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Legends of the Shifters #4
Daybreak
Each of the five kingdoms has chosen a side, whether by choice or manipulation. Every day, the Piran queen’s power is growing, pushing the laws of magic until the prophecy seems like nothing more than an old man’s imaginings. Even so, Ivy, August, and their allies rally outside the Black Fortress, preparing for a war they have little chance of winning. And there is only so much time before Queen Valerie raises her head...and strikes.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 11, 2018
About the author
J.B. North
4 books53 followersJ.B. North grew up in West Texas, where she spent much of her time scouring bookshelves in her aunt’s school library. Her first book, Spark (Legends of the Shifters, Book 1) hit digital shelves (and soon after, Amazon Bestseller lists) when she was 17 years old.
Today, North is braving city life in California's Bay Area with her husband, and is working on a number of upcoming fantasy novels.
Today, North is braving city life in California's Bay Area with her husband, and is working on a number of upcoming fantasy novels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 12, 2019
Legends of the Shifters by J.B. North Series Review
Instead of reviewing the individual books, I’m going to write this review in regard to the entire series. There are four books in the Legends of the Shifters series: Spark, Icebound, Sandstorm, and Daybreak.
Overall, I’d give the entire series a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Individually, I’d rate each book as follows:
o Spark 2.5/5
o Icebound 3/5
o Sandstorm 3.5/5
o Daybreak 3/5
What I didn’t like: (The list is quite long, but, I promise, I really did enjoy the series. I’m going into detail here to provide potential readers with an informed review and the author with useable feedback)
The author was young when she started writing the first book, Spark, and it definitely shows. There were several moments in which the characters seemed extremely naïve, particularly the main character, Ivy. In the first book she was seventeen and, while she did grow up in an orphanage without much interaction to the outside world, one would expect her to be a little more mature.
o A sub-point to the naivety problem is that everything (and I mean everything) made the main character want to vomit. Someone was injured? She felt like throwing up. The mere thought of a dead body (even if there wasn’t one)? She had to hold back the urge to barf. This was quite an annoying and common occurrence throughout the entire series, but it definitely showed up much less often in the later books. Now, I can assume that the constant urge to vomit was the author’s way of simply saying that Ivy was nervous or just generally uncomfortable with a situation or thought, but there are better ways to show that. Even if she left the vomiting urges in the book, she should’ve changed some of those out with a different description to keep it from getting repetitive.
There were quite a few things that were gone over with broad strokes, particularly the fighting scenes, the weapons, and the armor.
o I personally have a love for medieval armor and weaponry, so I really like lots of description of those things, but I realize that not everyone shares that interest. Still, some description was needed. Swords were simply described as swords, knives as knives, and bows as bows. We weren’t even told if the bow was a traditional bow or a crossbow (to be fair, it was clearly a traditional bow based on the description of use). Again, I didn’t expect to be told trivial details like if the blades had a convex or V-grind, but I expected to be told if they were curved or straight. At least tell me if it is a one-handed or two-handed sword.
o J.B. North activated another pet-peeve of mine when it came to armor. The problem was that there were only two situations in which she ever mentioned it. 1: The few times that she gave a brief description of the armor. 2: When someone was cutting through it. What’s the point of armor if Every. Single. Time. It gets hit, it just breaks? All right, I’m sorry. I’m done.
There were also some logistical and consistency issues.
o The main character, Ivy, has the ability of fire. However, when the way the fire interacted with and effected the world and its people was constantly different from time to time without any explanation as to why, that’s a problem. At one point, when Ivy had an aura of fire around her, another character stuck their arm into the fire without injury, but then got extremely burnt when she forces his hand into the fire again later in that same scene. Other times people would suffer mere burns when they were hit with a blast of fire, but others were described as completely turning to ash.
There were also some issues with the storytelling, itself.
o In the Legends of the Shifters universe there is a prophecy that involves our main character. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of prophecy and chosen one stories, but they can be entertaining. The problem with the prophecy in this story was that it meant nothing; it didn’t need to be there at all. The only actual roll that the prophecy played in the story was an occasional source of motivation for Ivy. At times, she would push through something saying, “I must go on because the prophecy says I have to.”
o There were also way too many coincidences for it to be believable. Fortunately, it seems that the author learned from her mistakes and this problem only existed in the first book. Without going back through the book and counting them, I’d say there were at least five story and character defining moments that happened entirely by luck or coincidence.
o Also, the story never really defines a “bad guy” until late in the series. Even when we are given a bad guy, we find that he isn’t the “real” bad guy behind it all. We are also told multiple times in the last book that the different kingdoms have seen this war with the “real” bad guy coming for decades and, thus, have prepared armies. So, if they have known about this bad guy for decades then why didn’t we, the readers, hear about this person until the end of the third book? The author tried really hard in the final book to make the reader feel the gravity of the situation (and, honestly, she did quite well given the fact that the problem was introduced so late into the series), but I feel like I would’ve been able feel for all the kingdoms and their occupants more if the war that was happening had been addressed earlier on and then had the tension built up throughout the entire series.
o Speaking of tension buildup, that brings me to my next point.
