Book Review – The Bird and the Sword

Title: The Bird and the Sword (The Bird and the Sword Chronicles #1)

Author: Amy Harmon

Publisher: CreateSpace

Publication date: May 6th, 2016

328 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

Review

I picked up The Bird and the Sword as part of my intention to do 12 Reads from 12 Friends this year – and it was January’s pick! I was so intrigued by this book, and am so glad I started off this challenge with this book. I truly enjoyed the fairy tale like writing style, the super interesting characters, and unique magic system.

Lark hasn’t spoken since her mother died, when she cursed her to save her life. When Lark is claimed by the King in order to punish her father, Lark begins to learn more after she spent her life under her father’s tyrannical rule. She becomes closer to the King as he teaches her to read and gives her back the gift of words. When she does this, she relearns her magic, which is forbidden and illegal. But, the King has a similar secret – and they must work together to save each other.

Everything about this story drew me in. I also really loved the supporting character, who I believe is the star of the next book in the Chronicles. He was very complexly written and you could really see where he was coming from with everything that was going on with the King and Lark. The villain was amazing as well, it was also a total shock.

I highly recommend picking this one up, and I will definitely be continuing the series!

Happy reading, folks!