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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Book Review: The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala(The Twelve Kingdoms #1) by Jeffe Kennedy

The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala(The Twelve Kingdoms #1)
by Jeffe Kennedy

Paperback, 352 pages
Expected publication: May 27th 2014

by Kensington

Queen Of The Unknown

The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.

Andi doesn't mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she'd thought was no more than legend--until he claims her as its queen.

In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn't know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.

For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come.


The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy might be a family just like yours but set in a land of Kingdoms. There is the beautiful and spoiled younger sister, Princess Amelia, who is adored by all. The strong and accomplished older sister, Princess Ursula, who is daddy’s favorite and, Princess Andromeda, the forgotten middle child, who often stayed in the shadows forgotten and unseen by most. Until the day she meets a stranger who sees more than any before him. 

Now Princess Andromeda needs to make a choice. Does she stay with a father turned tyrant or does she travel into the unknown and find out more about herself and the mother she lost? As you follow Princess Andromeda through her decision making process, there were times when I felt frustrated. I liked Andromeda as a character, but her inaction throughout the beginning of the book dragged the story out. In addition, her tyrannical father's actions should have made some of Andromeda’s choices pretty easy, at least as far as I was concerned. 

King Rayfe, on the other hand, was entertaining. When we reached the part of the story where he was involved, the pace picked up. Through most of the book, I wasn’t quite sure whether Rayfe was the enemy or not, and I enjoyed that. He was always shrouded by a little mystery. Of course, you discover the answers to many of your questions by the end, but there were still some areas where you are left in the dark. I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not. You never really know when you are dealing with a series. My concern for the future installments of this story is that I felt Andromeda was the most interesting of the sisters, so I’m not sure where that leaves us. If it takes us back to Rayfe’s kingdom, I’d be willing to give it a chance.

3.75 Sheep hanging out in Rayfe's pasture



Lisa A.



About the Author:
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Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with awriting career that spans decades. Her works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. 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 essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook.

Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of theFacets of Passion, and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, which released beginning January 2, 2014. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, will hit the shelves starting in May 2014 and a fifth, the highly anticipated erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, will release starting in July.

She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.

1 comment:

  1. Nice review Sharon, I would love to read this one myself.

    ReplyDelete