’s Sentinel Trilogy, so I was thrilled to get to dive into the first book in a new series set in the same world! Emberhawk takes place over a thousand years before Sentinel and has a different feel but is an equally fabulous read. Sentinel fans, you’re going to love this book—and if you’re new to Jamie’s works, Emberhawk is the perfect book to start with! IT’S. SO. GOOD.

THE ADVENTURE

I was totally absorbed in this fresh take on a fantasy story, and just wanted to hang out with these characters forever. The plot kept me enthralled, following our main characters, and I love how there’s an exciting story on the surface that at first seems like a straight-up adventure, but also extra depth and schemes hidden beneath the surface that slowly comes to light, masterfully woven in.

There are secrets, spies, shifting alliances . . . tribes and settlers, a tyrannical empire . . . It was SO intriguing to follow the different political schemes threaded through the adventure and find out who’s working for who. All the characters were so multi-faceted. Nothing’s as it seems! There were some really thrilling twists, especially near the end, that had me shrieking. Eep! (Also, aaahhh! I need to find out what happened to a certain character! Where’s book two? *grabby hands*)

Snarky banter and humor, a bit of star-crossed lovers tossed in, a rich and layered world (I love the world-building so much!), and all of that on TOP of a super thrilling, adventurous tale . . . and all tied together with the fabulous writing I’ve come to expect of this author. It doesn’t get better than this! 😀

THE CHARACTERS

Our main characters Kira and Ryon make a fabulous pair. I loved them so much! Ryon is awesome and epic, and I love his heart of gold character. He’s just the best! Kira is a bit of a trapper/inventor and a spitfire. Their banter gives me life. XD I adored reading their story and I love them so much!

Not to mention the other fabulous characters! Some of them I feel like it would kiiind of be a spoiler if I mentioned their names? Especially with certain loyalties being up in the air for a lot of the book. XD But there were some EPIC side characters who really grew on me and I’m so excited to read more about them! A certain under-cover guy (you’ll know who it is by the end!) who’s one of my favorites, and a certain antihero assassin-type character who is verrry intriguing and I so hope there is more to his story!

Felix gets his own paragraph because Feliiiiix! XD Snarky fox elemental—what is not to love? He’s in the Sentinel Trilogy a bit and I was delighted to find him in this book as well! The snark, his way of dashing about on side-quests and sassing everyone and being absolutely epic, and turning into other cute or epic animals—aaahh! Just. This fox! He’s sooo much fun!

IN SUMMARY

Elementals, forest adventures, elemental fire and water magic, creepy d’hakka (huge tree-spider-scorpions! :O), different cultures and alliances, true love and friendship and siblings, arrows and fire and disrupted ordinary lives, a princess, an assassin, nefarious plots, lovable characters and snark and romance . . . There is SO much excitement and awesomeness in this book! *hugs Emberhawk forever*

I just adore it and I NEED book two! Fantasy lovers, here’s another book that needs to go on your to-read list ASAP. A complete delight! ❤

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Facebook Live (March 10, 2020)

Also, if you see this before 8pm Central on release day (March 10), be sure to drop by at that time for a Facebook Live party on Jamie Foley’s Facebook page with Q&A, giveaways, and the cover-reveal for book 2, Silverblood! 😀

Have you read any of Jamie Foley’s books? What do you think of this one? Thanks for reading! 🙂

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It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel snarky (Sage by Jamie Foley: Blog Tour + Giveaway + Review!)

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Jamie Foley’s latest book, Sage! I’m SO excited! 😀

Read on for my review, and don’t forget to scroll to the end to check out the giveaway and other tour stops! ^_^

Title: Sage
Author: Jamie Foley

• Date read: March 19, 2018
• Rating: 5 stars
• Genre: Fantasy / Modern-ish/Post-Apocalyptic-in-another-world? / Christian
• Age: YA
• Year pub: 2018
• Pages: 386 (ebook)
• Series: The Sentinel Trilogy, #3
• Fave character: JET. And a certain character I cannot name because SPOILERS. But he’s awesome. 😀
• Source: The author
• Notes: I was given a free e-copy of this book by the author (thank you!) and these opinions are entirely my own.

