Upon returning from her first successful trip to the scorched forest as a woodswoman, Samara should have returned to a celebration. Instead, she returned to desolation. Raiders had attacked the village and the losses were immense. Her mother was killed along with her unborn sibling. In the aftermath, she lost the rest of her family to revenge. The scars of that day will remain with her forever. Now six years have passed. Samara has grown into a strong woman. But her life is hard and the love she once thought of as hers, is no more. Once again Raider's ships are seen heading towards the village and once again Samara's life will take an unexpected turn.
My goodness. Once again, Lindsey Pogue proves her skill and creativity at worldbuilding. I feel like I stepped back in time into a Saxon village during the dark ages with a rich assortment of characters led by a girl whose light was so bright, she eclipsed every other. Samara stole every page in this book. Her beauty, pain, strength, stubbornness, naivety, and her loss and mistakes all combined to create a complex woman I couldn't help but love. And as much as I loved her, I was equally disappointed in the men around her, save one. The men in the village, especially Gil, were kind but never enough. Raf and her father finally proved themselves but long after they should have, and after causing way too much suffering in her life. I'm sure I was supposed to like Link but from the beginning, I found him unworthy. I am convinced he was in love with Samara but too weak to be the man she needed. He needed a weaker woman to make him feel strong. Only one man challenged her and he turned out to be as broken as Samara. Perfect. I loved the events and the outcome of Ebonpeak and Samara but I would have liked the story to continue on a little longer. I wanted more. Hopefully, in the future, I will get to meet up with Samara, her love, her friends, and her donkey again.