Fourth Son~Monica Poole | Review

Title: Fourth Son (The Trimar Republic #1)
Author: Monica Poole
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 365 Pages
Release: March 2015
My Rating: 3/5 Stars

I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review

I have rather mixed feelings about this novel. The overall story was interesting, but it could use some polishing and fleshing out to improve the overall flow and coherence. It was definitely worth the read. 

The beginning of the novel was very slow. Almost the entire first half covered the events of a single night and day. There were flash backs thrown in as Jahnes recalled various things that had happened to him growing up, but at times these lacked connection for me. After the first half of the novel things started to pick up and time passed more rapidly. At times it passed too quickly though. Jahnes relationship with Lelah was sudden, with flashbacks to their first meetings, and I think this would have worked better with just a bit more of an introduction. So pacing was the main issue for me. 

While I didn't love the characters, I did enjoy them. Jahnes was very likable, if a bit hasty at times. We see the events of the novel through his eyes, so we get to know him very well. His family was not a huge part of the story, but the family connection and what he did in order to protect them was a nice touch. The relationship between Jahnes and Bhen was one where I never knew how to feel. At times Bhen seemed to really care for Jahnes and at others not. Overall I really liked this father son relationship. 

The magic, or whatever you want to call the abilities that Jahnes and some of the other characters have, was interesting, but I never felt like I had enough information. Jahnes didn't know much about his abilities or who had them or what they did so we, as readers, are kind of left in the dark as well. Toward the end there were some revelations that explained some of the significance. The ending definitely left me with a lot of questions. I'm sure most of these will be answered in the next installment of the series. 

Overall this was an enjoyable read with an interesting societal structure. There are definitely some improvements that could be made, but I'm sure the following books in the series will bring many of my questions to light. A good introduction to a new series.