It’s really hard to review the final book in a trilogy without spoilers, as I’ve mentioned before; try “almost impossible” with this one! O_O My word. But I’ll do my best. It just may be slightly vague…

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD THOUGH. I’m always nervous coming into the final book in a series, because WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY PRECIOUS FRIENDS? It’s the finale, and stakes are high, and is it going to live up to the previous books, and what will the ending be like? And the first two books were ALREADY so intense. O_O But Sage absolutely lived up to and surpassed all the expectations. There were HUGE things going down, and some major twists (like… meep!), but it was all gloriously epic and exciting, and still just FUN on the side, and I love the characters and IT WAS GREAT.

I’M JUST VERY HAPPY WITH THIS SERIES. It can get a little intense or weird sometimes, and occasionally all the fantasy elements can confuse me (with elements and archangels and aaall the fascinating complexity) but I think I have it down now. This is such a fun, exciting, well-written fantasy-post-apocalypse-in-another-world kind of series, and the characters are some of my FAVORITES, and I just love these boooooks! *flails around*

I can’t really say anything about the plot of this third book, especially for anyone who hasn’t read Arbiter yet. (So many huge spoilers in that, not to mention this one…) I’ll just say that it’s just as exciting and intense as the first two books, but with sweet moments and TWISTS, and character banter thrown in—because what’s the end of the world without some snark?

Speaking of snark, there is still MUCH of that, and the dialog makes me grin, and the character interactions are priceless—sheer gold, I tell you. ❤ Not to mention this book having seriously EVERYTHING, including rebellions and escapes and fights in arenas and shapeshifters and a modern-but-fantasy-but-futuristic feel, and all the awesome Aether abilities/powers (so fascinating), and all of it!

I JUST LOVE THESE CHARACTERS SO MUCH, OKAY. Again, I really can’t talk about what’s going on with them, but I love Darien, and Jet (!!), and Sorvashti, and Tera, and a certain snarky fox (so fun!), and Kohesh cracks me up (oh my goodness! XD), and there’s a CERTAIN OTHER CHARACTER I LOVE who I can’t talk about because of so many spoilers, my goodness. But if you’ve read Arbiter you mayyy have a slight idea about who he is, and I love him! 😀 His character arc is the. best. ^_^ (But Jet though. Jet is my absolute FAVE.)

I love how Darien, Jet, Sorvashti, Tera, and said-unnameable character (and Aleah, I suppose), are all coming so far and learning/growing so MUCH and just—let me hug them! ❤ And I still love Darien and Jet’s buddy-not-buddy, apprentice/mentor sort of roles, and how far they’ve come, but how they’re still the same despite it all, in their own way. THEY MAKE MY HEART HAPPY.

Speaking of characters and my heart being happy, there’s an absolutely ADORABLE romance or two or three, which, again, I cannot discuss. SO MANY SPOILERS. Gaah. But I love-love-love these couples. 😀 There is so much adorableness, it just knocks me over. I CAN’T.

There are a couple things I wasn’t sure if I’d be okay with, but… you know… I think I’m good with it? I ended up quite satisfied on pretty much every count. 😀 (I think I randomly wanted more of Thracian and he was hardly in it, but that’s okay I guess. And more of Jet’s POV, but I always do, so I’ll stop now. XD) And it’s kinda intense and might be better for older teens? (Really bad at age recommendations, here.) But honestly I have no actual complaints. I really enjoyed it!

Overall, it’s an EXCELLENT young adult fantasy series and is SO UNIQUE (like seriously, how unique can you get? I don’t even know how to classify its genres…) and I love it to bits. This author is so absurdly talented, and the characters and snark and fantasy-thriller-ness are gold. If you haven’t, I highly recommend checking out the first book, Sentinel!

(And if you’ve read Sage, please talk to me because I MUST DISCUSS SPOILERS BEFORE I BURST. Message me or leave a spoiler-tagged comment or something. XD)

Some Favorite Quotes (Do you know how hard it is to get non-spoiler quotes? VERY HARD. But these are a few…)

Step four: return to Altair and find any survivors. And try not to let Jet kill me.

***

“You’re not teaching her because you think the way she talks is cute.”

Jet didn’t respond. Tera glanced at him in the mirror’s reflection—he stood perfectly still.

“You can’t prove that.”

Tera laughed out loud. “So I was right!”

Jet’s shoulders slumped. “She’d kill me.”

“So we have an understanding, then.”

***

“Your moping is like nails on the blackboard of my soul.”

“You’re an awful little rodent, Felix Kael Tae,” Aleah snapped.

***

Jet breathed like a bull. “You have three seconds before I throw you out the back hatch.”

***

“Spicy, mild, or no spice?”

