The Musings of a Muse

Kanadra comes from a place where unicorns, trolls, nymphs, fairies, mermaids, griffins—and many other legends, are very much real. Ariyah comes from earth where magic is rarely believed in. Kanadra age 16 and a muse, and Ariyah nearing 16 and your typical teenager, would unexpectedly end up on similar paths. These paths would be full of love and loss. Happiness and anguish. Life and death. Murder. Mystery. Pain. Redemption.

We first meet Kanadra as she wakes up in an unfamiliar area. She was dismayed when she learned she must travel through the Great City to arrive in her home of Grutean, in Callowdon. Aside from being on the run from people who wanted to force her into a life that she didn’t want, she was also searching for someone. During her search, a woman stepped into the pub where she had found a lead. This woman was part of the Inspiriti who had been searching for Kanadra. Kanadra was forced to go with this woman to face a council of muses. Once there she was told her first assignment was to be sent to earth to help inspire someone there to make peace. Failure or fleeing meant death. Soon Kanadra found herself on earth. She was able to seek out her charge, a teenage girl named Ariyah. Everything seemed fine with Ariyah on the surface, but Kanadra soon found out that this girl might actually need the help of a muse.

While with Ariyah, Kanadra would be faced with her own demons and destiny. Each time she learned something new about Ariyah, Kanadra remembered some unhealed trauma of her own. Soon both girls would find themselves coming face to face with their own history, as well as their destiny.

Woven together in this novel are two stories of two very different girls, and yet somehow they are very similar.

I love this book and I couldn’t put it down. The interwoven stories are brilliantly captured. Intertwining such different worlds into one novel is absolutely brilliant. I look forward to many more books by this author, and if they are reading this, PLEASE WRITE MORE.

‘An obedient muse can never lose. An obedient muse is a good muse’.

This book follows a muse named Kanadra as she embarks on the wild journey that is her first musing: to inspire Ariyah, a girl from earth, to "make peace". It is extremely well paced as it's two narratives are interwoven beautifully. One paints the frame of Kanadra's life, telling the story of her life on Callowdon, while the other follows her assignment on earth.

She struggles with her powers, as well as with what it means for her to be a muse and to help Ariyah navigate her mother's death. This story describes grief, love and rekindled happiness masterfully, and it also incoroporates wonderful descriptions of characters, feelings and stricking landscapes.