The Jack of Souls by Stephen C. Merlino ~ Blog Tour: Review

Title: The Jack of Souls
Author: Stephen C. Merlino
Publisher: Tortoise Rampant Books
Pages: 352
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Paperback/Hardcover/Kindle

An outcast rogue named Harric must break a curse laid on his fate or die by his nineteenth birthday. 

      

As his dead-day approaches, nightmares from the spirit world stalk him and tear at his sanity; sorcery eats at his soul.

      

To survive, he’ll need more than his usual tricks. He’ll need help—and a lot of it—but on the kingdom’s lawless frontier, his only allies are other outcasts. One of these outcasts is Caris, a mysterious, horse-whispering runaway, intent upon becoming the Queen’s first female knight. The other is Sir Willard—ex-immortal, ex-champion, now addicted to pain-killing herbs and banished from the court.

      

With their help, Harric might keep his curse at bay. But for how long?

      

And both companions bring perils and secrets of their own: Caris bears the scars of a troubled past that still hunts her; Willard is at war with the Old Ones, an order of insane immortal knights who once enslaved the kingdom. The Old Ones have returned to murder Willard and seize the throne from his queen. Willard is both on the run from them, and on one final, desperate quest to save her. 

       

Together, Harric and his companions must overcome fanatical armies, murderous sorcerers, and powerful supernatural foes.

       

Alone, Harric must face the temptation of a forbidden magic that could break his curse, but cost him the only woman he’s ever loved.

                                         ***

A tale of magic, mischief, and the triumph of tricksters.

For More Information

• The Jack of Souls is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
• Watch book trailer at YouTube.
• Watch Kickstarter video at YouTube.
• Read Chapter One here.

My Review

The Jack of Souls is a fantasy based series which is why I picked it in the first place. I love fantasy books and this one didn't disappoint though I'll admit at the beginning of the book it was pretty slow paced. Which I know was done to introduce all the main character's but I felt like it could have been shortened. 

What I liked about The Jack of Souls the most is how the author gives all the character's their own point's of view and although at times it did confuse me quite a bit, I enjoyed it nonetheless. Especially how the author intertwined the meeting between the character's and slowly had them come together. All three character's are outcasts and also hold secrets that bring danger to each other but don't have a choice and have to band together.

There's Harric whose cursed by his own mad mother who wants him dead and just as he's about to succumb to his curse he's saved by Caris a horse whisperer with a past. And Sir Willard an ex-immortal who is trying to save the queen while in danger himself. I enjoyed reading these well-written character's and seeing the story unfold before my very eyes. Even though I had a rough start, I couldn't help but enjoy the magical world that Merlino has created and hope that the sequel is even better than the first!

If you're looking for a fantasy filled world, look no further!

Rating: 3 stars

I received this in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Stephen C. Merlino lives in Seattle, WA, where he writes, plays, and teaches high school English. He lives with the world's most talented and desirable woman, two fabulous children, and three attack chickens.

Growing up in Seattle drove Stephen indoors for eight months of the year. Before the age of video games, that meant he read a lot. At the age of eleven he discovered the stories of J.R.R. Tolkein and fell in love with fantasy.

Summers and rare sunny days he spent with friends in wooded ravines or on the beaches of Puget Sound, building worlds in the sand, and fighting orcs and wizards with driftwood swords.

About the time a fifth reading of The Lord of the Rings failed to deliver the old magic, Stephen attended the University of Washington and fell in love with Chaucer and Shakespeare and all things English. Sadly, the closest he got to England back then was The Unicorn Pub on University Way, which wasn't even run by an Englishman: it was run by a Scot named Angus. Still, he studied there, and as he sampled Angus's weird ales, and devoured the Unicorn's steak & kidney pie (with real offal!), he developed a passion for Scotland, too.

In college, he fell in love with writing, and when a kindly professor said of a story he'd written, "You should get that published!" Stephen took the encouragement literally, and spent the next years trying. The story remains unpublished, but the quest to develop it introduced Stephen to the world of agents (the story ultimately had two), and taught him much of craft and the value of what Jay Lake would call, "psychotic persistence."

Add to that his abiding love of nerds--those who, as Sarah Vowel defines it, "go too far and care too much about a subject"--and you have Stephen Merlino in a nutshell.

Stephen is the 2014 PNWA winner for Fantasy.

He is also the 2014 SWW winner for Fantasy.

His novel, The Jack of Souls is in its fourth month in the top ten on Amazon’s Children’s Fantasy Sword & Sorcery Best Seller list, and among the top three in Coming-of-Age.

For More Information

• Visit Stephen C. Merlino’s website.
• Connect with Stephen on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Stephen at Goodreads.
• Contact Stephen.