Seirsha of Errinton by Shari L. Tapscott
Fantasy. 387 Pages. 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Sometimes the brightest love kindles in the bleakest of darkness.
The people of Errinton are cold, but none is more so than their distant and aloof princess. At least, that’s how Seirsha hopes to be seen. After living in the shadow of her father, the cruel King Bowen, the princess has learned to keep her distance, hiding her feelings and the love she has for her people. Seirsha finds peace only with a peasant family in the village and a very unlikely friend from the caves near the castle.
But after her involvement in the death of the male heir to the Errintonian throne, Seirsha’s defenses begin to crumble. The search for another successor begins, and the one man with the power to strip away the princess’s walls steps back into her life.
Seirsha knows she should keep her distance from Lord Rigel—the only man in Errinton with a legitimate claim to her father’s throne—but when Bowen orders her to keep the dark lord close so she may spy on him, the princess must make a choice. With another Dragon War looming and Errinton’s oppressed rising against their leaders, will Seirsha betray her blood or turn her back on Rigel—the man she’s loved her entire life?
Author’s Note – This novel is darker than the previous two in the series and was written for a more mature audience. In writing this, I directly dealt with issues that the other novels only vaguely alluded to. The point of the story, however, is not the cancerous evil that has spread through the kingdom, but the light at the end of the tunnel–the hope in the darkness.
For my younger readers and for those looking for a lighter read, this novel can be skipped without worry of missing important elements needed for the fourth book.
My Review:
I’ve enjoyed this series so far and I admit I was intrigued by Tapscott’s note for this third book. She notes for readers that this one handles some darker themes and could conceivably be skipped altogether for younger readers. As an older reader in her audience, I was curious to see what she tackled and how.
Book 3 follows Princess Seirsha of Errinton and a return hero from the first book, Lord Rigil. I’m a bit of a sucker for the tall, dark, and handsome trope, so Rigil was definitely fun. I enjoyed how he embodied the culture of Errington at its best. He carried a nobility that is reminiscent of King Arthur–willing to fight, but working to build peace. He’s dangerous, but tempered by good character. His patience, steadfastness, and loyalty shone through and I was quite happy to see the mysterious Lord Rigil from Pippa’s story fleshed out into a proper hero.
Speaking of Pippa, it was such a delight to see her and Archer again! I loved the contrast she provided to Seirsha and all of Errinton really. It was a subtle, albeit clever, clash of cultures that helped Tapscott’s world feel more complex and fleshed out. Seirsha appears cold to those who don’t know her, but it’s a product of her upbringing, her circumstances, and her culture. She balanced these very well with a deeper desire for warmth and a noble love for her friends which created a beautifully nuanced heroine. I admired that her love of her friends and people grew into a love of her kingdom and responsibility to them.
Though Tapscott’s note was indeed warranted for her typical audience, I found it refreshing to see someone willing to show hard things in stories without dwelling on the vile or pouring over it in unnecessary and abhorrent detail. Tapscott touches on abuse (mental, physical, and sexual), death (which in turn leads to loss and grief), and justice vs injustice, responsibility and nobility vs. tyrant dictatorship, and the inherent worth and value we have, on unconditional love vs. the poisoned, twisted fallen love we often see in our world. Tapscott weaves each of these themes in lightly and appropriately without making light of them. She gives them appropriate weight in the story through the characters but doesn’t bring the reader to dwell in the muck and mire. And she does all this while giving us the hope of perseverance that things shouldn’t be, don’t have to be, and won’t always be so broken. And I think that may be my favorite part of this book (in addition of course, to Rigil’s beautifully upright and ferocious character <3).
All this said, I did have one large issue with the book. Personally, I didn’t love the ending “twist.” I felt more cheated and jerked around than “ooh, so clever!” It confused me and took me out of the story to go back and figure out if I’d misread or what had happened. And because of previous choices earlier in the book (where Tapscott set us up to understand that she wouldn’t pull punches, which I admired!), I did actually wonder if the “trick” was possible (though totally not standard for the genre, it could have been pulled off acceptably considering the content, themes, and etc.). But instead I felt more like the author pulled a “fast” one where she was the only one laughing. That’s hard to say cause I’ve really liked Tapscott’s books so far, and truthfully, I really enjoyed this one a lot! I just wasn’t a fan of the way she handled that ending I guess, so it kind of ended on a bum note for me. (Not that I’m upset things turned out the way they did, to be clear, just the way the author approached it from a storytelling perspective irked me.) It had the potential to be beautifully bittersweet and in line with the tone of the rest of the book, but instead it felt cheaply patched up to match the genre expectations, which resulted in the disjointed feeling for me.
Also on a sidenote, I loved seeing more of the dragons! I had hoped to see even more of them than we did, to dig more into their culture. But it was neat to see what we did and I liked how they came to play in the climax. And Seirsha’s dragon friend (her name escapes me) was a character I enjoyed.
The story holds political intrigue, which definitely drew me in, childhood romance, and the classic fight for good over evil and light over dark. The book was an easy read that I seldom wanted to put down. It touched on real issues and deep places with a soothing hand that offers the balm of hope and truth. And I would ultimately recommend it, despite my irritation at the clumsy “twist” ending. There’s no foul language, a sweet romance (as well as allusion to, but no explicit rape), and some fantasy violence. In addition to the themes mentioned above, there is also some (nongraphic) dark magic (though very lightly handled and very clearly in the wrong) where a character trades for more power to reach his goals. I’d probably recommend the book to a 15+ reader.
More:
Book 1 in the Eldentimber series is Pippa of Lauramore (5 Stars)
Book 2 is Anwen of Primewood (4 Stars)
Book 4 is Audette of Brookraven
Book 5 is Elodie of the Sea
Book 6 is Genevieve of Dragon Ridge
I haven’t finished the series yet, but I’ll update as I do. For the most part, these seem like standalones, but I’d recommend reading them in order, as they do have a timeline and spoilers for previous books in them.
On GraceBought
See my thoughts on the previous books in the series here!