I am a book reader. Always have been and always will be. So I was excited to start reading Victoria Simcox’s The Black Shard. I read and reviewed The Magic Warble earlier this year, I just knew that when the next book came out, I had to get it. Thank goodness for Victoria for letting me review it.
The Black Shard starts out a couple years after The Magic Warble ends. I love getting a quick update on all of the previous characters so I can feel right back into the book. Kristina is back… a little more grown up and trying to live her life. She thinks that everything might have been a dream but gets pulled back into Bernovem. Here’s more information:
Kristina’s stay at summer horse camp is horrible to say the least, and it’s all because Hester and Davina are there as well, making her life miserable. When Hester’s cruel prank goes terribly wrong, it’s actually what sends the three girls back to the magical land of Bernovem. In Bernovem, Kristina is very excited to see her former friend, Prince Werrien. When he invites her to sail with him on his ship to his homeland Tezerel, putting it simply, Kristina can’t refuse.
Reunited with her gnome, dwarf, animal, fairy friends … and best of all, Werrien, things seem like they couldn’t get any better for Kristina. But when Werrien becomes fascinated with an unusual seeing stone, the ”Black Shard”, Kristina is haunted by a ghostlike old hag. Struggling against suspicion, guilt, illness, and ultimately the one who wants to possess her soul, Kristina will see it’s in her weakest moment that she will encounter more strength than she has ever known.
I love where this book goes. I still LOVE the drawn photos. They totally bring out the story. It shows the softer side of both Werrien and Kristina. Not to mention Hester and Davina seem to have gotten slightly nicer to Kristina.. at least for a little while. You can tell by the book that the characters have grown up.. mostly for the better but just in case you haven’t read the previous book, there is enough information to not keep you guessing. I love that. It makes it so that you don’t have to be perfect in remembering the previous information. I was a little confused about the black shard.. I mean I read the story but it wasn’t til the end that I understood why Warrien had stolen it and why the King was so upset about. I don’t mind that though, it brought a lot more mystery to the story. I also love how the love story was unfolding.. that’s all I’ll say about that. You have to read it to get more information. I think there will be another book coming? I hope so!
If you’d like to check out The Black Shard, you can buy it on Amazon for $13.33 ($2.99 for the Kindle edition). You can also check out Victoria’s blog or her Facebook Page.
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