Author: Marie Andreas
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Fantasy
Release Date: January 8, 2017
From the Back Cover:
Murderous magic, vanished races, killer relics, and drunken faeries--who knew the end of the world would look like this? The story that began in The Glass Gargoyle, The Obsidian Chimera, and The Emerald Dragon continues...
Taryn St. Giles thought she knew all about elves. She dreamed of the long vanished elves as a child and has spent the past fifteen years digging through their abandoned ruins in Beccia. Six months ago, Taryn found out everything she thought she knew about the elves was wrong.
Two weeks ago she found out how very wrong she'd been.
Taryn and Alric have been captured to answer for crimes against a long lost people. Crimes that could bring down an entire kingdom and revolve around a small, glass gargoyle. Part of a weapon that destroyed an extremely powerful race, now only known as the Ancients, it, and its fellow pieces are deadly to any who have them. Knowledge of the relics found by Taryn and Alric have spread far. Dangerous bands of long dead creatures, ghosts, and nightmares out of myths are waking up and hunting for the relics. And Taryn.
Taryn's at it again... and this time, she's found herself square in the middle of elvish craziness. Only this time, she's not spending her time hunting for relics and digging in the abandoned ruins. Nope. These elves are all very much alive... and someone's trying to kill her.
This is the fourth installment of the The Lost Ancients series and a welcome addition to the series. Our lovable and highly entertaining fairies are back, but sadly, they don't take center stage in this book. Instead, we have more of a focus on Taryn... and to a lesser degree, Alric. Unfortunately, the two budding lovebirds have been captured and are kept separate for most of the book -- so we miss out on those awesome romantic tingles. In fact, most of Taryn's former companions are kept separate. Instead, we're introduced to some interesting new characters -- elves, ghosts, and even a witch. This book was over three hundred pages, but it didn't feel like it... the story flew by and once again, left me with a ton of questions.
The main plot of The Sapphire Manticore follows the same formula as the rest of the series. It's namesake of each book references a single artifact, however each of these relics is simply a piece of some larger deadly weapon. While the main plot is somewhat predictable and follows the same pattern as the rest of the books, I find myself strangely hooked on the series in the hopes that all of the other questions will eventually be answered. Taryn's background, in particular, is something of a mystery.
Unfortunately, Taryn doesn't seem all that focused or interested in trying to answer the questions that I'm interested in. Granted, most of the time, she's dodging crossbow bolts, finding evil books, or escaping insane ghost trying to kill her... but I keep hoping in a moment of downtime that she'll try to figure out more about her strange abilities.
The book moved along at a rapid pace... I don't think I even came up for air once I started reading it. Marie Andreas has a way of writing that draws you into her world and keeps you captivated until the very last page. I'm anxiously looking forward to the next book in the series and hope that we'll find out even more as the series continues to unfold.
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