Whenever something bad happened, I found it hard to care. And, no, it’s not because I didn’t feel for any of the characters (because I really did), it was simply because there wasn't enough buildup to the bad event. Whenever a bad thing happened, it just… happened. Don’t get me wrong, having something happen unexpectedly can be fun, but even that must be set up right. As a side note, the author did have one scene where something happened out of nowhere and I quite enjoyed it because it was portrayed very well (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it). Another reason I found it hard to care was because that bad thing almost always got resolved. We don’t see a bad thing with a permanent affect happen until the very end of the last book. Worse yet, not only is that bad thing always resolved, it’s usually resolved within two pages. So, I didn’t even have time to wonder how the characters might resolve the problem because… boom, problem resolved as soon as you turn the page.
There were also some things I personally didn’t like with the physical side of the writing
o The author did a lot of “telling and not showing,” particularly when it came to facial expressions. I know that describing a face in enough detail to get the reader to understand what you’re trying to portray is difficult, but it has to be done. Showing the emotions helps the reader immerse themselves in the world and has a greater impact on the reader than simply saying things like, “he had a panicked look” or “he bellowed an enraged cry.”
o The author used quite a few phrases like, “he fell down, down, down” or “as we walked down the mountain we went around, and around, and around.”
o There were also some grammatical and spelling errors, albeit, very few that I noticed.
o Aside from the few spelling errors, there were a couple of times that she changed verb tenses.
o Also, there were a lot of fragmented, incomplete sentences. I get that authors can break certain rules of writing to get a particular sentence or scene to come across in a desired way, but many of the fragmented sentences would’ve read the same had they been combined with a comma.
What I did Like: (This section is going to be much shorter because the review is already getting quite long and because the things I liked can be summed up pretty easily)
The creativity and original ideas behind the Legends of the Shifters series made the whole story interesting and entertaining despite the above-mentioned issues.
The characters were believable and interacted with each other in realistic and natural ways (although, a larger use of contractions in the dialogue would’ve made it sound less robotic).
I could tell that the physical side of the world had been well thought out, with the consistent descriptions of the different kingdoms and where they were in relation to each other.
It was neat to see a world in which everyone had a magical ability. Most stories with magic only give powers to a select few people, so I liked seeing that changed up. (I would’ve liked to see magic play a larger roll in the everyday person’s life, though)
There are definitely some strong Christian themes in the book. I know some people like that and others don’t. Personally, I don’t care either way, as long as it’s incorporated well… and it was. (I think the author could’ve gone a step further with how the existence of magic interacted with the belief in God – since modern Christianity often condemns the idea of magic – but, as is, it never contradicted or took away from the story).
All in all, I enjoyed reading the Legends of the Shifters series and I think J.B. North certainly has potential as a writer. She has a natural gift for creativity and, when it comes to writing, it’s easier to improve your writing style than it is to learn to be creative. If (hopefully “when”) J.B. North releases another book, I think I’ll be adding it to my library.
Instead of reviewing the individual books, I’m going to write this review in regard to the entire series. There are four books in the Legends of the Shifters series: Spark, Icebound, Sandstorm, and Daybreak.
Overall, I’d give the entire series a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Individually, I’d rate each book as follows:
o Spark 2.5/5
o Icebound 3/5
o Sandstorm 3.5/5
o Daybreak 3/5
What I didn’t like: (The list is quite long, but, I promise, I really did enjoy the series. I’m going into detail here to provide potential readers with an informed review and the author with useable feedback)
The author was young when she started writing the first book, Spark, and it definitely shows. There were several moments in which the characters seemed extremely naïve, particularly the main character, Ivy. In the first book she was seventeen and, while she did grow up in an orphanage without much interaction to the outside world, one would expect her to be a little more mature.
o A sub-point to the naivety problem is that everything (and I mean everything) made the main character want to vomit. Someone was injured? She felt like throwing up. The mere thought of a dead body (even if there wasn’t one)? She had to hold back the urge to barf. This was quite an annoying and common occurrence throughout the entire series, but it definitely showed up much less often in the later books. Now, I can assume that the constant urge to vomit was the author’s way of simply saying that Ivy was nervous or just generally uncomfortable with a situation or thought, but there are better ways to show that. Even if she left the vomiting urges in the book, she should’ve changed some of those out with a different description to keep it from getting repetitive.
