"... utterly transfixing to read!"

Due to Amazon's review nonsense, 3 of my reviews posted for Ilfin of Arc have been removed :(
Soooo ... here's one I haven't been able to share with the relevant link, but did receive for all of 5 minutes online. It's a good one!!

From the get go this novel grabs. I didn’t read the blurb at all, I just jumped in not knowing what to expect other than it’s fantasy / sci-fi. Wow! The characters are so real, it feels like you slip out of your skin and into someone else's, and the action is non stop. Lyra searches for her fiancé because calamity is coming, speeding swiftly for Massin, but she is a simple country girl and now she’s in the city of Nomur looking for 1 man amidst thousands. The odds are not in her favour, and on top of that she has the curse of mismatched eyes. People don’t like her kind and she faces death if she looks for him in the wrong places. This tale is swift, it doesn’t loiter or slow, within pages she’s found him, her sweetheart who is now known as the Marsh Devil.

Danger is all around, the highborn are attacking the lowborn, flood is coming and the land and squatters are being washed away, they run for their lives through deluge and cold and rain and mud and sewer and tunnel, there are creatures hanging underneath bridges screaming awful sounds, all hell is breaking loose, and then you’re in the thick of this novel and you couldn’t stop reading if you tried. the pace is so fast it’s hard to put down, but you have to because it’s over 500 pages long and yet instead of the drama lulling for you to catch your breath it gets worse and more serve with every page consumed.

In a mass exodus from all across the planet people flee slavery and homes from marauders who enslave. Lyra goes home to rescue her brother but her entire town is dead. Every moment is full of shock and horror and all while the planet is about to suffer fatal impact. the only way to keep them safe is to get to the ARC. Lyra discovers she has talents that are miraculous, giving safe passage to thousands, and yet the danger never ceases. The ARC is not what it seems, nothing is at it seems. Armies fill the sky with technology never seen on Massin, and the true battle begins.

The story is personal, an ongoing unveiling of who Lyra really is, who her sweet marsh devil is, and who her brother is, and the repercussions are epic. This is an epic adventure tale, full of war and blood and ‘magic’, and it was utterly transfixing to read. I couldn’t put it down. Full stars!

Thank you, Mo!