I really enjoyed this read. I found this book to be super fun and loved the characters so much. I also really loved the Ziva and at the heart of it was her dealing with anxiety and how the affected her. I also really enjoy both the quest elements but also the rag tag bunch of heroes. I have never read a book with blacksmith main character and was super captivated by that elements. At the heart of this book was also the sister realtionship and this book was fast adventure story, that i FLEW through. I am super excited to get my hands on book 2!! ( )

I really enjoyed this read. I found this book to be super fun and loved the characters so much. I also really loved the Ziva and at the heart of it was her dealing with anxiety and how the affected her. I also really enjoy both the quest elements but also the rag tag bunch of heroes. I have never read a book with blacksmith main character and was super captivated by that elements. At the heart of this book was also the sister realtionship and this book was fast adventure story, that i FLEW through. I am super excited to get my hands on book 2!! ( )

Protagonist Ziva, 18 yr old bladesmith and her 16 year old sister Temra live in the land of "Ghadra" recently divided into six sub-kingdoms. Ziva has inherited from her mother, long since dead, a magical ability to imbue her weapons with special powers or functions. Swordsmen, soldiers, etc seek her out to fashion all variety of warring weapons, or shields. Unfortunately, one such customer - the much feared warlord Kymora seeks out Ziva & demands she make for her a special sword. It must be imbued with immmense power, that can defeat many enemies at once. Ziva agrees to put off her other commissions and prepare such a sword; however, when she forges it her magical abilities and her own secret thoughts imbue in ways she didn't expect, and cannot completely control. She realizes Secret Eater, the blade, is not to be used by any ordinary person. Recognizing its immense power will allow the cruel and ambitious Kymora to defeat all her foes and bring tyranny to all of Ghadra - she decides to flee her forge, her home, her town. Temra insists on fleeing as well; with a young scholar in tow - who wishes very much to document Ziva's magic knowledge, a journey begins. They also pick up a ridiculously handsome mercenary, Kellyn, who agrees to protect them on their road to faraway Thersa, where they hope their father's family may still live. Temra and Ziva have been orphans since they were small children; heir parents were never able to tell them about their relatives. But they hope for a welcome and a place to hide. ... thus the adventure begins. Lots of suspenseful scenes, a growing romance, & a desperate quest to ensure Secret Eater can never be used - but of course, a cliffhanger at the end. There's a sequel! ( )

I loved this book and this story. I've always liked Tricia Levenseller and her writing, but this one, this was one of the best, maybe the best of her work yet that I've read. I cannot wait to read the rest of this story! I love, love, LOVE this story, and Ziva, she's one of my favorites and she and Kellyn are so great together - definite swoon-worthy romance in this book.
This is quite an original and unique story that I love! I love how Ziva has social anxiety in this story - I mean I don't wish anxiety/social anxiety on anyone - I know what anxiety's like and it's not fun. While I haven't known or experienced much about social anxiety, I believe this is an accurate depiction of what it might be like for someone with social anxiety - some of what is described that Ziva deals with is the same that I deal with except that I don't have as much of the issues with the social aspect. I can so relate to Ziva and I love having this represented in a character in an awesome fantasy story.
Ziva and her sister live together alone since their parents have died running a blacksmith shop with Ziva as the smithy with magical powers and her sister runs the front desk, dealing with the people and everything while Ziva makes the weapons and imbues them with her magic. One day Ziva has a warlord that commissions a weapon from her and what she ends up making is a terrible weapon with powers from her secrets being poured into it. After Ziva realizes what the weapon does and what the warlord wants, she and her sister head out to escape the warlord. Ziva and her sister are accompanied by Kellyn, the mercenary, and Patrick, the scholar, and on their journey, they get to know themselves and each other as they form friendships and relationships. I laughed, I cried and it was an emotional rollercoaster ride that left me with all the feelings and a book hangover.
If you haven't had a chance to check this out, then hurry and go get it and read it now! Thanks so much to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group - Feiwel & Friends for letting me read and review this fabulous book. All opinions and thoughts are my own. ( )

CW: anxiety and panic attacks

Well it was very enjoyable and also quite disappointing. Hear me out.

I actually think the set up was soooo good and I was excited for the 'epic-ness' that I expected to follow. Whilst I enjoyed how the story progressed, the action and magical showdowns that had been, in my opinion slightly foreshadowed, never really developed. Instead it was quite a relationshipy type of story, heavy on romance, with people travelling from one place to another. If I knew this I think I would have had my expectations set to 'romance' and not 'magical sword of amazingness used in showdown with evil megalomaniac kick-arse female warlord'. See where things went wrong for me? Expectations eh! They can make or break your reading experience. Just okay for me. ( )