Book Review: Past Legends
Happy Friday Bookworms!
Are you ready for the weekend? I sure am! How did a four-day week get to feel this long? Thank goodness for Saturday and Sunday!
Anywho, today I’m sharing another book review, yay!
This time I read Past Legends by A.F. Stewart (you can find my interview with her here.).
After reading the prequel story Eternal Myths, I simply had to continue this magical adventure!
I fell a bit behind on reading new releases late last year, and this was one of my catchups.
So what did I think? Keep on scrolling, folks!
Blurb:
All Nimue wants is a peaceful life, but her past won’t leave her alone. And when her friend Iseult brings news that her old rival Morgawse has been abducted, an impending catastrophe lands on her doorstep. And worse, the wizard responsible is Nimue’s ex, Nostradamus.
Dragged into another adventure, Nimue confronts her former flame as he wages a desperate quest, only to be thrust deeper into an escalating crisis. As Nimue struggles to unravel what is happening, she discovers dark secrets that threaten the heart of magical energy. Now it’s her fate to rescue magic for every witch and wizard, including her friends. Trouble is, she wants no part of being magic’s saviour.
Will Nimue step up as a champion? Or will she let the magical world die?
GoodReads
The Review:
I gave this novel three and a half stars.
In this novel we continue to follow Nimue’s perspective after the events of Eternal Myths. Nimue hopes for a quiet peaceful life after putting Merlin in his place, but when an old imprisoned foe escapes from her magical stasis, it sets forth a chain of events that threaten to topple the entire world of magic. Can Nimue figure out who’s responsible for this and stop it in time?
I’ve been a fan of A.F. Stewart since reading Eternal Myths, and this was a fun adventure. This book had it’s fair share of pros and cons, and it was really hard to decide on a final rating, more so than usual.
The characters were very entertaining to watch. Nimue has a slew of old friends that come out of the woodwork when things really hit the fan: Iseult, Vivienne, Morgan, etc. You could tell from their actions and dialogue that they had a past, and I felt it was very three-dimensional. I also very much liked that she took Martin in as an apprentice of sorts.
I do wish that there was a bit more character progression present, but that’s tough to do when the characters are immortal and have reached this plateau of existence. Mainly I would’ve liked to see Nimue soften just a bit more. She ran a little cold in general, though I understand why.
The plot was off the chain! No, seriously, it was crazy! One thing leads to another as the dilemma unfolds, forcing Nimue and company to action to figure things out. I loved the magical element in this book, especially the battles. Holy moly were they entertaining! The alternate history of Arthurian legend was also quite riveting, and I liked Stewart’s take on it.
At the same time, I feel that the plot was so fast-moving in general that at times it was hard to keep up where I was at and what step of the quest the characters were on. It could be just me, but here and there I just got a smidgen lost.
Overall this was an entertaining read. If you like Arthurian legends, this may just be the one for you!
That’s a Wrap!
Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!
Have you read this book before? What did you think? Do you have a book recommendation similar to this one? Feel free to share in the comments!
If you’d like to see other reviews of mine, feel free to check out the book review section of my blog or my GoodReads. You can also follow my GoodReads reviews here. There are some great binge-worthy books on there!
Have a great day!
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Fab review. I have read a few of Stewart’s short stories. (She has a lot of Christmas stuff and straight up horror.) I think she has a wonderful prose style.
Thanks Priscilla! Yeah, there’s a number of shorts of hers that I’m dying to try out, especially the horror ones. She’s definitely a strong writer.
Good point on immortality and character development. That makes a lot of sense. Reminds me of Old Guard (comic and movie) where they decided to show development through a pivotal turning point in the immortal characters’ lives! Great review, Jon! 😀
Yeah, it was tough to judge on that front, but I do think there are other ways we could’ve seen progression in this book’s case.
Yeah, totally! I loved Old Guard so much.