ToO - The Girl with the Solar Eyes

Hey guys!

Joe here with another review!
Today I’m going to be reviewing ‘The Tale of Onora: The Girl with the Solar Eyes’

Here’s a little bit of the blurb for you all:

An unplanned brutal skirmish erupts, forcing the Oussaneans to engage in an event that will no doubt invite retribution and escalate into a large-scale conflict. In the vast timberland of the Eidolon Woods, Dani and the Bannitlarn Brothers groom Aithein into a swordsman and expand his consciousness so that he may infuse his skills with magic.

I was given a copy of this book by the author for an honest review.

So after the first book in this series ‘The Tale of Onora: The Boy and the Peddler of Death’ by Dylan Saccoccio, which I read, reviewed and enjoyed thoroughly, the author sent over the second book, which is ‘The Girl with the Solar Eyes’, also part of ‘The Tale of Onora’ series.

And I am so glad he did, because this book was even more amazing than the first.

First of all though, before I review the actual book, I want to talk about the foreword a little.
I generally thought I was reading the first chapter… It was so beautifully written and so intelligent and thought provoking, that it wasn’t until I read about half way through that I realised it was just a foreword… I felt so much from it and I completely and utterly agree with the author’s views on everything.
So if you do read this book, do take time to read the foreword, as it will be an inspiration to you.

This book was such a pleasure to read.

It was beautifully written and captures your imagination to the last detail. The words were pure gold.
The writing made it so easy to read and follow that I ploughed my way though this book, though I did take it a little slower nearing the end as I wanted to savour each chapter and, my god, it was so worth it.

I really, really enjoyed this story (even more than the first) mostly because, Book 1 was more about the world building and the story setting side of events; where-as THIS book, In my opinion, was more about the progression of characters, plot and setting.

I did like how the author opened up the first few chapters with this gory and intricate argument, which escalated into a battle, that showed us the tyrannous split between the Oussanean’s and the Caliphweald’s; this opened up the world for me and gave me a higher understanding of the disharmony between these two races.

The main story (Aithein’s story) was very, very well descripted and was themed awesomely!

By that I mean that each chapter was so gripping and exciting that it just left me wanting to read more.

The sentences were so precisely woven and so fluid-like that the story seemed to just flow along at a nice, quick pace.

The characters in this book were very well developed, had awesome characteristics and were just so imaginative and fun!

I really connected with these characters; I sometimes did find myself constantly reading more and more because I wanted to find out what happens to the characters and what lies in store for them!
I’ll only write about a few of them, as there are a few others who were awesome, but these ones stood out to me the most.

Aithein, being the main character, is focused on quite a lot in this book (which is understandable). I liked this character; he wasn’t your generic ‘hero’, I mean yes he was raring to start his quest and to fight, but when it came to it he was very laidback and very cool about situations which was a good side to have for a main character instead of having a pure ‘heroic, strong, action-man type of guy’.

The Bannitlarn Brothers were probably my favourite characters though.

There are three brothers: Taelire, Caelwyn and Baelwyn.

Taelire is the oldest and the wisest of the three. I did like his sense of leadership when he was in the group and I liked how he and Aithein had a small back-story between them… future development between those two maybe? J

Baelwyn is the youngest of the three and is more childish.

He was your average younger brother, aggravating, annoying but yet loveable and helpful. I did like how he was so carefree.

My favourite was Caelwyn though! He was so mysterious and generally cool. I did also like how his personality went from being really witty and funny to being deadly serious.

Overall, I really-really enjoyed this book and I will definitely be reading the following books (when they are released that is haha!).

This story (and the story before) is just a beautiful piece of epic fantasy. Dylan Saccoccio’s story telling is something you could see in Tolkien’s worlds and his character development is like Brandon Sanderson.

Thank you so much to Dylan Saccoccio for sending me a copy of the book to review!

You can purchase his book(s) here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tale-Onora-Girl-Solar-Eyes-ebook/dp/B00P85OYHM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423436827&sr=8-2&keywords=tale+of+onora

Thanks for reading this post guys and have an awesome day! :D
Joe J