BLURB
Chafing at the rules of the amber guild, Peter, an apprentice during the waning years of the Thirty Years’ War, finds and keeps a forbidden piece of amber, despite the risk of severe penalties should his secret be discovered.
Little does he know that this amber has hidden powers, transporting him into a future far beyond anything he could imagine. In dreamlike encounters, Peter witnesses the ravages of the final months of World War II in and around his home. He becomes embroiled in the troubles faced by Lioba, a girl he meets who seeks to escape from the oncoming Russian army.
Peter struggles with the consequences of his actions, endangering his family, his amber master’s reputation, and his own future. How much is Peter prepared to sacrifice to right his wrongs?
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BOOK REVIEW
Malve von Hassell does an outstanding job in setting up a very exciting and unique story from the opening pages and inciting incident. Peter is an 17th-century apprentice amber-crafter with his sights set on becoming a master craftsman in the Amber Guild at the waning years of the Thirty Years War. While walking along the beach one day, he discovers two pieces of raw amber and is instantly drawn to the warm energy pulsating from the stones. Knowing full well that taking the amber is forbidden by the ruling Duke, the one whose heavy-hand controls the amber trade, the desire is too strong to resist and ultimately leads to a sort of “out of body” experience in his dreams, propelling him forward to the 1940s and an encounter with a young girl desperate to escape the Russian armies surging across Central Europe.
There are several linked plot lines dealing with secondary characters, such as Peter’s sister, Effie, and the mysterious modern-day girl, Lioba, which create a chain of events in Peter’s storyline all culminating in the mistakes he made and the consequences of his actions. I give credit to Malve von Hassell for creating a world moving us seamlessly through the past and future in a believable way. There were times I wished for more depth from the actions happening around them, the two wars, a bit more understanding of Effie’s “condition”, the nitty gritty of history pushing Peter forward to his ultimate sacrifice, and a little more backstory to Liobe to flesh her out, but even in that, the story did not disappoint. Overall, the story flowed in a pleasant and easy manner. The author has a knack for sentence structure and word usage which engages a reader every step of the way as if pulled along by the magical amber stone.
This is recommended for someone who wants a taste of fantasy and history woven into one, focusing more on the characters rather than the massive details of the Thirty Years War and WWII.
*Four Stars*