Review: A Wizard’s Forge by A.M. Justice (no spoilers)

 

A Wizard’s Forge by A.M. Justice

Series: The Woern Saga #1

Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

Pages: 326

Format: Ebook

Buy: Book Depository | Amazon

• Received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review, thank you!

Scholar. Slave. Warrior. Wizard.

On a planet far from Earth, descendants of marooned space travelers fight a decades-long war. Shy scholar Victoria knows nothing of this conflict until pirates kidnap and sell her to the sadistic tyrant behind it. He keeps her naked and locked in a tower, subjecting her to months of psychological torture. After seizing an opportunity to escape, Vic joins the fight against her former captor and begins walking a bloody path toward revenge.

As the Blade, Vic gains glory raiding her enemy’s forces, but the ordeal in his tower haunts her. Bitter memories keep her from returning the love of the kindhearted Prince Ashel, whose family has fended off the tyrant’s invading army for a generation. When enemy soldiers capture Ashel, Vic embarks on a quest to rescue him and, on the journey, discovers a source of spectacular power. With wizardry, Vic can rescue the prince, end the war, and wreak the vengeance she craves, but she might also destroy her only chance for peace.

The book starts with Vic (Victoria) in her hometown – Ourtown – studying to be a Logkeeper. As a logkeeper she preserved and studied the Ancients’ writings, and made sure people remembered where they came from, so she had to travel to their villages to teach them.

On her first assignment – to Cairo -, the village got attacked by pirates – Caleisbahn people – and she got kidnapped to be a slave in Traine. When she got inspected, they saw her as feet to be a mistress for Remlord Lornk Korng.

After enduring months of psychological torture, forms of sexual abuse, and being forced to take the new name of “Kara”, she started hating and losing herself. When she saw an opportunity to escape she succeeded and ended up in Latha. After realizing the horror that Vic has been through the Royal Family of Latha has taken it upon themselves to care for and protect her. There she makes new friends and finds a new home but it’s not all rainbows.

Vic will discover herself as a warrior – the Blade – and later as a wizard. She will use everything she has to take revenge on Lornk!

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! When I read the synopsis I immediately felt interest and I was extremely happy to receive a free copy from NetGalley for me to review but I had no idea how much I was going to love it until I started and I just couldn’t stop reading it! It’s very difficult for me to read in my computer – and for that reason I am getting a Kindle – but I read it incredibly fast even tho my eyes were killing me!

“Don’t cry, darling. Your life will be an easy one.”

This is (probably) the first time I’ve ever read a book that deals with any kind of sexual abuse. I don’t think it’s an easy subject to board but this book really showed it well. How the main character deals with it seemed so realistic! All her journey trying to release herself from him, trying to understand who she really was and all the rough moments she passed made this book amazing!

– And it’s that amazing because all that Vic passes is real. It happens in our world. And although Vic may seem a weak person for some for not being able to compose herself, that doesn’t happen with a wink!

They said that she was going to have a easy life because she was not going to work as a slave but what she went through was in no way easier. It takes a long time and a lot of help and strength to get over that type of psychological torture (and sometimes people are still not able to do it). I loved how the writer shows that so well throughout the book!

The writing is fantastic and incredibly captivating! It’s the first book I read from A.M. Justice. Sometimes when I read a new author’s book I get a bit of a rough time to adjust in the first 50 pages or so. That didn’t happen with this book. I instantly got amazed by the writing and I just wanted to keep reading!

The book is filled with imagination and intrigue. It has amazing characters and some of them really surprised me while others remain a mystery!

• Victoria is wonderfully written and well developed. She starts off the story as a sixteen-year-old girl but we see her growing over time and turning into a strong young women. I loved how her powers and her weaknesses were balanced. She is a wizard, a warrior and a extremely intelligent person but she needs her friends if she wants to find real strength against Lornk.
• Prince Ashel is very unique and an amazing person. He has no interest in running a kingdom and his path was drawn as a musician- in Latha they use music to tell their history – and is one of the greatest ones. The same concept of what Vic did but in a different way of doing it.
• Lornk Korng is a villain. He is a horrible person that takes pleasure by hurting others, even the ones he is suppose to care for. He tries to break people – he is very clever with words and emotions – and molded them as he pleases.

The story presents us with a lot more interesting characters but these ones are the most important.

The book is set three thousand years ago, when a crew of mineral miners set out on a mission from Earth to the planet of Gomorrah but due to sabotage were not able to make it to their destination. With the mission a failure Captain Wong of the shuttle Elesendar was forced to stop in the orbit of what is now referred to – Knownearth.

The crew came down to the planet to search for metals so that they might be able to repair the ship. I suppose that they were unable to make it and settled on the planet, which is filled with amazing cities with different cultures and costumes and I thought although it’s pretty similar to Earth it was beyond amazing!

I couldn’t recommend this book more! I loved it to pieces! I haven’t read a book that made me this anxious and thrilled in a long time!

I can’t wait for the second one – A Wizard’s Sacrifice!!

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