“All of the spice.” Sorvashti crossed her legs. “None of the poison.”

Jet leaned over the map. “Give her all my spice.”

***

“…just waltz away?”

“I was planning on walking purposefully.”

***

“I was so worried.”

“Naw, I’m fine. … Heard you died.”

“You look super broken up about it.”

***

How do you turn your stupid spear on?

About the Book

Ancient elementals awaken, fracturing a dying world to its core.

Teravyn Aetherswift returns to the land of the living, but everything seems unfamiliar… including her little brother. Zekk offers help, but can an alluring Lynx be trusted?

Sorvashti finally has everything she ever wanted, so the last thing she wants to do is run after traitors. But she won’t leave Jet’s side—unless the horrifying truth about his mother tears them apart.

Darien is sick of being used and lied to. But if he stands up for what’s right, he’ll pay the price with his life… or the lives of those he loves.

Purchase on Amazon or a signed paperback

Check out the rest of the series!

When a meteor storm knocks out the power grid, the supernaturally gifted become pawns in humanity’s struggle for survival.

The Sentinel Trilogy is an apocalyptic fantasy series that takes place on a unique world with ancient powers and elementals, but familiar human struggle.

Clean. Ages 12+

LINKS:

Trilogy Boxed Set: Amazon Kindle – Signed Paperbacks – Goodreads

Sentinel (book 1): Amazon Kindle – Signed Paperback – Goodreads

Arbiter (book 2): Amazon Kindle – Signed Paperback – Goodreads

Vanguard (prequel novella, formerly released under the title Viper): Amazon Kindle – Signed Paperback – Goodreads

About the Author

Jamie Foley loves strategy games, home-grown berries, and Texas winters. She’s terrified of plot holes and red wasps.

Her husband is her manly cowboy astronaut muse. They live between Austin, TX and their family cattle ranch, where their hyperactive spawnling and wolfpack can run free.

Website — Facebook — Twitter — Instagram

Giveaway Time!

Want to dive into a new world or in need of a good book? Enter to win a digital $10 Amazon gift card (3 winners) by signing up for Jamie’s newsletter via the form.

>>> Entry-Form <<<

Blog Tour Schedule

Saturday, March 10^th

• Blog Tour Kickoff – Unicorn Quester

Monday, March 12^th  

• Interview – Siren & Solider Book Reviews

Tuesday, March 13^th

• Book Review – The Left-Handed Typist 

Wednesday, March 14^th

• Book Spotlight – Backing Books 

Thursday, March 15^th

• Interview & Review – Lu’s Reviews

Friday, March 16^th

• Book Spotlight – Laura VanArendonk Baugh 

Saturday, March 17^th

• Book Review – Lands Uncharted

Monday, March 19^th

• Interview – Musings of an Elf

Tuesday, March 20^th

• Book Review – The Page Dreamer (You are here!)
• Book Spotlight – Gillian Bronte Adams

Wednesday, March 21^st

• Book Spotlight – A Little Southern Grace

 Thursday, March 22^nd

• Interview – Unicorn Quester

 Friday, March 23^rd

• Book Spotlight/Book Review – Liv K. Fisher

 Saturday, March 24^th

• Blog Tour Wrap-Up – Unicorn Quester

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Have you checked out this series yet? Because I totally recommend it! (If you can’t tell. XD)

You can read my reviews for the first two books in the series (as well as the prequel novella, Viper/Vanguard) by clicking the covers below…

 

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Dream away in those pages . . .

~ The Page Dreamer / Deborah O’Carroll

Arbiter by Jamie Foley

Title: Arbiter

Author: Jamie Foley

• Date read: May 20, 2017
• Rating: 5 stars
• Genre: Fantasy / Suspense / Post-Apocalyptic (other world) / Christian
• Age: YA
• Year pub: 2017
• Pages: 282 (paperback)
• Series: Sentinel Trilogy, #2 (see my Double Review for Sentinel and Viper)
• Fave character: Jet!
• Source: From the author
• Notes: I received a free copy of this book from the author for review purposes (many thanks! :)). I was not required to write a positive review; these opinions are my own
• Links: Amazon (Kindle/Paperback) • Signed Paperback • Goodreads • Author’s Website

How do I even review this? Nearly everything that happens are spoilers of awesomesauce levels for anyone who’s read Sentinel, so it’s extremely hard to review this book. XD I will do my best to do so without spoilers, however! *tries to be vague*

Darien, Sorvashti, Aleah, and of course Jet are back for more epic shenanigans. *hugs them all* Jet is my FAVE as usual! 😀 He’s awesome. ❤ I’d say this book is primarily about Jet. We still get a LOT about Darien, since Darien’s the hero of course, but we get a lot of Jet’s POV and story, which I loved!! 😀 Darien is actually coming a long ways from where he was in book one. I was super impressed that he’s learning things and just coming further in general! *hugs Darien* I mean, he still has a lot to learn. >.> Ahem. But still.