There were quite a few things that were gone over with broad strokes, particularly the fighting scenes, the weapons, and the armor.
o I personally have a love for medieval armor and weaponry, so I really like lots of description of those things, but I realize that not everyone shares that interest. Still, some description was needed. Swords were simply described as swords, knives as knives, and bows as bows. We weren’t even told if the bow was a traditional bow or a crossbow (to be fair, it was clearly a traditional bow based on the description of use). Again, I didn’t expect to be told trivial details like if the blades had a convex or V-grind, but I expected to be told if they were curved or straight. At least tell me if it is a one-handed or two-handed sword.
o J.B. North activated another pet-peeve of mine when it came to armor. The problem was that there were only two situations in which she ever mentioned it. 1: The few times that she gave a brief description of the armor. 2: When someone was cutting through it. What’s the point of armor if Every. Single. Time. It gets hit, it just breaks? All right, I’m sorry. I’m done.
There were also some logistical and consistency issues.
o The main character, Ivy, has the ability of fire. However, when the way the fire interacted with and effected the world and its people was constantly different from time to time without any explanation as to why, that’s a problem. At one point, when Ivy had an aura of fire around her, another character stuck their arm into the fire without injury, but then got extremely burnt when she forces his hand into the fire again later in that same scene. Other times people would suffer mere burns when they were hit with a blast of fire, but others were described as completely turning to ash.
There were also some issues with the storytelling, itself.
o In the Legends of the Shifters universe there is a prophecy that involves our main character. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of prophecy and chosen one stories, but they can be entertaining. The problem with the prophecy in this story was that it meant nothing; it didn’t need to be there at all. The only actual roll that the prophecy played in the story was an occasional source of motivation for Ivy. At times, she would push through something saying, “I must go on because the prophecy says I have to.”
o There were also way too many coincidences for it to be believable. Fortunately, it seems that the author learned from her mistakes and this problem only existed in the first book. Without going back through the book and counting them, I’d say there were at least five story and character defining moments that happened entirely by luck or coincidence.
o Also, the story never really defines a “bad guy” until late in the series. Even when we are given a bad guy, we find that he isn’t the “real” bad guy behind it all. We are also told multiple times in the last book that the different kingdoms have seen this war with the “real” bad guy coming for decades and, thus, have prepared armies. So, if they have known about this bad guy for decades then why didn’t we, the readers, hear about this person until the end of the third book? The author tried really hard in the final book to make the reader feel the gravity of the situation (and, honestly, she did quite well given the fact that the problem was introduced so late into the series), but I feel like I would’ve been able feel for all the kingdoms and their occupants more if the war that was happening had been addressed earlier on and then had the tension built up throughout the entire series.
o Speaking of tension buildup, that brings me to my next point.
Whenever something bad happened, I found it hard to care. And, no, it’s not because I didn’t feel for any of the characters (because I really did), it was simply because there wasn't enough buildup to the bad event. Whenever a bad thing happened, it just… happened. Don’t get me wrong, having something happen unexpectedly can be fun, but even that must be set up right. As a side note, the author did have one scene where something happened out of nowhere and I quite enjoyed it because it was portrayed very well (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it). Another reason I found it hard to care was because that bad thing almost always got resolved. We don’t see a bad thing with a permanent affect happen until the very end of the last book. Worse yet, not only is that bad thing always resolved, it’s usually resolved within two pages. So, I didn’t even have time to wonder how the characters might resolve the problem because… boom, problem resolved as soon as you turn the page.
There were also some things I personally didn’t like with the physical side of the writing
o The author did a lot of “telling and not showing,” particularly when it came to facial expressions. I know that describing a face in enough detail to get the reader to understand what you’re trying to portray is difficult, but it has to be done. Showing the emotions helps the reader immerse themselves in the world and has a greater impact on the reader than simply saying things like, “he had a panicked look” or “he bellowed an enraged cry.”
o The author used quite a few phrases like, “he fell down, down, down” or “as we walked down the mountain we went around, and around, and around.”
o There were also some grammatical and spelling errors, albeit, very few that I noticed.
o Aside from the few spelling errors, there were a couple of times that she changed verb tenses.
o Also, there were a lot of fragmented, incomplete sentences. I get that authors can break certain rules of writing to get a particular sentence or scene to come across in a desired way, but many of the fragmented sentences would’ve read the same had they been combined with a comma.
