Nicole Zoltack

What if King Arthur had been born a girl instead of a boy? Legend explores that very story.

Alena grew up as a maid in the palace, constantly on the brink of expulsion for refusing to submit to the authority and unwanted advances of knights and noblemen. Unlike anyone else she knew, she thought that class and caste should not matter and all should be treated equally. She also continually asserted, to the dismay of the duke and others who employed her, that while another might own her show more services, no one owned her body. It's a great rallying cry. Things began to change quickly when she overheard a plot to assassinate the duke and found a sword in an anvil and quickly grabbed it for the knight she was assisting in a tournament. As soon as Alena became the center of attention, she knew she didn't want it. Could she become queen? Should she become queen?

Legend could have easily parodied The Sword in the Stone, but Nicole's writing made it believable. There were almost too many anomalies in Alena's life. She didn't know who her parents were but had been sent to the castle instead of abandoned. She taught herself to read. She stood up to anyone who treated her wrongly, regardless of their social standing or the number of times she had already been rebuked for doing so. And those are only a few of the unusual characteristics of Alena. The idea of a woman becoming queen, and a maid at that, was also ridiculous and horrifying to so many people even after they watched her pull the sword from the stone on several more occasions. This wouldn't be a neatly resolved story. And it's definitely not a joke.

I'm curious to see how Alena grows into her role and eventually accepts the mantle that legend tells us she must. Sarah Colton narrated all of the voices perfectly. I could listen to her all day (and almost did, since I finished the book in less than a day). I received a free audiobook through StoryOrigin and have reviewed it gladly. show less

A YA SFF anthology with 16 stories set around books.

With such an appealing theme, who wouldn’t want to try out this collection? Add in the SFF factor, and I was ready for a treat. However, the book catered to only some of my expectations.

On the positive side, I loved seeing the variety in the book. It covers quite a few SFF subgenres, including dystopian, epic, witchcraft, fae, high fantasy and futuristic. The authors clearly have a vivid imagination, and many stories create a great show more fantasy world within their limited page-space.

As it is, all stories are never at the same level when it comes to anthologies. But with 16 different contributing authors, it goes without saying that the quality is quite varied in this one. Some are highly imaginative, other drone on. Some end perfectly, others abruptly. A few stories seemed to be incomplete in some way, until I discovered that they were set in the world of some series created by the author. (Quite unfair to include these, if you ask me. How will we get an authentic experience when the story presumes some familiarity with its origin series? I couldn’t even understand why I was unable to connect more with the characters, until I saw this point mentioned by other reviewers.)

Moreover, the stories don’t feel like SHORT stories. When you have 16 stories spread across 540 pages, you can see that the average length per story is about 34 pages, thus touching novellette length. Because of the world building and writing style, I couldn’t go fast through most of the tales, though this was classified as YA! Hence a mixed feeling about the pacing of the book.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the sixteen stories in the book, four stories reached or crossed the 4 star mark. The rest were clustered around the 3 star level. My favourites were:

Ruthless hearts - E.V. Everest -

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3 stars

This book is hard for me to decide whether I liked it or not. There were parts of that were exceptional and other parts that just totally lost me. I struggled through those parts. Yet, the parts that were good kept pulling me in. My frustration with the book wasn't as much with the cheating in the book or with Jace but more with the heroine, Loren.

Was what Jace did wrong? Yes, absolutely especially with who the other person was. However, from the flashback scenes, he seemed to truly show more love her and tried to bring Lo back from that edge. Yet, how do you hold on to someone so into a depression that she goes to the lengths that she did? Even after everything comes out, and even before it does, she still toys with Toby and then even tries to give Jace a taste of his medicine. It seemed hypocritical. I didn't understand why she even did it knowing she was going to only do it this once. Why risk a friendship on top of it. Add in the relationship between the brothers. I just was lost. So lost.

Yet, as I said, the parts that were amazing were truly amazing. The author has a style and cadence to her writing that is spellbinding. I really wanted to like this book more than I did because this blurb was to die for. Alas, this book wasn't my favorite but it did make me think and sometimes that is the show of a great book. show less

An intriguing story of Christian faith and magic, Nicole Zoltack’s A Question Of Faith explores the heartbreak caused by faithful denial of something the protagonist knows to be true. In an urban fantasy written for teens and young adults, the protagonist’s questions echo with the agony of faith-science debates and those unseen hurts that mistaken faith can cause. If her questions are sometimes a little long-winded, they're easily excused; she’s a teen—a very convincing teen—with show more some seriously difficult decisions to make.

Honest human mistakes, serious human endeavors, seductive magic for good or ill, and a consistent faith lend depth and intelligence to this novel. It’s an intriguing tale, sometimes introspective, always fascinating, and definitely thought-provoking as well as fun. First of the author's Magic Incarnate books, it promises a fascinating series to follow.

Disclosure: I got it on a deal and I offer my honest review. show less