Today, I’d like to welcome Allison D. Reid to The Write Stuff. Allison is sharing a review of her book Journey to Aviad, and I know she would be very happy if everyone would pass this along far and wide. The more eyes on our reviews, the better. Thanks!
5.0 out of 5 stars Clean, great, intelligent fantasy for teens to adults!
By Y Henryon March 30, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
What a wonderful fantasy book! My teenage daughters and I share a love of fantasy books. It is even better when we can read the same books and share our thoughts about it and our favorite parts, etc. It isn’t easy to find clean fantasy books that are not just silly and juvenile. This is in the same vein as Lord of the Rings. Not as grand as that , but still fairly close. The characters seemed real and not shallow. And the way the author wrote made you feel as though you actually were there experiencing all beauty and emotions of her world.
BLURB
Threatening clouds and fierce storms besiege the city of Tyroc. More frequent and powerful than ordinary storms, young Elowyn, a weaver’s daughter living in the outskirts of the city, senses something disturbing and unnatural about them. She soon realizes that the storms are but a warning sign of much more frightening things yet to come. Terrifying wolf-like creatures emerge from the depths of the wilderness at the bidding of a dark master. His name found only among the crumbling pages of ancient texts, the re-appearance of Alazoth and his Hounds is a dark omen for the people of Tyroc and beyond. Only legends remain of the heroes and prophets whose blood was shed ages ago to banish him into the abyss, which should have remained his prison for all time. How he has been released is a mystery, but all the old stories agree that death and destruction are sure to follow. With the Hounds inching closer each day, the city of Tyroc caught up in religious and political turmoil, and her home life no less turbulent, Elowyn has nothing left to rely on but her meager courage and a budding faith in Aviad, the Creator. She and her sister, Morganne, set out on a remarkable journey that challenges everything they have ever known about themselves, the world, and the path that Aviad has laid out for them.
Journey to Aviad is Permafree! Download HERE
Allison D. Reid
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Allison D. Reid was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her love for medieval fantasy was sparked by the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis, which fed both her imagination and her spiritual development. When at the age of thirteen her family moved to Germany, her passion for medieval history and legend only increased, and she found herself captivated by the ancient towns and castles of Europe.
Allison returned to the United States to study art and writing at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. She earned her B.A. under the tutelage of the well-renowned and prolific writer Andrew Salkey, a student of her other great inspiration, and the father of fantasy, J. R. R. Tolkien. After graduating from Hampshire College, Allison moved to Connecticut. There she got the opportunity to attend seminary and further explore her faith before returning to her home state of Ohio.
Allison now lives in the Miami Valley area with her husband and children. She continues to work on her first published series while taking care of her family, editing for other independent writers, and managing a home business.
That’s an excellent review. The reference of being “in the same vein as Lord of the Rings” snagged me. I hopped over to Amazon to check out the blurb.
Maybe it might be helpful to post the blurb after the review? Just a thought . . . 🙂
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Glad it intrigued you, Mae. I thought about including the blurb, too, but I was trying to keep these shorter than some of the things we do. Still pondering that one. Clicking on the Buy Link will pull the blurb up, so I was hoping that might work for those who wanted more info on the book than the reviewer’s opinion. But nothing is set in stone around here, so perhaps I could include the blurb and not the author bio? Any thoughts on that?
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Since I was also reading comment (lol) I’ll agree with Mae. If the blurb is first, we get a scope of the book before reading the review. And yes, if you want to keep them short, forgo the bios. 🙂 xx
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Mae was actually wanting me to ADD the blurb, which I didn’t include originally. I’m good with that, but I think I’d prefer to lead with the review, since that’s the main focus of the post and series. I’ll gladly follow the review portion with the full blurb and the author bio, for those who want to know even more. (As opposed to just a link to Amazon for those).
I’m not going to worry about how long the post is. I’ve decided to do what I usually do with longer ones, and that is to leave them on the main page in full for a week, then insert the “Read More” line before uploading the new reviews the following Tuesday. At that point, the entire post will still be up on its own page, but the Home Page stays a bit neater.
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Well that sounds like a good plan Marsh! Yes, the read more is always a good thing. 🙂
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I think it should work, and if not, I’ll go with Plan B. The GOOD thing about my vast years of experience in a number of areas, is that I’ve learned how to transition from Plan A to Plan B without a pause. And I can roll with the punches, too. Mostly. (Okay, so I roll a bit slower these days. No biggie.) 😀 ❤
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You’re so cute! 🙂 xx
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Sometimes people won’t take that extra step to click for the blurb. My personal opinion is that I’d rather see the blurb than the bio. When I browse a bookstore, I’m looking for blurbs rather than bios. I hear you about keeping the posts short. That makes perfect sense.
I think it’s awesome what you’re doing with these posts and offering the opportunity for so many authors. Just thought I’d toss the blurb idea out there. 🙂
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I appreciate hearing your thoughts on it, Mae. I will probably switch to the blurb in future posts, since I was on the fence about it, anyway. Not sure if I want to change the two for today (another one will be going up at 1:00), but I can do it going forward. Thanks for the input. 😀 ❤
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Oh, heck. You talked me into it. Added it to this post, and to the Tony Riches post scheduled for 1:00pm today. Makes for a longer post, but if readers find more of what they are looking for, then it’s worth it. 😀
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LOL! I didn’t mean to cause extra work!
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Well you DID, dadblame it! *snort* Shame on you! 😉 After thinking it over, I figured what the heck. Every extra bit of info is a help, so why not, long post or not. Most of the posts on this blog are fairly lengthy anyway, so why was I worrying about it now? 😀
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😀
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Reblogged this on Viv Drewa – The Owl Lady.
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Thanks as always, Viv! Appreciate it!! 🙂
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Always a pleasure, Marcia!
Hugz on owl wings! @v@ ❤
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