Exile of the Seas Jeffe Kennedy | Writing While Distracted

Jeffe Kennedy’s third book in the Chronicles of Dasnaria series is a magnificent addition to the series. This book finds Jenna/Ivariel recovering from her battle to free herself from her abusive husband. If you haven’t read Exile of the Seas (reviewed here) the second book in this series, you are missing out on one of the best revenge fight scenes ever written.

What I loved about Warrior of the World: world building so rich I got lost in it; elephants, yes, freaking battle elephants; the way Jenna/Ivariel finally embraced her inner strength and responded to the challenge of war by taking advantage of the negotiating skills she learned as a princess, and her deadly fighting skills ultimately embracing her destiny and calling. I was particularly impressed with the skillful way Jeffe addressed Jenna’s past sexual abuse, writing with the sensitivity and respect that such a fraught storyline deserves.

This book would work as a stand-alone but will be a richer reading experience if it is read as the third book in the series.

Jeffe Kennedy has once again crafted a beautiful, evocative narrative with solid character ARCs, and best of all, an epilogue that weaves this collection of novels into the Twelve Kingdoms/ Uncharted Realms series. As a fan of both series, I can’t wait to see how this will tie into The Twelve Kingdoms/ The Uncharted Realms series, because, let’s be real, Battle Elephants!

ABOUT JEFFE KENNEDY

Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her award-winning fantasy romance trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was nominated for the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The Pages of the Mind, has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2016 and is a finalist for RWA’s RITA Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and was a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, released August, 2017. A high fantasy trilogy taking place in The Twelve Kingdoms world is forthcoming from Rebel Base books in 2018. She also introduced a new fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons, which includes Lonen’s War, Oria’s Gambit, The Tides of Bàra, and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new contemporary erotic romance series, Missed Connections, which started with Last Dance and continues in With a Prince. In 2019, St. Martins Press will release the first book in a new fantasy romance series, Throne of Flowers. Her other works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera; and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, which includes Going Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

http://jeffekennedy.com

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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1014374.Jeffe_Kennedy

Brenda Murphy writes short fiction and novels. She loves tattoos and sideshows and yes, those are her monkeys. When she is not loitering at her local tea shop and writing, she wrangles two kids, one dog, and an unrepentant parrot. She reviews books, blogs about life as a writer with ADHD and publishes photographs on her blog Writing While Distracted. You can find her on Facebook by clicking here. Sign up for my email list at www.brendalmurphy.com

Remember when I reviewed the first book in this series, Prisoner of the Crown? No? Well, the link is here. I ended that review with a warning that the second book in the series, Exile of the Seas would be would be a one-click if you read the first book. To say that Exile of the Seas exceeded my already high expectations would not do the book justice. We left Princess Jenna at the end of the first book, a woman recovering from abuse, ready to die rather than return to her former life. This book continues Jenna’s story of transformation. The character ARC in this book is, even more, satisfying as Jenna takes on a new persona and becomes stronger and finally confronts and escapes her abusive husband in a very satisfying way. There is a touch of romance in this book, and Jeffe Kennedy handles the complicated subject of Jenna’s past abuse respectfully and believably. It isn’t used like a plot you’d see on a porn from this weblink, or many others. I read this book in one sitting because I was enamored with the characters and was caught up in the plot. For you Twelve Kingdoms and Uncharted Realms fans, this book ties in and gives some insight into Jep, one of my favorite characters in this shared universe (my review of Jep’s book is here). Bravo Jeffe, you’ve kept me up and made me teary (in a good way) again.

About Jeffe Kennedy