Review: Would Maybe Have Worked Better As A YA Than Adult Fantasy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2012
If you are looking for unique and innovative presentation of dragons and their abilities, you will not find them in this book but that does not detract from the overall charm of the story presented here.  However, refreshing in its transparency, rather than being predictable, Sorcha's Heart is a sweet little fantasy novella which is firmly couched in the authors on personal take on existing 'dragon lore.'In a world where mankind and dragonkind are pitted each against the other it falls to one young woman to find a way to broker peace and save both races from extinction... and with the help of an ancient artifact which she is destined, from birth, to discover, she does so in a most unique and life-changing manner.  Through the changes wrought in her female protagonist, Ms Mumford gives us an interesting dragons-eye view of humanity, but more thoroughly presents what it is to be a dragon.The only complaint I have is that I wanted more.  There are so many potentially interesting facts and perspectives touched upon in the course of telling the story, but few in sufficient details to satisfy the emotional engagement that lay just beneath the surface of the book.  This is not to say that it was badly written, just that it could perhaps have been better told as a longer story, rather than truncated as it was.  In its current form it reads as being mostly suitable as a young adult novel - with the exception of a couple of intimate scenes - and perhaps that is what the original vision was.  However, I think it suffered in that respect, as I so often found myself looking for greater depth and detail that just wasn't there. That said, the characters are well enough drawn to carry the story forward, and thankfully, Sorcha herself is a strong female protagonist who holds her own in the face of a weighty destiny, and visibly grows through the experience, coming into herself at last in the culmination of the story, and potentially into the opening of the following series of stories.