Book Tour - THE LOST SENTINEL by Suzanne Rogerson

 

Out of This World SFF Reviews is pleased to be just one of the many blogs participating in the Storytellers On Tour Book Tour featuring self-published fantasy author Suzanne Rogerson and her book, THE LOST SENTINEL  Today marks Day #4 of the tour and I am very excited to be one of the stops. I will soon be providing you with a synopsis of the book, my review, as well as some important links and Suzanne's bio.  

First, I just want to mention that THE LOST SENTINEL is the opening volume in Suzanne Rogerson's Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy (box set shown above).  Books 2 and 3 are titled The Sentinel's Reign and The Sentinel's Alliance respectively.  Numerous readers have praised this series as character-driven fantasy filled with charming magic and a unique world that sucks you into its fantastical backdrop.  The entire box set can be purchased on Amazon.

And now, here's a brief description of book 1 in this fantasy series, THE LOST SENTINEL, followed by my official review.

Book Blurb:

The magical island of Kalaya is dying, along with its sentinel.

The assembly controls Kalaya.  Originally set up to govern, they now persecute those with magic and exile them to the Turrak Mountains.

Tei, a tailor's daughter, has always hidden her magic but when her father's old friend visits and warns them to flee to the mountains, she must leave her old life behind.

On the journey, an attack leaves her father mortally wounded.  He entrusts her into the care of the exiles and on his deathbed makes a shocking confession.

Tei joins the exiles search for the new Sentinel - the only person capable of restoring the fading magic.  But mysterious Masked Riders are hunting the Sentinel too, and time, as well as hope, is running out.

Against mounting odds it will take friendship, heartache and sacrifice to succeed, but is Tei willing to risk everything to save the island magic.  

Review: 

THE LOST SENTINEL is a solid fantasy tale that reminded me of some of my most treasured fantasy comfort reads.  The magic especially is very well done and spun with an alacrity that is hard to come by these days.  This is especially apparent through the eyes of the main character Tei who herself struggles with trying to hide her magic as the real possibility of losing it all confronts her and her people.  This creates a tension and suspense that carries the narrative as we follow her on her journey to rediscover what was once so strong but may soon be just a fleeting ability due to outside forces.

There are a multitude of POV characters in this novel and to a degree, I was slightly sad that I didn't get a chance to experience more of Tei's character and her history.  She truly is a fascinating protagonist and I really wanted more.  That being said, I thought the secondary characters were intriguing enough to keep my interest throughout and the book does move along at a fairly fast clip for the most part.

In the end, I found THE LOST SENTINEL to be an overall enjoyable read while also whetting my appetite for the other books in this series to find out how this story plays out over the long haul.

This book was a nice introduction, but I do feel as if it didn't fully reveal all of its secrets.  My hope is that things will pick up considerably in the books that follow.

Kudos to Suzanne Rogerson for crafting a fun and entertaining read that is brimming with delightful magic, a very cool mystical island setting, and extremely tense situations where characters are often put in peril to the point where you don't know if they are going to survive or not.  One thing is for sure, I look forward to reading more books in the Silent Sea Chronicles based on the promise of this one.

Rating: 7/10

You can purchase THE LOST SENTINEL on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Author Bio

Suzanne lives in Middlesex, England with her husband, two children, and a crazy puppy.

Her writing journey began at the age of twelve when she completed her first novel.  She discovered the fantasy genre in her late teens and has never looked back.  Giving up work to raise a family gave Suzanne the impetus to take her attempts at novel writing beyond the first draft, and she is lucky enough to have a husband who supports her dream - even if he does occasionally hint that she might think about getting a proper job one day.

Now an author of four novels including the recently completed Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy and a Czech translation of her debut, Visions of Zarua, Suzanne hopes the dreaded "W" word will never rear its ugly head again!

She loves gardening and has a Hebe (shrub) fetish.  She enjoys cooking with ingredients from the garden and regularly feeds unsuspecting guests vegetable-based cakes.

Suzanne collects books, is interested in history and enjoys wandering around castles and old ruins whilst being immersed in the past.  She likes to combine her love of nature and photography on family walks, but most of all she loves to escape with a great film, binge-watch TV shows, or soak in a hot bubble bath with an ice cream and a book.

You can connect with Suzanne Rogerson on these online platforms:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Amazon

Bookbub

Goodreads

And that concludes my stop on THE LOST SENTINEL book tour!  I would like to extend a special thank you to Storytellers On Tour and author Suzanne Rogerson for the opportunity to participate.  There are many more awesome stops to come, so if you would like to follow along, here is the official tour schedule:

Thanks for checking out my stop on the tour and as always for your continued support of Out of This World SFF Reviews.  It is sincerely appreciated and never taken for granted.

Happy Reading!
-Nick