Review – Vankara (Vankara, Book 1) by S.J. West (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Watchers Publishing
Release Date: June 15, 2014
ASIN: B009P2HTDU
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Vankara series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
“Vankara, an island nation founded by runaway mages, finds itself besieged by a series of mysterious plagues which decimates half of the world’s population. When the Queen of Vankara falls ill from one of the plagues, she calls upon the talents of Sarah Harker. As a shifter, Sarah is physically able to transform into another person but only if she is touching them at the moment of their death, gaining not only their physical form but also some of their memories. Queen Emma Vankar entrusts Sarah with the responsibility of protecting the people of Vankara from the ever-growing greed of those in parliament and from the ambitious hands of Aleksander Chromis, dictator of the Chromis Empire and ardent suitor for the queen’s hand in marriage. To help Sarah become the ruler Vankara needs, the queen enlists the help of her trusted political advisor, Gabriel, and her estranged lover, Captain John Fallon. Sarah soon finds herself at the center of a mystery when she discovers the cause of the plagues, uncovering a diabolical conspiracy to conceal the truth of their origins.”
This is the first book in the Vankara series, there are three books in that series. There were some things I liked here and some things I didn’t. I wavered between 3 stars and 4 stars for this one. I just found some parts of the story really unbelievable. However, I did enjoy some of the steampunk elements, the Fae, and the dragons.
Sarah Harkar is a shifter who can take over a person’s body at the moment of their death. When the Queen of Vankara catches the plague she calls on Sarah to take over her body so that her kingdom doesn’t fall into turmoil. Sarah, now Emma, tries to lead the kingdom as best she can. However, the question of where these plagues originate from, lead her to try and bargain with the Fae kingdom which is dangerous and potentially kingdom destroying.
This whole book felt a bit off to me. I really loved the beginning part about Sarah’s childhood. Then she was quickly thrust into the role of Queen, which was very abrupt and seemed very contrived. Sarah steps right into the role of Queen Emma with very little issue which was confusing to me; she was a farm girl and now she is a queen and she suddenly has all the leadership skills she needs to rule a country? I had a lot of trouble getting past this, it felt very fake to me.
I also really enjoyed journeying to the Fey lands and meeting the dragons. However, I did not enjoy all the politics and intrigue Sarah/Emma is thrust into. I also did not enjoy the male leads in this novel (Fallow and Chromis) they both felt kind of creepy to me.
Overall this was a mixed bag for me. There are some things about the story I liked and some things I just couldn’t get past. The pacing was uneven and the whole story just wasn’t completely cohesive and felt kind of “off” to me. I wavered a bit about whether or not to continue the series since there are some aspects to the story I really enjoyed…however, in the end I decided not to.
