Wayfinder

I received this as an ARC through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer Program.

One of my complaints about the first book in this series, TRUTH SEEKER, is that it ended on a major cliffhanger. The good news is that the second book begins right at that point and the action is intense. Lara Jansen used to be a high-end tailor in Boston. However, she has always had an uncanny knack for discerning the truth. That ability gets her into trouble when an exiled Elven prince recognizes her as a truth seeker and begs her to return to the Barrow-lands to solve his brother's murder. Things don't go well. According to prophecy, the truth seeker is also the world breaker. Endless warfare between the seelie and unseelie has already driven their realms to show more ruin, and now Earth is suffering as well. It's up to Lara to figure out how the world breaker can become the world's healer as well.

This book is a fast read. However, I have to repeat my opinion from my review of the first book: this series is nowhere near as good as Murphy's Walker Papers series. The intensity and chemistry just isn't there. There were also some bothersome plot holes, like how why Halfgar went to the Drowned Lands at all, how Daffyd ended up in a particular place there, and how Merrick manages to fool everyone even though it's known that his power is air and can extend to illusions. Lara is in some ways too gifted and things just happen to fall into her lap at times. That said, it's still a fun read. The action is pretty consistent and I like Daffyd as a romantic lead, though I never felt he had a chance to develop much in this book.

One of the strongest aspects of this duology is the idea of truth as a sort of magic, and how it can be manipulated through white lies and expectations. That created some brilliant plot twists and I especially like how the truth is akin to beautiful music and lies are discordant notes. show less

I read George MacDonald when I was a child and then moved on to many other genres as I grew up. With urban fantasy, I’ve rediscovered my love of Celtic mythology. C. E. Murphy draws on this source for Wayfinder, and successfully too. While the book is set mostly in the world of faerie, Murphy weaves in contemporary elements cleverly. We come to care for the characters, whose stories began in Truthseeker, which is a necessary precursor for Wayfinder. Murphy does a good job of keeping the action moving in the book, while creating her take on the mythic elements. Her obvious research and knowledge of the underlying mythology is noteworthy, as she creates worlds that ring true. I found myself wishing that Murphy had continued her writing show more in this world beyond the duology, as I felt about her trilogy in the Negotiators series. show less

In a lot of children's stories, I find an annoying plot device I call "it just so happens." Right when a person or item or locale is needed, it shows up - just in the nick of time. With this story, its evil brother occurs far too often. When things start to go right for the heroes, something awful happens. Again and again and again. Also, I felt at times that the author wasn't playing tricks just on the characters, but me. Lastly, the plotting felt disjointed and episodic. The story was mostly saved by Murphy's usual smooth writing and interesting, approachable characters.

I didn't read the first book in this series, but I don't feel like it took away from my ability to enjoy this book because the author did a great job explaining the backstory in the prologue.

"Lara Jansen is a truthseeker, gifted—or cursed—with the magical ability to tell honesty from lies." Dafydd ap Caerwyn, is the Faerie prince of the Seelie courts who traveled to Boston from the Barrow-Lands to seek her help in finding the man who had murdered his brother, Merrick ap Annwn. In working together, they fell in love, but the going wasn't easy for them. Now, they are working together again, but this time the fate of the Barrow-lands hangs in the balance, and only Lara and her staff (if she can just keep it under control) can save show more it.

I enjoyed this book very much. The characters were strong and well defined, and the world building was phenomenal. The plot was easy to follow and exciting enough to keep me interested. The ending was very satisfying, as well.

All told, I enjoyed this book so much that I plan to go back and read the first book in the series.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank C.E. Murphy and Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book. show less

Finding the magical ivory staff in the mortal world may not be the toughest part of her quest to help fix the part of fairyland that the Truthseeker in Lara Jansen was coming to know as Annwn. Returning to the land of the fae only to find out Ioan ap Annwn truly believed that Dafydd ap Caerwyn may be dying from the wounds he sustained helping her. To find Hafgan, the Unseelie King, who was in the same place in the Drowned Lands that Ioan had left Dafydd to either heal or die. Facing all the trials to get to the memorial gardens with the help of only Aerin, the tall beautiful Seelie warrior that Lara had to trust and that had to trust Lara in return. If they expected to head off Emyr’s impending attack on his enemy, keep Hafgan from show more taking revenge, heal the Drowned Lands and the Barrowlands, they may have to ask for help from more places than they ever expected to.

Book 2 ….. Enjoyable from the fairytale beginning, middle to the end. I really enjoyed the progression of Lara’s powers, the interactions with Dafydd, Ioan, Aerin and Kelly was so much better in this one than the first one was. Going from the tailor’s apprentice to a magical truthseeker that learns to control her power as it grows into a wayfinder, a worldwalker, a worldbreaker, and a gatekeeper. In the first book I struggled with Dafydd as the prince of his people, but his redemption (in my mind) was easy, gentle and complete in this one. There are so many characters, but since it is the second book (and it seems to be the end), it is easy enough to follow the characters through their adventure, conflicts and triumphs. Really liked the interaction between the worlds, royalty, goddess and each other. I was lucky enough to receive this as a reviewers copy, but I am very interested in reading more of C.E. Murphy’s books after this great reading experience. show less

I enjoyed reading the first in the Worldwalker duology, but I liked Wayfinder even better. The plot was well-paced and I found I liked the characters better this time around because we get more back story. My favorite aspect was how the characters traveled between worlds and how the time difference made for some interesting plot directions. The conclusion was satisfying and the twist at the end gave insight into a character I couldn't connect with before. My only complaint is the is the role of one of the villains. I would've liked to have been shown his motivations instead of told them. Nonetheless, stories about the Fae are some of my favorites to read and Murphy does a great job with her world building and characterization. Recommend.

I seem to be one of the few that really did not like this concluding book as much as I did the first book that built the series.

While it was a lovingly, intricately and very well written story, it was not one that held my attention. It rambled quite a bit in places, and just had very little excitement. I am used to books that portray the Dark and Light Fae much differently and perhaps I just expected too much of the same thing.

This will be a book for those readers that like sweetly written romance, although it is a minor part of the story over-all. If you are not a fan of a lot of blood and gore this will be an enjoyable read.

It was fairly easy to follow even though I hadn’t read the Truthseeker since last year. However, I would show more highly suggest to anyone thinking of reading this to make the time to read the first one too. If you do read them back to back, I think you will like both of them a lot more than I did this second novel. I very much enjoyed the first and really disliked this one. I found it to be slow to build, many of the characters to be cloyingly sweet and even the characters that you aren’t supposed to like just left me feeling bored. This book managed to not bring out any emotions in me, nor was it, a page-turner that I just couldn’t put down.

I am upset that I didn’t find this more enjoyable because I really do love all of CE Murphy’s other series and trilogies. show less