Review – Janna of Castle Ambrose by Jordan Elizabeth (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 252 pages
Publisher: CHBB Publishing
Release Date: August 13, 2019
ASIN: B07WHRH4X9
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eBook from Author for Review
Rating: 4/5 stars
“When I was a child, the usurper invaded my country. My family died in front of me and left Castle Ambrose in tatters. Since then, the usurper has ruled over Hamlin and I’ve wanted nothing more than to see him dead.
Life at Castle Ambrose isn’t all bad for Janna. She has a secret – she can communicate with the sea serpent living in the loch. When merchants visit Castle Ambrose, Janna hears that the Earl of Ambrose’s sons are still alive, but imprisoned. If she can free them, they can round up rebels from across Hamlin and rid themselves of the filthy usurper.
Civil war churns on the horizon, but Jana’s loyalties waver. The sea serpents can destroy the enemy’s ships…and Janna must decide who that enemy is.”
This is the first book in the Serpent Riders series by Elizabeth. This was a well done fantasy novel and I enjoyed reading it. Although this is the first book in The Serpent Riders series, this story is stand alone and wraps up nicely.
Janna’s home castle is vanquished in a violent take over. Janna and her mother struggle to make a living under the conqueror’s banner but when Janna finds out her childhood friend is actually alive and imprisoned she decides to track him down and rescue him. The only problem is that when she gets to the capital she finds out that maybe her perception of events are wrong.
There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book. I like the medieval type setting, the sea serpents, and Janna’s strange power. I also enjoyed the characters and the alchemist Janna ends up dealing with.
I did have some issues with this book as well. The first is that Janna comes across as kind of well…stupid at times. She is very blind as far as her cousin is concerned and seems pretty dense. I dislike stupid heroines so she wasn’t my favorite.
The second is I had no idea why the sea serpents wanted to help Jenna…maybe this will be explained in future books. Lastly the whole story tied up very quickly and abruptly and a bit too happy, happy to me. It just didn’t fit well with the dark tone of the rest of the book.
Overall I enjoyed this, it’s a nice classic type fantasy read. It would be appropriate for older young adult readers (Janna does kind of work as a whore, but this is never explicit). I did have some small issues with the story but in general it was a good read. I will probably pick up future books in this series.
