The Second Blind Son by Amy Harmon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Summary from GoodReads
A lost girl and a blind boy discover their greatest strength is their bond with each other in a beguiling fantasy by the New York Times bestselling author of The First Girl Child.
An insidious curse is weakening the Norse kingdom of Saylok, where no daughters have been born in years. Washing up on these plagued shores is Ghisla, an orphaned stowaway nursed back to health by a blind cave dweller. Named for a mysterious god, the boy, Hod, is surrounded by prophecy. To Ghisla, he’s a cherished new friend. To Hod, the girl is even more so. For when Ghisla sings, Hod can see.
Unable to offer safe shelter, Hod urges Ghisla onward to become a daughter of the temple, where all the kingdom’s girl children have been gathered. But because of a magical rune, the two cannot be separated, no matter the time or the distance.
Now, subject to a ruthless king, Ghisla enters a desperate world of warring clan chieftains and catastrophic power struggles. Who among them can be trusted is unknowable. So are the sacrifices Ghisla and Hod must make to defeat the cursed forces that could destroy a kingdom and the fated bond between two souls.
An insidious curse is weakening the Norse kingdom of Saylok, where no daughters have been born in years. Washing up on these plagued shores is Ghisla, an orphaned stowaway nursed back to health by a blind cave dweller. Named for a mysterious god, the boy, Hod, is surrounded by prophecy. To Ghisla, he’s a cherished new friend. To Hod, the girl is even more so. For when Ghisla sings, Hod can see.
Unable to offer safe shelter, Hod urges Ghisla onward to become a daughter of the temple, where all the kingdom’s girl children have been gathered. But because of a magical rune, the two cannot be separated, no matter the time or the distance.
Now, subject to a ruthless king, Ghisla enters a desperate world of warring clan chieftains and catastrophic power struggles. Who among them can be trusted is unknowable. So are the sacrifices Ghisla and Hod must make to defeat the cursed forces that could destroy a kingdom and the fated bond between two souls.
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REVIEW
I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The first book of Amy Harmon's "The First Girl Child", introduced us to a Nordic-inspired world where runes are real and a curse that makes the island kingdom of Saylok suffer from the decrease in births of children. That story was focused on Alba and Bayr and it has its own trials and emotional moments so before continuing to this review as this is a book set to the same world but follows another couple I would recommend reading the first book, before reading this one.
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Nothing prepared me for the excitement I had when I was pre-approved for the ARC. I thank 47North for this and NetGalley. The first book had gutted it me with its emotions the messages it passed and the agony the characters felt. This book was also amazing.
The story is set closely in the same timeline of The First Girl Child and it follows Ghisla, a young child whose songs bring also a taste of magic in them. Running away from her destroyed village in the Northlands she becomes a stowaway in a ship which brings her to Saylok and she is saved by Hod, a young blind boy who has the name of the same blind God in Norse mythology too. As they bond together they both realize that her songs can make Hod actually see and her powers of singing bring her attention to the guardian of Hod who tries to get rid of her...by sending her to the clans, posing as a 'daughter of Saylok', changing Ghisla's name to that of Liis of Saylok.
The story and the plot overlap some events from the first book too and as Liis grows up so does her love for Hod who also experiences his won journey through a world torn by war and politics.
I enjoyed seeing characters I loved again like Dragmar and Ghost the rest of the Daughters and Alba along with Bayr and at least for me what I would love to have would be a series of books about all the daughters. There was a scene with Elayne and Aidan which I would like to experience more.
Again I was torn by Dragmar's love for Ghost and her own torn feelings and I cried over the deeply emotional way Amy Harmon fleshed out these characters so masterfully. Words can not describe how beautifully written this book was.
I can not wait hopefully for another sequel in this series and I would love to see one!
Definitely recommended as Amy Harmon is a masterful writer of making us live through her characters.
And don't miss the first book of the series
About the author:
Amy Harmon has written eighteen novels including the USA Today Bestsellers, Making Faces and Running Barefoot, as well as The Law of Moses, Infinity + One and the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue. Her fantasy novel, The Bird and the Sword, was a Goodreads Book of the Year finalist. Her newest release, What the Wind Knows, is an Amazon charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts and more, join Amy at www.authoramyharmon.com.
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