☺☺☺☺☻
This is another book whose cover art has apparently changed since I first got it for my Kindle. The first cover and the one I am most familiar is the one I'm going to describe. The cover frames the portrait of a beautiful young woman. Her dark almost blue black hair cascades in waves down across tanned skinned. Dark lips are curved up in a knowing smirk. Blue tattoos crisscross her skin, tiger stripes across her collarbone and tribal-type markings dripping down her forehead and across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes are a brilliant blue color. Leaves surrounded her head like a crown. The title stretches across the top red with gilded edges, little droplets of gold come down from the corners culmulating in blue and red orbs. For some reason it reminds of me a jester's hat. The cover is beautiful but directly seems to contradict the storyline and the character it is surely meant to mimic, Sive.
Chasing the Bard's story opens as the ancient Puck enters the human world. Puck is a fey creature often known throughout myth as the Trickster. We learn through Puck that his magic is called Art. As Puck meanders through the wood enjoying his freedom he notices a peculiar human woman. Her back is hunched with age as she walks through the forest on a mission. Puck unable to resist himself follows the wise woman through the woods and into the village of Stratford. This was my first clue as to what was coming and I admit I groaned inwardly. The curious fey follows the woman through the town til he is frightened back through the veil by a strange blinding conflagration of Art among the humans. As he disappears the old woman, Bess, continues into the house where a young woman is in the throes of birth. Bess is a midwife called in this time of need. Here the story diverges into the fairy world. A shimmering banquet hall filled with otherworldly beauty is abruptly disrupted by the sudden appearance of a dark fierce warrior goddess. The goddess is Sive, dark fairy of battle and war, and she is angry with her brother Auberon, King of the Fey, for forcing her into marriage with a fey man she once loved but has somehow changed. But her anger doesn't change his mind and she retreats to her aunt Brigit's home to sulk. It is here Sive mets up with Puck and discovers the happenings of the mortal world and the child who will save them both.
What I liked:
- I loved the character of Puck and found him very likeable and enjoyable. Brigit was a wonderful wise strong character.
- The author took the time to paint every scene in both the mortal and fairy worlds
- Mordant's character though evil to the bone also had enough depth to him that made me feel sorry for him, which is slightly unusual.
- It was a novel take on an old tale melding the historical with the fantastical in a way that made it feel possible.
- Macha...the battle raven...if you know celtic/fey myth you know its enough.
What I disliked
- The story jumped from place to place, character to character, sometimes without proper formatting notice or even a clear shift in voice.
- It was about William Shakespeare which for some reason kinda turned me off it. They barely even gave a nod to the work of A Midsummer's Nights Dream which considering some of the character should have been more in the forefront.
- The two main characters of Will and Sive were largely unlikeable due to their sudden conflicted emotions and inability to think past their own motives for the majority of the book.
- Towards the end of the book the story felt rushed. For instance there were a few confusing lines that it made it seem that Mordant had possessed the Lord of Southampton and then others that contradicted this thought process. And as evil as Mordant was it barely gave much thought to his ending at all, it was almost anti-climatic.
- There were quite a few formatting, spelling, and even usage errors that definitely pulled you out of the story a bit.
- The end is a little hazy. Did Will return to Sive's world or go someplace else?
- Throughout several scenes I couldn't get the characters from the movie Anonymous out of mind. This certainly isn't a fault of the authors but it still did mess with my reading experience.
☺☺☺☺☻
4 out of 5 smilies
Recommended for those who enjoy fairy mythology and/or Shakespeare but don't take it too seriously. Due to a few more mature scenes I would put it at a mature tween and older.
Synopsis "Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that William Shakespeare may be able to change the fate of her people. The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created. "
Can the magic of word and imagination save creation?
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