Review: Good read, but some issues
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 9, 2014
It’s hard to put into words my feelings on this book. I would have given this book 5 stars but after I finished reading it I reflected on what just happened. It was then I realized that nothing just happened. There was no resolution, it just ended. A definite WTH moment for me. I just read almost 500 pages and nothing was resolved! That is why this book got 4 stars.The story starts out slow (really slow), we meet Taryn when she’s 6 then skip ahead a few years to her at 9 and then her at 24. Taryn goes camping with her dad when she’s 9. While on the camping trip she discovers an egg unearthed by a fallen tree. Little Taryn takes the egg home and decides she wants to hatch it. Fast forward fifteen years and the egg finally hatches. Who keeps a giant egg for fifteen years? But that’s beside the point, when the egg hatches out pops a baby griffin.Taryn reacts like how I imagine most people would, she has no idea how to care for this baby so she searches the internet for the answer. When that is a bust she goes to Wal-Mart and guesses on what to feed him. I mean, that is probably what I would do too, Wal-Mart has everything. As one would expect, that turns out as a bust as well. Taryn recalls meeting an interesting lady named Romany when she was 6 at a library. She has the brilliant idea to drive to her old hometown in the hopes this lady is still there after 18 years, lo and behold, Romany is waiting for her. Taryn comes to the realization that she cannot raise the Griffin where she is now. Romany provides her with a solution and offers to take her to Arcadia.Arcadia is best described as an alternate world where magic still exists. It is split into four (I think) different areas. Taryn decides to settle in the Valley of Hoof and Horn (I believe that is the name of it). It seems like the least dangerous place to settle, what could be dangerous about cattle? Taryn soon learns that Hoof and Horn does not mean cattle, more like centaur and minotaur.The rest of the book is dedicated to Taryn trying to befriend the centaurs and minotaur. All while this is going on she is noticed by the wizard of Arcadia. He is not a nice wizard, let’s put it that way. The wizard wants her because she is raising a griffin and griffins have many magical benefits once fully grown (none of those are for good).Umm… this is where it kind of gets weird to explain my feelings on the book. There are rape scenes in the book. If you cannot handle that kind of scene then you should probably not read this book. I noticed in some reviews where people were put off the book dues to the scenes. Well, rape is not supposed to have a feel good vibe to it, so I don’t know what they were expecting. This may sound bad, but the rape scenes were not as bad as they could have been. After reading some reviews I was expecting it to be horrendous or something. The rape was spiritual/mental in nature, so when I say it could have been worse I’m talking about it being physically done versus spiritually/mentally and there were no other factors in the scene (torture, imprisonment, etc). I’ve read books where it was emotionally draining for me to read the rape scenes and this is not one of those books. So that is what I’m basing my views on. Don’t take my thoughts wrong, rape is rape. There is no good rape but if you are a reader wanting to get into more mature readings with darker aspects, this is a good starter book.All that being said, I would recommend this book. Mainly due to some of the characters (Tilly, I’m looking at you). I think I read somewhere in a review where they thought Taryn was a Mary Sue, yes I can see that. Everyone seems to like her too easily, especially when the centaurs and minotaur have valid reasons to distrust and hate humans. I also wish she wasn’t so stupid and took help that was offered to her but what can you do. I did get the second in the series, due to the abrupt ending of the first book. I want to know what happens with Tilly and I’m hoping the second book works out some of the flaws present in the first book.