Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.
The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would sell his soul and lose his son to the sky.
My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?
We meet Lark when she’s small and she’s able to use her words to make things happen. And they do happen. And her mom who has the same ability, made her silent until the time came that she would be able to use her words. Tiras is the king and he’s not known to be kind. But he’s at war with creatures and he needs help, and Lark can help him. He never expected to fall in love with her and she never expected him to be more than just a tyrant. But together they realized that they are more than what they’ve been pigeon-holed into and that they can make the world so much greater than it was.
This isn’t a typical love story, even for fantasy. It’s beautiful and inspiring and full of the magic we know when we’re children. That’s how this feels, like it’s that magical. It takes us to a place where we can put on our nylon fairy wings and pretend.
Ms. Harmon is truly one of the more talented writers that I’ve read. Her skill at weaving the story and leaving you enthralled with it is rare. I’m so happy that I bought this book. You won’t be disappointed if you got it. Trust me.
Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times Bestselling author. Amy knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Her books are now being published in twelve countries, truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Levan, Utah.
Amy Harmon has written ten novels – the USA Today Bestsellers, Making Faces and Running Barefoot, as well as The Law of Moses, The Song of David, Infinity + One, Slow Dance in Purgatory, Prom Night in Purgatory, and the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue. Her newest release, The Bird and the Sword, will be released in the spring of 2016. She will release From Sand and Ash in October of 2016, via Lake Union Publishing. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts and more, join Amy at http://www.authoramyharmon.com.
Textual Love 