Monday, January 05, 2009

Solstice at Stonewylde, by Kit Berry

(pb; 2007)

From the back cover:

"Yul and Sylvie are once more at the mercy of the dark powers threatening to destroy them.

"Will Magus win the dreadful conflict that begun in the Stone Circle one Winter Solstice many years ago?"

Review:

Solstice picks up a week after the dark conclusion of Moondance of Stonewylde. Yul and Sylvie, both ill -- Yul deathly ill -- are barely recovering from the Magus's malicious greedy actions. But their suffering isn't for nothing: now the Village folk (i.e., Yul's "people") are getting to know the Magus for what he is -- corrupt, reckless and destructive.

As in Magus of Stonewylde and Moondance of Stonewylde, Berry keeps Solstice's pace quick (while ably drawing out the necessary tension), the characters interesting and relatable, and the dramatic elements non-clichéd. Solstice's ending satisfactorily concludes first storyline-section of the Stonewylde pentalogy -- I'm impatient to see what happens in the last two books of the series!

Followed by Shadows at Stonewylde.

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