Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Bea Reviews Interlude: Stories from Tranquility by Krista D Ball

Publisher: Krista D. Ball
Series: Tales of Tranquility #2.5
Source: the author/pr firm/publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: February 28, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series
Buying Links: Amazon*  | Kobo  | iTunes* |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

INTERLUDE is a collection of short stories from the TRANQUILITY series. These stories are intended for those who have read the previous books and contains huge spoilers for both Blaze and Grief.

Love Notes is about Bethany and Arrago’s first month working together.

Knight’s Day Off is a story my Facebook people will have seen before. This one also takes place during those early days between Arrago and Bethany. Only this time, poor Bethany tries to take a day off work. Things don’t go according to plan. At all.

First Day on the Job is set after the events of GRIEF and is set about a week before the events of FURY. Myra, a Knight apprentice, is assigned a simple task: get Arrago, Edmund, Bethany, and the rest of the senior staff to attend a party hosted by Queen Celeste. However, it’s soon obvious that there’s more than just a party in the works and none of the main players are following the rules.

INTERLUDE is 20,000 words (about 75 pages).

Bea's Thoughts:

The stories in Interlude are all far more light-hearted than the full length books in  this series, and they're short so the book is a quick read.

"Love Notes" shows the development of Bethany and Arrago's working relationship and the start of their personal feelings for each other. Both Bethany and Arrago are quick-witted and smart and their notes to each other are both funny and revealing. The epistolary mode of communication, while not original, is sweet, funny, and allows us to see different sides of Bethany and Arrago than we saw in the first two books. 4 stars

"Knight's Day Off" is slight, there's little in the way of action or plot. It's a slice of life story about a planned day off for Bethany and her two friends and fellow knights, Jovan and Kiner. Red tape trips them up and in a series of "Three Stooges" type of events, their day off takes an unwanted turn. I could feel Bethany's frustration, it was practically glowing from my Kindle. 3.5 stars

"First Day on the Job" didn't wow me. The humor is more subtle and I never really got a feel for Myra, whose POV drives the story. Myra is young, and new to her job but she's also smart. As she deals with royalty and the demands of her work, we get insight into the other characters: Arrago, Celeste, Bethany, Allric, Jovan, etc. I found the story confusing at first but once I clued in to what was happening, I liked it. 3 stars

8 comments:

  1. I like the concept here...a few shorter stories rather than a mid series novella.

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    1. Yeah, I liked it; it was a good way to do up some interval stories and added some depth to the characters.

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  2. Great review. Sounds like it could be a good one.

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  3. This sounds good Bea, will these hold as standalone or do you need to have read the series first?

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    1. The first one could work as a stand alone but I don't think the other two would.

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  4. Hmm, this sounds interesting. I'm not familiar with this series, but I like the idea of short stories adding little nuances or insight to the characters.

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    Replies
    1. I did too. If you like epic fantasy, give this series a try.

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