Light Of Lorelei
by Jen Minkman
Published January 10th 2015
Blurb:
There is no light without shadow,
no truth without sacrifice,
and no way to keep us all from harm.
no truth without sacrifice,
and no way to keep us all from harm.
Aska wants more out of life than being a temple girl in the St. Brandan Convent of Brandaris. Her life-long service to the Baeles-Weards is the only reason she wasn’t killed immediately after birth – she is atoning for the sins of her parents. Her Anglian mother and Skylger father were never supposed to love each other and have children, and Aska is reminded of her low status and illegitimacy by her fellow temple girls every day.
But then she meets Tjalling, a young, mysterious, and charming Skylger fisherman who doesn’t seem to care that he is not supposed to befriend her. Soon after they meet, the island falls prey to the largest Siren attack in the history of Skylge and Aska is beginning to doubt the wisdom of the priests. If the Light in the Tower really keeps the people from harm, why are the Shriekers taking more and more lives each day?
Adding to her inner turmoil is a secret meeting with Royce and Enna, who want to recruit her into their resistance movement, an unexpected confession from her best friend Melinda, and Aska’s realization that she likes Tjalling a bit too much for her own good.
Soon, she is going down a road there is no turning back from, forcing her to make choices that shake the foundations of her world.
For Aska, there is only one true choice – to bring the truth to light.
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Excerpt:
By now, the beach is completely empty. All fishermen have
fled into their houses to escape the evening heat and cool off under the
shower. This is my shoreline now. For just a split second, I imagine what it
would be like if these sands weren’t dangerous – if the beach were a place to
relax on summer nights. Would we have live music and restaurants crowding the
coastline, bonfires and barbecues? Couples strolling through the surf while
holding hands? I don’t know where these thoughts come from, popping up unbidden
in my head. Vaguely, I remember seeing a postcard from Grins once, sent from
the mainland to Mother Henrietta. She’d tacked it on the cork board in her room
a long time ago, but was asked to take it down again. It was a black-and-white
photo of a seaside very much like our own, but this beach was alive with
entertainment and smiling people and – love. I feel a sudden, wistful ache in
my heart at the thought that I’ll never hold hands with anyone, walking down
the beach or any other road. I’m just like Mother Henrietta, sworn to work for
the convent till the day she dies.
That’s when I see
him.
A solitary walker, strolling up to me from the direction of
the sea. It’s a tall man with broad shoulders, and I inadvertently take a few
steps back, gingerly glancing at the wooden steps behind me leading back to the
quay. I’m out here all alone and nobody knows where I am. I don’t know much
about the world outside, but I do know being out at night with a strange man in
a lonely place like this might not end well. If I run really fast, I might make
it to the safety of the quay before he gets to me.
But for some reason, I can’t move. Inwardly, I beg for this
rambler to mean me no harm. My fingers clutched around the book page relax
somewhat, though, when he comes closer and I see that he’s not really a man.
He’s a boy not much older than me, though his muscular frame suggested
otherwise from a distance. His light-brown hair is wet. Has he been – swimming?
“Hi,” I say, trying
to make my voice as steady as I can. If I greet him first, I’ll have the home
advantage. I’ve been to this beach countless times, even after sunset. He will
not scare me away.
“Hello.”
I blink up at him.
This is strange – the second he speaks, I sense I don’t have to worry. His
voice sounds so gentle and harmless that he can’t possibly be dangerous.
My Review:
I received a free
copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Aska is part Anglian and Skylger who has to pay for her parent’s
sin or what the Anglian’s call a sin or say is against the law. Aska lives at
the convent and is a temple girl who has no choice of being a temple girl like
the other girls or maybe like most of them. Aska is having to pay for her
parents sin of loving each other by being forced to live at the temple while
the other girls are there by choice and do not have to dedicate their whole
life to the temple.
Sometimes Aska just has to get away from the temple and be
alone in order to deal with the fact that she has to spend her whole life
living at the temple while the other girls have a choice. She has to get away
because the girls are always picking on her because she doesn’t know who her
parents are and for the reason that they were not of the same ethnicity. Aska
likes to go for walks on the beach to be alone and to think about things. One
day while walking on the beach she meets a fisherman. When she first sees him
she is not sure if should or could trust him but she puts on a brave face and
keeps on walking on the beach instead of turning around and running away from
him right straight back to the temple. She finds out that the fisherman
Tjalling is nothing like she thought he might be. He is a very nice dude and of
course she doesn’t even notice how good looking he is much less that he is sort
of built like a brick sh*t house as the saying goes.
Aska and the girls that live at the temple sing to the
merfolk or the siren to keep them calm and to hopefully keep them taking the
lives of the people who live on the island. Their songs help to keep the sirens
satisfied so they will not attack them. Aska likes and wants to help keep the
people on the island safe but she also wants to have a life of her own just
like everyone else on the island. She wants to have someone who will love her
and take care of her just like every other girl.
Aska finds out a whole lot of things that some folk will
kill to keep secret but at the same time most of the folk on the island doesn’t
have a clue to what is really going on. I can’t wait for the next book in the
series to find out more about the sirens and Brandon’s fire. Whose story will
we get to know next? Whose life will we find out about in the next book the
Fire of Fryslan? I can’t wait to learn more about the Skylgers and the Anglians
as well as Aska’s parents and their story. I would also like to know more about
St. Brandon’s story as well. There are so many stories to know and learn about
the people who live on the island of Skylge.
I love reading Jen’s books I always get some kind of message
out of them. I have been a fan of Stephen King for a very long time at least
thirty years and in my opinion Jen is like Stephen she has a message for you in
every book that she writes. If you like Stephen King then you will definitely
like Jen Minkman. I would recommend any book that she has written to everyone
even if you like Stephen King or not. Of all the books that I have read by Jen
there has not been a one of them that I did not like.
Sound of Sirens
(Tales of Skylge #1)
Cover linked to Goodreads
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About The Author:
Jen Minkman (1978) was born in Holland, in the town of Alphen aan den Rijn. When she was 19, she moved between The Hague, Salzburg (Austria), Brussels (Belgium) and Cambridge (UK) to complete her studies in intercultural communication. She is currently a teacher of English, career counsellor and teenage coach at a secondary school in Voorburg, Holland. She tries to read at least 100 books a year (and write a few, too!). She is a published author in her own country, and translates her own books from Dutch into English for self-publication.
In her spare time, she plays the piano, the guitar and the violin. For every novel she writes, she creates a soundtrack.
'I have always been drawn to writing. My first book was a sci-fi novel at the age of eight, which I painstakingly typed out on my dad's typewriter and illustrated myself. Nowadays, I stick to poetry, paranormal romance, chick lit and/or fantasy. In my home country, I am the first-ever published writer of paranormal romance, and I will gradually make my books also available in English (seeing I have to re-write and translate the books myself, this will take some time!).
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