#Review - Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West #YALit #Fantasy

Series: The Nissera Chronicles (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: August 30, 2016
Publisher: Holiday House
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Epic

Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen's Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes her original debut. Bristal, a sixteen-year-old kitchen maid, lands in a fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she has elicromancer magic in her blood.

A stunning fantasy inspired by familiar fairytales, complete with cursed princesses, thieves-turned-soldiers, and an orphan girl transformed into an immortal, shapeshifting heroine. The Nissera Chronicles start here…

Welcome to Nissera, land of three kingdoms and home to spectacular magic.

 

Kingdom of Ash and Briars, by author Hannah West, is the first installment in the author's Nissera Chronicles. 16-year old Bristal is a kitchen maid who was found orphaned in the woods and taken in by a cooks help. Trouble begins right away when 4 men kidnap her and bring her to the Water. The water is the place where people are tossed into to see whether they come out or whether they die. Legend has it that only two people have ever survived being tossed into water. 

The water will either kill you, or provide you with a valuable elicrin stone which will grant immortality to the one who the water chooses. The water chooses Bristal. Bristal finds herself in a gritty fairy tale gone wrong when she discovers she has elicromancer magic in her blood. Elicromancers are an ancient breed of immortal people who are supposed to guide the kingdoms to prosperity and peace and to come to the aid during disasters and war. Bristal joins their ranks of the only two remaining immortals in Nissera Brack and Tamarice. One of the two has a dark secret.

Tamarice is plotting a quest to overthrow the realm’s nobility and take charge herself. After rebuffing Tamarice suggestion of an alliance, Bristal and Brack must guard the three kingdoms of Nissera against Tamarice’s black elicromancy. There are princesses to protect, royal alliances to forge, and fierce monsters to battle—all with the hope of preserving peace. Thanks to Bristal's shape-shifting abilities, she will become a clandestine fairy godmother, a matchmaker, a spy, a courtesan, and a male soldier where she meets Prince Anthony and his realm alliance soldiers who are being brought together to fight the pending war.

Building on homages to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jane Austen's Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Hannah West makes her original debut. Hannah West makes a fast-paced, exciting, and wholly original debut. The way the author blends the fairy tales together is pretty interesting. I really liked Bristal. She didn't have a evil thought in her head when it came to saving as many people as she could, including the girl who is modeled after Sleeping Beauty.

The Nissera Chronicles continue with Fields of Fire, a short story set against the events of Kingdom of Ash and Briars, and Realm of Ruins, a gripping companion novel. It is definitely my plan to read Realm of Ruins since the publisher kindly shared a copy with me along with this story. I appreciated the action, the twists, the magic, yes, even the romance that sorts itself out in the most plausible way possible.

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