IT’S SO INTENSE. *collapses* If book one seemed intense, this one was as much or more so. O_O I’m pretty sure I read this thing faster than I should have and consequently hardly remember bits of it, because I just could NOT stop zipping through those pages I was glued to! (Don’t ask about the logistics of this sentence. Just—don’t. Ahem.)

Other interesting thiiiings:

• There’s a new villain who, can I just say, is very interesting. O.o
• The settings range from snowy forested mountainsides to a tropical jungle island, so that was super cool!
• Somebody loses their memory AND IT’S AWESOME AND HILARIOUS. XD That’s one of those “tropes” that can be hard to do well but I LOVE it and it was particularly awesome in this. 😀 This book is worth it just for that. XD *zips lips and says no more*
• THE FRUIT. *dies of laughter* Nobody will understand this until reading chapter 14, but I thought it was epic. XD Ahhh, Jet is awesome. 😀

Downsides?

• It might be a little scarier than the first book… Maybe? So, kind of violent and intense, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, I’d recommend caution.
• I did miss some of the extra humorous banter of Sentinel. There’s tons of funny lines in this one too, especially regarding the memory-loss thing, but overall this one seemed a little more serious? Could be my imagination. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot to laugh at in this one, which I loved! But things are getting more serious in the world as well, so… anyway. I don’t think that’s particularly a downside, necessarily, just saying the books are different. XD

I’m going to confess that I did the unthinkable… I actually peeked at the end. >.> I KNOW. So awful of me. But I was SO worried I just had to peek and make sure a certain something would be okay at the end before I could settle back down and enjoy it. Ahem. Don’t be like me, but I thought I would confess. XD After that I was able to enjoy it, and WOW did I enjoy it! 😀 It’s just a blast. Some of it was just a wee bit intense for me until I made sure some of it would be mostly okay, is all. But I’m a wimpier reader than some, so. 😉

I still love this fantasy world! It’s more on the dystopian/post-apocalyptic side, with remnants of technology, fantasy things going on (so many!) and an emerging spiritual world and so on. I’m enjoying learning more about this world and history and the different races, and the different Aether powers—including a couple new ones we didn’t run into in the first book! I love these Aether “superpowers”/“gifts” and how they tie into the story. 😀 Especially the mind-y things, since those are the “Arbiter” gift, which is what this book is named after… largely because that’s what Jet is and as I said, this book is somewhat about him. Also, I was very glad I’d read Viper (the prequel novella) because there’s a bit of harking back to that… and I will say no more because spoilers. 😉

But but FANTASY THINGS. Which I can’t say anything about, either… I will merely say that the Serran idea is fascinating, and a certain re-appearance of a character near the end (watch for a fox) seems to usher in a whole new look at fantasy things which has me very excited! 😀 (WINGS THOUGH. Ahem.)

SO MANY FEELS TOO. *collapses* Let’s just say I’m super worried/stressed at CERTAIN CHARACTERS’ life decisions near the end there. *cough* NO. STAHP. DON’T DO THIS!! D: I hope they will turn out okay in the next one. *squirming* I’m positively dying to read the final book, Sage, especially with that last chapter! Similar to book one (Sentinel), this ended not exactly on a cliff-hanger, but more on a “wait, that’s it? I NEED THE NEXT SCENE!” sort of place. Verrrry much looking forward to the final book and how all of this is going to turn out! O_O Just so much HAPPENED in this book! *flails* I need to know how this all turns out! (I also want more of Thracian. Because he’s cool.)

Anyway, definitely start with Sentinel, but I totally recommend this book as well, and it’s just as good as Sentinel, and in some ways better! 🙂 If you like suspenseful fantasy with a touch of technology and lovable characters and humor, that’s just super well written and generally AWESOME, definitely give this series a try! 🙂

Have you read any of these yet? Do they intrigue you? (I hope so, because they’re so unique and cool! XD)

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Dream away in those pages . . .

~ The Page Dreamer