Book Review: Dare

The Blades of Acktar: Dare by Tricia Mingerink

Recommended For: Ages 13 to Adult

Rating: PG-13 (for violence and thematic content)

Courage could cost him everything.

Third Blade Leith Torren never questions his orders or his loyalty to King Respen until an arrow wound and a prairie blizzard drive him to the doorstep of the girls whose family he once destroyed.

Their forbidden faith and ties to the Resistance could devastate their family a second time.

Survival depends on obedience, but freedom beckons. How far does he dare go to resist the king and his Blades? No matter what Leith chooses, one thing is certain.

Someone will die.

 I need the next book. Can I please have the next book? Actually, I need to get around to actually buying it with the gift card I got for Christmas. In the meantime, my sister and I both wanted to review Star Wars, but I need to review this book first, so here goes...

Writing: 4.8/5

The writing was mostly amazing. There were a couple of times I got tripped up over badly structured sentences, missing commas, and typos (seriously, what is it with people and commas? They exist for a reason, you know). But I just reminded myself the book was the author's first. And really, I never would have guessed it was her first if I hadn't known.

Setting: 4/5

The setting was really good, nice descriptions, well-developed, just...it would have been really nice had I been able to tell whether this was supposed to be a fantasy world or a made-up country back in the medieval time period. Given all the talk about Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar and such, I just didn't have a clue. Hence the missing point. Maybe in the second book...

Plot: 5/5

Gah, I need the next one. Sorry, distractions. The plot was good. I was kind of surprised SPOILER a good guy didn't die END SPOILER given the back description, but I'm not counting on that immunity in the next book. And, honestly, I think if I had to write a back cover description for this book, I would end up tearing my hair out. It is an awesome book with an awesome plot, but so hard to describe. Savvy? (Sorry, I just watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and it rubbed off.)

Character Development: 5/5

I JUST LOVED LEITH AND RENNA AND I MUST HAVE MORE OF THEM. Anyway. I guess you can tell I liked them. They still don't rate quite as high as Jace and Kyrin from Ilyon Chronicles, but I still think I could end up fangirling over them. Leith and Renna and Brandi (oh, my goodness, Brandi) and Shad and everyone else, and just wow. And the bad guy gives me shivers. Tricia Mingerink has stellar characters and I can't wait to read more about them.

Wait, what are you still doing here? Go read this book now! (And no, you can't borrow my copy. It is my precious.) Trust me, you won't regret reading this book. I guarantee it.

Now I'm off to write a review of the new Star Wars movie, because Morgan can't have all the fun.