Title: Venators 2 Promises Forged.
Author: Devri Walls
Publisher: Brown Books Publishing Group
Publication Date: 30 April 2019
Comment: I was offered a free ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review. With thanks to Devri Walls and @the_writereads
Blog Tour dates: June 1st– June 10th
Synopsis:
It has been mere days in the world of Eon, where Rune Jenkins, her twin brother Ryker, and their friend Grey have been trapped, fighting for their lives. After discovering the truth of their ancestry, the three are far from home, and far from anything resembling their mundane lives of the past.
While Ryker is still held captive by the eerily beautiful Zio and her goblins, Grey falls into the clutches of Feena, the Fae queen. She begins to drain his soul bit by bit to feed her dark underground garden, and Grey has no hope of escaping on his own.
It is now up to Rune to save Grey, as his precious time slips away inexorably. But the Council has denied her permission to embark on a rescue mission, until she can harness her Venator gifts and prove herself capable of venturing into the Fae queen’s territory. As Rune discovers that promises in Eon are forged with life-or-death consequences, she realizes that she must act quickly, or else be swallowed and Grey along with her by the dangers of Eon.
Review:
Previous review for Book one here https://www.brokengeekdesigns.com/2020/03/15/the-venators/
Trying to encapsulate the story without giving away major plot points is very hard.
Ryker finally wakes up in the dungeons of the evil Zio who has major plans for her dark Venator.
Meanwhile Rune and Grey are having serious trouble fitting in with the council’s plans and it goes spectacularly wrong when Grey takes it upon himself to act on his impulses, leading to him being kidnapped by Feena, the Fae Queen.
Now it is up to Rune to master her Venator gifts and head to the rescue, but will doing this mean losing her human side?
If you read my previous review you’ll see that I had a few issues with the way the female characters were dealt with. In book one, I felt that we had done Rune a disservice by making her the damsel in distress. She was an argumentative impulsive whinger and really -as we say in England- did my head in.
However, she really stepped up in this book. Whilst still working on her impulse control and her anger issues, she blossomed into a fascinating character. No longer was she merely “the girl Venator” (technically she should be called a venatrix), she was a character in her own right.
I loved how she worked hard at curbing her impulses and getting to know the culture around her in order to play the council at their own game. She was able to overlook the insults that Verida threw at her and be the bigger person and, although I think she still has a long way to go, I was thrilled at the character development.
By the way did you know Venator means “Hunter” in Latin? Thanks to this book I used it in scrabble and beat my sister for the first time in 3 years.
Haha ha In your face, Serenity!
Grey seemed to wilt slightly at the start of the book and I was worried that we had developed one character at the expense of another but he soon picked up and was the selfless, kind and caring man we had seen in book one.
We also got to see more of several other characters. Verida and Beltran became far more rounded and intricate. Their shared history and continued friction made perfect sense and really intrigued me.
There wasn’t much of Tate in this story which was good as, for some reason, he was my least favourite character. Too much macho posturing and brooding for me, I think. (And I was an Angel fan. God, when someone out-brood Angel you know it’s bad.)
I’m going to admit that I found the first half of the book to be a bit of a slog. I could only read a chapter at a time and that was pushing it. I always seemed to find something else to do. I think it’s because I was- like Rune- completely annoyed by the feudalistic system of Eon. My girl-power button was being pushed.
The Venators had been bought into Eon by the Council yet the council didn’t seem to care if they lived or died. In fact, it seemed like, several times, the Council was actively trying to get rid of them. This made me really annoyed and I couldn’t understand why Rune and Grey were even there.
When they reacted to Rune asking to go after Grey (no spoilers) I was fully on board with her sacking it all off, killing the Council and buggering off home. Or Joining Zio.
Once Rune had decided to play by the Council’s rules, however, I couldn’t put it down. Her manipulation, the machinations and the battle scenes were just perfect.
That leads me to my favourite part- Feena’s kingdom.
Holy Hera this was awesome!
The descriptions of her palace and the means she uses to gain her power; the visualisation of the vines, the throne room and the Fae, and the excruciating detail of torture and mind games was beyond fantastic.
This is what high fantasy is. This is world-building and total immersion and I am here for it.
Fast-paced action, great storytelling and the final battle scene was, beyond a doubt, one of my favourite scenes ever.
I’m really looking forward to reading the next one which is released September.
3 months away.
Summary:
A great fantasy read with thrilling heroics, great characterisations and brilliant plot. Do yourself a favour and read this series.
Awesome review!