Mindee Arnett

The Kingdom of Rime is a dangerous place. After dark, deadly flightless dragons called Nightdrakes will attack and kill anyone unfortunate enough to be caught outside a city's protective walls or without their own magical wardstone shield. Kate rides for the Relay, delivering messages between cities on horseback, a difficult job made harder because if she utilizes her instinctive "wilder" magic to protect herself she'll be discovered and tortured by the king's magical Inquisitors. She also show more has a complicated past with the "Errant Prince" Corwin, the king's younger son, who has returned from his three-year sojourn to find Rime is beset by uprisings and discontent under an ineffectual king--and Corwin will never rule Rime unless a certain magical sign appears, so he's stuck in a perpetual waiting game. Kate and Corwin were once best friends, until her father tried to kill his father! But now their paths cross again, and despite their past they will have to try to work together to save the kingdom from new magical terrors. This book has everything I love: a unique high fantasy setting, intrigue, noble deeds, romance, horses, and cool magic. From the action-packed opening scene on, I was hooked. The worldbuilding is great; I could really imagine myself in these medieval-style city-states, and the various systems of magicwielders were fascinating. The two main characters are a lot of fun to read, as were the secondary characters; I liked how the third-person omniscient point of view switched between Kate and Corwin chapter by chapter to give you more of each of their feelings when called for. (It was a refreshing way to tell a story, since I've read a lot of first-person POVs lately.) At any rate, Onyx and Ivory has set up nicely for a sequel while giving us a satisfying ending to this exciting installment. A definite must-read for fans of Cinda Williams Chima, Leigh Bardugo, Terry Brooks, or other high fantasy-type books. show less

The last thing I need is yet another trilogy in which to get entangled. There are plenty of existing trilogies I have started but have not yet finished after all. Yet, when I see a young adult novel in the fantasy genre talking about magic and mythical beasts and power struggles, I am helpless to resist.

It is not as if Onyx & Ivory is a fantastic novel. It offers nothing new for the genre. Kate is like so many of her predecessors – unfairly convicted, forced to hide her true self, mourning show more the loss of Daddy. This particular heroine has become as ubiquitous as the Disney princess.

The story too is redundant with its power struggle between those with acceptable magic and those with “other” magic skills as well as the power struggle between those who think they have the power and those who actually wield it. The story follows such a familiar story structure that there are no twists to catch you unawares.

Plus, Onyx & Ivory is predictable. Even a reader with a modicum of familiarity of previous stories will be able to decipher this darker menace and new threat well before our heroes do. It actually became a game I played with myself – to see just how many of the big surprises and how much of the plot I could guess before it unfolded.

Yet, in spite of every reason for me to hate the novel, I ended up adoring it. I just can’t help it. I love the fact that there is no love triangle. I love the interplay between characters, their strong bonds to each other, and their dynamic within the greater novel. I love the choices they make – however predictable. I enjoyed the story itself, and the predictability became a comfort rather than a deterrent.

I suspect that I am not going to be alone in my adoration for Onyx & Ivory. Ms. Arnett can write a story which captures your imagination. Her descriptions are well-written, and the unfamiliar world comes to life with little effort of the imagination on the reader’s part. Kate and Corwin are so sweet in their love for each other, and I appreciate how quickly Ms. Arnett ends the angst that tends to follow such relationships. Onyx & Ivory may not be overly original or groundbreaking, but it is a solid story with great characters that allows you to ignore that which should bother you and focus instead on all of its goodness. I am eager to see what Ms. Arnett has in store for readers in the next novel. show less

Before I fully launch into my review (which I've saved up for release day), I have to first say how totally excited I am that this book is going to finally going out into the world. I got to be on the ‘Street Team’, one of the 'Relay Riders', for 'Onyx and Ivory', which meant I helped get the word out for it on social media. BUT that does not play into my review of the book.



Happily though, I fell in love with Mindee Arnett's book. I've not read her other books but I have a feeling she show more is putting something different out here and pouring something of herself into this one. O&I is an epic fantasy that started off (I believe) as a germ of an idea for Mindee some 6 years ago now, and it became a novel that opens up a world of dark monsters, forbidden magic, and brings us characters that feel complex and vibrant.

The main character of the novel is Kate, otherwise known as ‘Traitor Kate’, named as such for her father’s actions, for trying to assassinate the high king of Rime many years ago. Her father had been master of horse to the king, but he was executed for his crime, one that Kate can’t believe he would have knowingly committed.
Now she hides the gift of wilder magic that allows her to touch the minds of animals that makes her so in tune with horses as her father was, but wilder magic is forbidden and punishable by death. Because of her father’s treachery, she has been relegated to being a Relay rider for Farhold, the imperial courier service, but there are these nasty monsters out there called ‘nightdrakes’ (deadly flightless dragons), that make her job intensely dangerous, and soon these drakes are attacking in the daylight, massacring whole caravans of people.



Now, beyond this basic plot of Kate and her forbidden magic, and the drakes, as a reader you are quickly immersed in a world where there is a lot going on. This is a book that is not fast-paced but it is totally absorbing: when I took my time to read it, I felt like I was settling in to fully entrench myself in the world of several sub-plots that weave together and a number of fascinating characters. They are key to enjoying this book.
To name some, there’s Corwin (Kate’s first love, and heir to the throne), Signe (her spunky best friend), Edwin (Corwin’s nasty brother and competition for the crown), and Bonner (long-time friend who knows her magical secret). Kate reunites with her first love Corwin, after saving him from an attack by drakes, and she and her counterparts must embark on a full-on quest to not only understand who tried to kill the king, but also who is controlling the daydrakes. Corwin must also prove he is more worthy to be the heir to the throne than his brother. Something that I particularly think that is important for a novel of this length, is that the characters felt fully realized and fleshed-out, so much so that I could imagine them all throughout the book like companions. While there seem to be a number of subplots going on in the book, Arnett proves she is a skilled writer because I never felt lost. When one part of the story wasn’t being written about, it was fine to just leave it for a while, and continue with another part, and then go back to the other one. I don’t want to say too much about the plot lines of the book because it is jam-packed, but somehow Mindee has threaded them all together, and they’ve culminated in an ending that begs for another epic book. As long as O&I is, I didn’t want the journey and the book to end!



There is so much great imagery and vivid world-building woven into the book, such as the different types of magic, the descriptions of clothing, and landscape; on Mindee Arnett’s Website, there is some beautiful artwork and images to represent the Land of Rime, maps that show political regions, all the magic descriptions, and way back to her original conceptual beginnings for the book; it’s all there if you want to see it in detail.



I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a fantasy they can really dig into, not rush through; there’s action, complex subplots, strong friendships, magic AND monsters(!), depictions of females as positive, independent characters, and there’s also the questioning of judgement of others/hypocrisy with respect to the laws regarding use of magic. There may seem to be, at first glance, the usual tropes of ‘fighting for the throne’, and ‘childhood friend likes girl now she’s grown up’, but I didn’t feel like the book was covering old ground, particularly as I got further and further into it.

‘Onyx and Ivory’ really is an amazing book, and it’s already on my ‘best-of’ list for 2018. I definitely want to be there for the Relay Ride for Book 2! show less

This series started off strong, I really enjoyed the unique world created and how cool a concept Nightmares were. Reading the third in the trilogy though, was a little of a let down. The plot was formulaic, the characters were bland and lovestruck, and there were some inconsistencies in the world building. Also, there is clearly a theme of racism in this series, and it's never really resolved or acted upon, it just continues in each book, without anyone really freaking out about it.

Overall, show more it was a fun, easy read, but my enjoyment just wasn't at it's fullest. show less