Storm Siren [and her Fury]

"I raise my chin as the buyers stare. Yes. Look. You don't want me. Because, eventually, accidentally, I will destroy you."

                       --from Chapter One of Storm Siren (Mary Weber)--

     Nym is born to a kingdom that does not want her. It controls her. Her kind are killed at birth: Elementals, with powers beyond strength and reckoning, and they are always male. She is the exception. She should not exist.

     In fact, she would prefer not to.

     Sold again and again into slavery, Nym is finally bought by a buyer who knows her abilities for what they are and decides to use them to acquire power. Nym is forced into training, to become Faelen's deadliest weapon. Never having been considered human, she sees little improvement from slave to weapon, except that she is slowly learning to control the curse that draws her emotions into the deadly power of the elements of the storm. A power that, until now, had only ever enabled her to kill people.

     Mary Weber uses Storm Siren and its sequel, Siren's Fury, to touch on the subject of pain, both physical and emotional. While other topics are addressed throughout the books, pain is the most prominent. Being born into suffering. Surviving pain. Accepting. And living with the knowledge of it.

     Nym is a relatable, understandable character, and for anyone going through pain and looking for an escape, even her fictional experience can speak to that. Not only helpful, the Storm Siren series is a web of suspense, intrigue, messy politics and crushing battles, and a psychological journey for everyone to follow. Nym claws for your attention and clings to it with both hands, until the book is done. And even then, her story lingers.

     Mary Weber's words are impactful and punctuating through the eyes of her characters. Her words take hold and force you to read, feverishly, until the very end. It is written as youth fiction, but even a mature mind will appreciate the flow of this trilogy.

     Guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat until the release of Book Three.

--Elise--

     For more information on Storm Siren and Siren's Fury by Mary Weber, visit our website here and here.

A.D. 30

     Maviah is a woman living in 30 A.D., and as if that alone is not shame enough, she is the illegitimate child of a renowned Bedouin sheikh, Rami bin Malik, cast aside by his pride and born into slavery herself.  To make matters worse, during her exile in Egypt she became the defiled mother to a son. Maviah is the lowest of the low. Defiled. Dirty. Unholy. Slave. If not because of her gender then because of the course of her life and the choices of those around her, not to mention her own. And when she thinks things couldn't possibly get worse for her, her father's kingdom is attacked, her infant son is killed, and she is sent on a perilous errand across the Nafud desert to deliver a ceremonial dagger to the lustful, unpredictable Herod. This dagger is meant to be her people's saving grace and means of deliverance. So in the company of her father's most loyal and trusted servant, Saba, and an odd-mannered Bedu Jew called Judah, she must fulfill this duty.
     What else could she possibly have to live for?

     Dekker brings history and fiction together in a kind of refreshing, intertwining plot of raw emotion and gripping adventure. He offers striking insight into the way women were perceived and treated during the time period, and the emotional struggles that might result from their way of life. Perhaps even more striking is his take on the encounter this particular woman has with Jesus Christ himself - Yeshua, the mystic, stirring uproar and rebellion amongst the Jewish people while teaching love to anyone who would listen.

     It is an encounter with Yeshua that changes the entire course of Maviah's story; the entire course of her life. And she is only one of many forgotten people who may have touched lives with Jesus in person before the date of his crucifixion. Dekker explores the effect that this may have had on the course of history, never failing to electrify the heart with the prospect of what may have been. His depiction of Yeshua is very real, very alive, and breathtakingly true.

--Elise--
  

Available in hardcover and paperback.

     For more information on A.D. 30 by Ted Dekker, visit our website here.