Mother of Souls (A Novel of Alpennia, 3)

by Heather Rose Jones

Alpennia (3)

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At last! Return to the enchanted realm of Alpennia for the eagerly awaited sequel to Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage. All her life, Serafina Talarico has searched in vain for a place where she and her mystical talents belong. She never found it in Rome--the city of her birth--where her family's Ethiopian origins marked them as immigrants. After traveling halfway across Europe to study with Alpennia's Royal Thaumaturgist, her hopes of finding a home among Margerit Sovitre's circle show more of scholars are dashed, for Serafina can perceive, but not evoke, the mystical forces of the Mysteries of the Saints and even Margerit can't awaken her talents.When Serafina takes lodgings with Luzie Valorin, widowed music teacher and aspiring composer, both their lives are changed forever. Luzie's music holds a power to rival the Mysteries, and Serafina alone has the vision to guide her talents. For sorcery threatens the fate of Alpennia--indeed of all of Europe--locking the mountains in a malevolent storm meant to change the course of history. Alpennia's mystic protections are under attack and the key to survival may lie in the unlikeliest of places: Luzie's ambition to write an opera on the life of the medieval philosopher Tanfrit. show less

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Member Recommendations

reconditereader Both continuations of series with similar settings and some similar types of characters. They evoke the same kind of feeling or reading experience.
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Member Reviews

2 reviews
I always hesitate to review books by authors I know because I know reviews and ratings are important and mine, being merely a booklog that happens to be public, always suck:

1) I rate super-strictly in order to be useful to me (to distinguish clearly between books that are cataclysmically life-changing through to books that I merely enjoyed tremendously);

2) my reviews aren't balanced even about my own view - I just mention the things I particularly remember or want to remember or that are thrilling or bugging me in that particular moment, which are not at all the things someone who hasn't read it yet should know when deciding to read it. To make matters worse, I managed not to log anything for a year and am currently trying to catch up show more all in one go.

So, no-one read this, okay?

What I mainly recall is (as usual for me) being less interested in the romance which is the main plot than in the subplots of the mechanics of writing an opera and building a university. This is the kind of triviality that's endlessly fascinating to me.

Also that, as more people join the circle and get added as points of view, I find it harder to track people and get pulled into their heads. So I enjoyed it a bit less than the previous books in the series, but that's really praising with faint damns because I still enjoyed it tremendously.
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This fantasy of manners brings out a character who would more usually be sidelined and places her centre stage.

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Author Information

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Awards and Honors

Series

Common Knowledge

Original publication date
2016-11-17
Important places
Alpennia
Dedication
For the proprietor of the website People of Color in European Art History (http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com) who inspired me to ask, "Where are the people ... (show all)of color in Alpennia and what are their stories?"
First words
High in the mountains to the east and south of Alpennia, spring rains and warming winds wash the winter's snow from the peaks and send it tumbling down the valleys.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And in Rotenek, the water began to rise, climbing the steps at the Nikuleplaiz one by one.

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, LGBTQ+, Fantasy, Romance
DDC/MDS
813.6Literature & rhetoricAmerican literature in EnglishAmerican fiction in English2000-
LCC
PS3610 .O62495 .M68Language and LiteratureAmerican literature
BISAC

Statistics

Members
52
Popularity
581,866
Reviews
2
Rating
(3.89)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
2
ASINs
1