Thursday, October 10, 2024

Review: The Fourth Portal (Song of Saudade #1) by J. A. Merkel

The Fourth Portal

Song of Saudade #1

by J. A. Merkel

Published: October 10, 2024

Publisher: Worlds Apart Media

Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Fantasy, New Adult, Romance



Blurb:


Upholding her tribe's highest law, Fenri must keep her heart—the body's fourth portal—closed at all times, or face execution.

Fenri is a Knowledger, a brilliant collector of information who dreams of discovering the ocean’s secrets. The tribe’s Masters grant her permission to explore the ocean, but only if she first traverses the perilous desert with four strangers to retrieve a precious base metal. Despite having a condition that makes her slower and weaker than her counterparts, Fenri, eager to prove her worth, accepts the mission. She will succeed or die trying.

When hormone-sniffing beasts begin stalking their group, it’s clear that someone has opened their fourth portal. Determined to protect her chances of exploring the ocean, Fenri vows to find and eliminate the traitor before the love virus spreads. As forbidden feelings surface, the group begins to unravel, turning their mission into a race to close the fourth portal before the beasts, or their fellow tribesmen, eliminate them. That is, if they don’t kill each other first. 

THE FOURTH PORTAL is the first book in a multiple POV epic fantasy series filled with elemental magic that is rooted in the seven chakras residing within all of us, exploring the sacrifices we’re willing to make for love when it's forbidden.


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My Review:

The Fourth Portal is the first book in J. A. Merkel's new series Song of Saudade. It was a great introduction to this new series, and it introduced us to a new world filled with twists and turns that I never saw coming. It kept me on my toes from one page to another.

The Fourth Portal has plenty of action to keep the pages turning as the characters fight battle after battle just trying to stay alive. Monsters seem to crawl out of every corner of the world. I couldn’t take my eyes off the page.

The fighting did it for me, keeping me racing to the end. The world-building was amazingly well done, and the descriptions were just as amazingly done. I could see everything I was reading play out in my head as if I were there.

The characters were sent on training missions or cycles that taught them to become better at using their skills. I enjoyed these training sessions when the monsters came out to play. The Fourth Portal kept the adrenaline flowing from one page to another.

The Fourth Portal is unlike anything I have read before. It is unique in more ways than one. I can’t wait for the next book in the Song of Saudade series to read more of this wonderful series.

I enjoyed reading The Fourth Portal so much that I highly recommend grabbing a copy today and join the adventure!  


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