Within The Vale | By Jen Becker | Book Review
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Title- Within The Vale (The Vale Trilogy #1)
Author- Jen Becker
Publisher- Jen Becker
Genre- Fantasy / Epic Fantasy
My Rating- ★★★★★
*Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Contents
Book Blurb
My Review
About the Author
Book Blurb
As an accomplished cutpurse, Eldin has used her Talents of escape often. She can compress herself under doors and jump from dizzying heights to land catlike on the ground. She can even render herself nearly invisible. But these abilities come at a steep price. Every Talent creates a ripple in the Vale, allowing the Brotherhood to feel her presence—to find her.
For thousands of years, the Brotherhood held the energy of the Vale over Visgaerd, for both the country’s protection and for their own power. Anyone capable of touching the Vale belongs to them. And, during that time, the Brotherhood has never found a woman with the ability to draw on its power. Or so they say. But Eldin is sure the Brothers mean to end her. Or they will when they meet her in the flesh and discover that she is not the ‘Brother’ they expect. What is a girl to do, when cornered at long last?
““They think I can touch the Vale,” she whispered past this finger.
“Why would they think that? It’s not possible,” Roderick said in so low a whisper she almost couldn’t decipher his words.”
“Because I can. I must go. I won’t go with them. They’ll probably kill me as soon as we’re away from here for my aberrant ability.””
My Review
Within the Vale is an uplifting story filled with interesting magic and wonderful detail. This book will appeal to fans of the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I thoroughly enjoyed the meandering journey I took alongside Eldin as she is welcomed into a new life alongside the brotherhood, an order she feared and alluded for many years.
Plot
The story follows Eldin as she fits herself into a new life and learns new skills alongside the brotherhood. As the only woman in a castle of all men, Eldin faces lots of new challenges, but meets them all head on.
The book is like a slow meandering river, adding in bits and pieces here and there are we learn about the world alongside Eldin. I loved the pacing. It reminded me a lot of The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Like Kvothe from Name of the Wind, Eldin travels to a place much like the University and learns a variety of trades. We follow her, learning these new skills and meeting new people along the way. I loved the detail about all the tasks she learns.
There isn’t a whole lot of conflict through the story, just the right amount to keep you hooked. There were a lot of times where bad situations turned out good and this was a refreshing change from characters always being beaten down. In this aspect it reminded me a lot of movies like My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away. I was always left with a good feeling after reading.
Characters
Eldin is a great character. She is headstrong and extremely proactive. I liked that she didn’t shy away from conflict and was always on the move doing something interesting. One thing that bugged me was that she seemed to be good at everything she did. I would have liked to see her fail at a few more things to help balance her out. But overall I loved following her on this journey.
Within the Vale by Jen Becker
Ben was my favourite character. I liked how much he changed over time and I loved his Talents. He made for an interesting character that I feel many people with anxiety could relate to on some level.
The cast of characters in this story is huge. It’s impressive how they were each woven in and all had different relationships with Eldin. This made it feel like a very real place with real people.
Setting
I liked the expansive world, and the feeling that there is more out there to learn about in future books. The towns and scenes at court have a classical fantasy feel about them, and they also reminded me a lot of places in the Name of the Wind (as you may have guessed The Name of The Wind is one of my favourite books).
Magic system
The magic was mysterious at first and slowly introduced in a way that was easy to understand. It is such an interesting magic system and quite unique, you can tell a lot of thought has gone into developing it. I like the way everyone is linked to the Vale but there are so many different skills known as Talents. There is a lot of room for possibility with this magic, but also really good limitations and costs to make it interesting.
Summary
I feel like more people should be reading this book! I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.
About the Author- Jen Becker
Author Jen Becker
Jen Becker, (not an accomplished cutpurse) lives in the greater Phoenix Arizona area with her husband, son and four legged mutts.
From Jen: I have always loved stories. I have been an avid reader all my life, going back to the days when my mom read the works of Roald Dahl and Judy Blume to me, and I would jump out of bed to read by my night light after she had tucked me in. I wanted to tell stories. I even tried writing a few short stories through adolescence, but it took me some time and life experience to figure out how to get the ideas on the page. I didn’t really get started until my thirties. It’s always a process, and a constant battle between creativity, production, and editing. But I love every minute of it.
Check out Jen Becker’s website
Buy within the vale
About the reviewer- Jenny sandiford
Hi I’m Jenny. I am passionate about promoting new authors and sharing any amazing books I find with the world. I am a book blogger, bookstagrammer, YA fantasy writer and travel writer.
I’m also a lover of nature, hiking, Harry Potter, cats, fantasy lands and quiet places.
Other books you might enjoy
The Stolen Kingdom (The Stolen Kingdom #1)- By Bethany Atazadeh
Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1)- By Shelby Mahurin
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shade of Magic #1)- By V.E. Schwab
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