I actually finished this book before Heir to Chaos, but I had to really spend some time thinking about it before I could review it. Unlike The Thief, which I found to be formulaic and containing characters that didn’t peak my interest, The Savior was about a character I had forgotten but grew to love, Murhder.

Murhder, the only Brother ever expelled from the BDB, returns in this book after seeing an image of a woman that he feels compelled to help. This need leads him along familiar paths to places and relationships better forgotten from his past, and exposes cracks in the BDB that need attention. This book felt like a return to the old days – maybe just because Murhder is from that era of the BDB timeline – and I highly recommend it.

I’m trying to learn to avoid spoilers, but if you have read along with the BDB until this point, you know who Murhder is and why he is important. I think that this book really spoke to me, though, not because of the vampire character but because of Sarah, his love interest. She is brave, she is smart, and she breathes new life into the dark corners of the Mansion. She reminds us that the Brothers’ mates are forces of nature unto themselves, and she is a character that has stuck with me long after I finished the book. She is who we all need to be, putting the needs of the many ahead of her own. I was glad to see this return to strong characters and a brilliantly interwoven plot after being disappointed in The Thief.

If you have read my reviews for The Caged Kingdom or Ivloch, then you know what a fan I have become of M. A. Price’s Brodanna universe and the Unforgiven series. The second book in the series, The Heir to Chaos, is no exception. I tried so hard to read it slowly but that just wasn’t to be. Once the action kicks in you just have to hang on and go with it.

I’m so bad at spoilers, but I have to at least try to talk about some of my favorite moments – one of them even led me to tweet to the author to tell her that I FELT the gut punch that Mara takes when she works out… uh oh, I was about to do it again, but let’s just say she figures out something that is integral to getting her up and moving after the events of The Caged Kingdom.

The story is tight, there are no unnecessary twists or turns, every character you meet you will fall in love with – even the baddies! If you’ve read my Nature Walker Trilogy then you know that the idea of mind control is fascinating to me and so I found myself pouring over the description of the Unforgiven and Mara’s struggles with Xave, just to see how Price handles this. The answer? Beautifully. Seamlessly.

This is a story world that holds me, spellbound, and this installment has a twist that I did NOT see coming. If you haven’t yet read the prequel, Ivloch, then do yourself a favor and read it before this one. It adds another dimension to his character and to the story as a whole, and you will find yourself thinking, “Oh, that’s why….happened! I see the link to …. now!” And that, my friends, is a hallmark of truly gifted writing.

My ONLY complaint is that the next book isn’t out until January!

It seemed like one of the cruelest twists of fate that this man wouldn’t get to say goodbye to the one he loved so desperately. A punishment Ivloch couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Once again, author M.A. Price has kept me GLUED to my e-reader. Ivloch is a prequel to The Caged Kingdom series but it is SO. MUCH. MORE. THAN. THAT. Y’ALL! I feel like I need to be even more careful than normal because me = spoilers, but I have been reading this book for a lot longer than it would normally take to read a novella because I KNEW THINGS and the way I feel about those things – and the characters that Price has created, and the amazing and interesting world that she has made for them to inhabit – I just did not want to get to the end, but I did and…well, [SPOILERS] but it was perfect and awful and beautiful and heart-wrenching and…I’m about to do it again, so I will be quiet.

Ivloch tells us the backstory, if you will, of the events that happen in The Caged Kingdom. We meet the titular main character, Ivloch, and watch as he gets swept up in the events that gave birth to the Guild that was such an integral part of The Caged Kingdom. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did, honestly, because while important and necessary, backstories sometimes end up as information dumps. But this – this was beauty. This was like pulling back the curtain to watch the sun rise, just for a moment, before the day gets started. Read it AFTER you have read The Caged Kingdom. Now, I mean now. Go. Click here and get your copy.

Also, watch for the next in this series, The Heir to Chaos.

I just finished this debut novel from author (and Twitter Friend) M. A. Price and y’all…I am blown away.

When you spend as much time as I do living in your novel world, it is sometimes hard to get your head around someone else’s universe, but the world of Broadanna immediately pulled me in and held me, spellbound and curious. Price has created characters that not only made me care but saw me expressing surprise, sadness, and even support – vocally – as I read.

Please take a moment here to feel sorry for Mr. Dunne, as I often read at night in bed while he is trying to sleep.

The pacing of the story is fast and tight – I had to make myself put the book down on several occasions because I needed sleep. I also very much appreciated the multiple POV format of the book – it only adds to the story, for me, to know what other characters are thinking and what they make of the action of the plot. I write in multiple POV so this book felt familiar from the start.

I know that I am not discussing much about the plot, but that’s because I have EPIC LEVEL problems with spoiler revelation and I don’t want to ruin anything about this book for you. Please, do yourself a favor and grab a copy today on Amazon. You will NOT be sorry!

I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that reading this trilogy changed my perspective on my life and the world around me. I think if I said that about the movies, that would be a lie, so I won’t say that.

These three books introduce us to a dystopian Earth – specifically the United States – after a massive war. The US has been renamed Panem and is divided into 12 districts, starting with 1 which is the most wealthy and going down to 12 which is a mining district filled with low socio-economics and poverty and all that fun stuff.

I can’t even separate them into their individual novels because I read them back to back like one long story. Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, grows up over the course of the three novels – even though I think they only span three years. There was an uprising back in the day, you see, and after it was ended by the ruling class (as you would expect), they devised a yearly remembrance that would serve to keep something like that from ever happening again: The Hunger Games. Each district would put forth a tribute – a teenager, who would then participate in a reality-show-gone-wrong combat trial against all the other tributes. When I say combat, I mean to the death. Death, broadcast live to all the districts. Like what might happen if you combined Big Brother and Survivor.

Katniss, being of age, goes to the selection of the tribute knowing that she or her best friend/boyfriend Gage might end up as tribute, but it is worse than she can even imagine: her younger sister Primrose’s name is called. Unable to bear that thought, Katniss volunteers as tribute in place of her sister and the swap is allowed. From there, the first book (The Hunger Games) takes us through Katniss’s first Hunger Games in which she turns the rules of the game on their collective head. There are two tributes that make it through to the end rather than one, and as such Katniss has caught the imagination of the people of Panem as well as the attention of those in district one who would subdue the rest.

Book two, Catching Fire, brings Katniss and Peeta back into the Hunger Games arena to face winners from past games – in the hopes, clearly, that one of them will defeat her and return order to the districts that are now brimming with hope. Katniss, the Girl on Fire, is becoming a symbol of hope for the people of Panem, and while she and Peeta are being trotted out as a power couple who fell in love against all odds, this is not who Katniss truly is – but Gage has lost hope in their bond. The rebellion is rising and Catching Fire in book two – with the Mockingjay, a symbol of Katniss from the first Hunger Games, as its logo. The “mockingjay” is a hybrid bird used in the conflict to carry messages long distances – you have probably heard the whistle and the song if you saw the movies. Oh, Rue! Too soon.

Finally, in book three which was named for that sweet bird and the pin that Katniss wears – Mockingjay – we see the fruits of the rebellion’s labour, and they are not pretty. Honestly, to read them I found the first book harder to make it through than the third due to the subject matter (teenagers killing other teenagers), but the movies are of course made with the flash-bang in full swing by number three. These books are hard to read at times, uplifting and depressing in equal measure, but they will remind us that if these kids can have hope, so can we. Read them, even if you have seen the movies. They are a stark reminder of what happens with absolute power, and that even the young should have a say in their society.