Today I kick of the Between Starfalls Blog Tour with my first of two additions. You can find the full blog tour schedule here. I will also be hosting a guest post by the author on Wednesday. For this review I decided to share various reasons to pick up this book for you.
Thank you so much to Write Hive, Kriti from Armed with a Book and the author S. Kaeth for the invitation, the organization and the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
Never leave the path.
It’s sacred law, punishable by exile.
.
When her son goes missing in the perilous mountains, Kaemada defies the law to search for him. She enlists the help of her hero brother, a priestess berserker, and a fire-wielding friend.
.
But the law exists for a reason.
.
When the search party is captured by the mythical Kamalti, they learn that Kaemada’s son was sent to an ancient prison city. As they battle for freedom, they discover a horrible truth that will change the future of both races forever.
.
With their world in upheaval, Kaemada must find a way to peace if she’s to save her son—but tensions between the two races are leading to war.
1 Family and being a Mother
One thing that is a very appealing in Between the Starfalls is the sense of family. Family that isn’t necessarily by blood. Kaemada has two towns people who are close to her, who are like sister. Along with her actual brother they form a tight knit group. Despite sometimes being away from each other, like her brother was at the start of the story, the person is referenced and feels a part of the group.
Add in a young boy and you get in the extra dimension of motherhood mixed in. While Kaemada is considered his mother (she adopted him), the group all feel responsible for him. The idea that it is a community that raises a young child is something foreign to many of us in the Western world these days. As a mother myself I did appreciate seeing it though I don’t think I’d ever want the community to interfere as much as happens here.
2 Religion and cultural aspects
Another aspect in the story stood out to me was the religion that was weaved through. Now I am not religious myself so this can be a bit of a hit or miss for me. But I found it interesting here because we do get it from both Kameada’s people and the Kamalti. There are differences but between certain characters there is room for discussion about it. I think that is always a good thing to have.
The same goes for cultural aspects. For most of the Kamalti the cultural aspects of Kameada’s people feel barbaric and simplistic. For others it is almost revered as a show to see. This gets discussed. Not just the differences but also that you can’t just make a show of someone’s culture which I think is important in this day and age.
3 Look at yourself
The characters do manage to look at themselves throughout the chaos. Taunos reflects on the role he has played for his community and was that really where he was suppose to be? Kameada wonders about her role as a mom, being weak and much is her fault. These things also get discussed between characters, and there is of course more than I mention, because spoilers.
4 Hints at a much bigger world to come
And of course I can’t talk about a fantasy book without talking about the world building. In this first book we get the two people as mentioned previously. But there are hints of much more like the Fallen who are outcasts, the Angels, the Dark. There is clearly still a lot left to be discovered in next books and I can’t wait for that.
Book: Between Starfalls (Children of the Nexus 1) by S. Kaeth
Release Date: March 27th 2020
Tags: Fantasy | Adult | High Fantasy | Family | Friendship | Religion | Community
Trigger/Content Warnings: Use of the word savage multiple times | Slavery | Abuse | Mutilation
Thank you so much for reading and sharing about this book, Annemieke! Happy to see that it resonated with you. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for having me on the blog tour!
LikeLike
Thanks for reading Between Starfalls! I’m so glad the elements of culture, religion, and family stood out to you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really enjoyed reading it. 🙂
LikeLike