What I did Like: (This section is going to be much shorter because the review is already getting quite long and because the things I liked can be summed up pretty easily)
The creativity and original ideas behind the Legends of the Shifters series made the whole story interesting and entertaining despite the above-mentioned issues.
The characters were believable and interacted with each other in realistic and natural ways (although, a larger use of contractions in the dialogue would’ve made it sound less robotic).
I could tell that the physical side of the world had been well thought out, with the consistent descriptions of the different kingdoms and where they were in relation to each other.
It was neat to see a world in which everyone had a magical ability. Most stories with magic only give powers to a select few people, so I liked seeing that changed up. (I would’ve liked to see magic play a larger roll in the everyday person’s life, though)
There are definitely some strong Christian themes in the book. I know some people like that and others don’t. Personally, I don’t care either way, as long as it’s incorporated well… and it was. (I think the author could’ve gone a step further with how the existence of magic interacted with the belief in God – since modern Christianity often condemns the idea of magic – but, as is, it never contradicted or took away from the story).
All in all, I enjoyed reading the Legends of the Shifters series and I think J.B. North certainly has potential as a writer. She has a natural gift for creativity and, when it comes to writing, it’s easier to improve your writing style than it is to learn to be creative. If (hopefully “when”) J.B. North releases another book, I think I’ll be adding it to my library.
May 21, 2021
I started this series quite awhile ago and was thrilled to see the fourth book was out!
The story is about a girl, an orphan, who finds out that she has a very unique second form and that form is part of a prophesy.
Ivy's mom dies and her father is missing, as is her brother. She is placed in an orphanage where eventually she comes into her second form, that of a phoenix, and she is taken to an "academy". Much evil is happening in the dark places in this academy, but most of the students don't have any idea what they are going to have to face in the future, they just want to survive each days challenges. Ivy is determined to survive and even thrive.
In this fourth installment Ivy comes face to face with the dark Queen Valerie, the immensely strong queen who wants to take over all the lands. Her power has grown far greater since Ivy first met her and she isn't sure that she can defeat her - but, she remembers Who is in control and Who has greater power than this queen, and in her most desperate hour she calls on Him, and He is faithful.
There are several sad moments in this story and I kind of liked that, because it's how our battles with the evil one go - some are lost to the evil, and some are killed by it - but in the end Light wins.
This is a clean read with a good Christian message.
The story is about a girl, an orphan, who finds out that she has a very unique second form and that form is part of a prophesy.
Ivy's mom dies and her father is missing, as is her brother. She is placed in an orphanage where eventually she comes into her second form, that of a phoenix, and she is taken to an "academy". Much evil is happening in the dark places in this academy, but most of the students don't have any idea what they are going to have to face in the future, they just want to survive each days challenges. Ivy is determined to survive and even thrive.
In this fourth installment Ivy comes face to face with the dark Queen Valerie, the immensely strong queen who wants to take over all the lands. Her power has grown far greater since Ivy first met her and she isn't sure that she can defeat her - but, she remembers Who is in control and Who has greater power than this queen, and in her most desperate hour she calls on Him, and He is faithful.
There are several sad moments in this story and I kind of liked that, because it's how our battles with the evil one go - some are lost to the evil, and some are killed by it - but in the end Light wins.
This is a clean read with a good Christian message.
November 7, 2018
The Best Book in this Series Yet
I LOVED this book. I was hooked from the last one, and this story kept me hooked until the last page. The characters were well developed, plenty of delightful twists, and an incredible battle that kept me on the edge of my seat. I really can't wait to see what North does next, her writing has improved so much I know she has much potential for more masterpieces. Well done.
I LOVED this book. I was hooked from the last one, and this story kept me hooked until the last page. The characters were well developed, plenty of delightful twists, and an incredible battle that kept me on the edge of my seat. I really can't wait to see what North does next, her writing has improved so much I know she has much potential for more masterpieces. Well done.
June 3, 2019
Uplifting!
This was truly an enjoyable series! I highly recommend it to anyone who reads fantasy! The heroine is dedicated to her fellow compatriots and her beliefs.
This was truly an enjoyable series! I highly recommend it to anyone who reads fantasy! The heroine is dedicated to her fellow compatriots and her beliefs.
January 19, 2020
Awesome
Awesome read with war against the ecologists of blood bonded by the queen comes to apex with the loss of friends and royalty.
Awesome read with war against the ecologists of blood bonded by the queen comes to apex with the loss of friends and royalty.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews