Spirit Untamed

Helena
Sustaita
Genre: 
Historical

SUSPENSE/THRILLER:  Spirited Untamed is a historical tale that takes place in the sixteenth century. Lilithe’s early life starts out with loving parents and the Queen who made weekly visits. Her suspicions about the visits were confirmed when the Queen announced she was her own child and had already selected a husband for her.  Seth, her vain and cruel husband, burns her family home, killing her adopted parents. Unaware of his avarice, she trusts her husband because she is too naïve to do otherwise. Seth and his friends rape the fourteen-year-old Lilithe and brand her with a whore’s mark.

 

This causes Lilithe to swear vengeance against Seth and her natural parents who bartered her away. The story opens with Lilithe leading a resistant movement against the Dark King. Into this dismal atmosphere strides Eramus, a famed hunter of both man and beast. The fiery warrior, Lilithe, catches his eye but the bitter woman consumed with vengeance has no time for love.

 

This tale starts slow with a diary narrative that tells as opposed to showing.  The King, Seth, even the Queen participate in gruesome atrocities that range from ordering loving couples to kill one another to beheading children for stealing bread. The timing is off for such a short tale. It feels as if it were part of a bigger story made into several books. The imagery is vivid., unfortunately,  it consists mainly of spurting blood and battles.

Unless you are a big blood and gore fan, this book may not be for you.

 

Morgan Stamm