Stonehill Downs
★★★★✩ A good mix of elements: magic, mystery, good characters with layers, a good pace, enjoyable writing. The central mystery of the book is handled well – Remy keeps it interesting enough to hold up as the main plot line, while not making the solution to the puzzle super obvious, and still leaving room for other side things to be going on.
★★★★★ What a fascinating fantasy! Like a fast- paced mystery, the author draws you into Avani’s world quickly, but you have to be patient to figure out Mal’s; two great characters who I look forward to seeing again. This might even be a re-read for me- I’m so reluctant to let the world go, especially since there’s so much revealed at the end. I don’t want to spoil this good book for anyone else, so I won’t say anything more but READ IT and don’t read more about it until after!
★★★★★ I really enjoyed the rich characters in this book. I was drawn in quickly and wanted to know what would happen to them.
Malachi is the last of his kind—a magus who can communicate with the dead, and who relies on the help of spirits to keep his kingdom safe. When he’s sent to investigate brutal murders in the isolated village of Stonehill Downs, he uncovers dangerous sorceries and unleashes a killer who strikes close to home.
Avani is an outsider living on the Downs, one of the few survivors from the Sunken Islands. She has innate magics of her own, and when she discovers the mutilated bodies of the first victims, she enters into a reluctant alliance with Malachi that takes her far from home.
But Mal is distracted by the suspicious death of his mentor and haunted by secrets from his past. And Avani discovers troubling truths about the magus through her visions. She could free Malachi, but first they must work together to save the kingdom from the lethal horror that has arisen.
Epic Fantasy
Volume One of the Avani and Malachi series