With the ruling families bent on sabotage, one couple dares to go against tradition and try to heal the bond between the seven great houses. And their own families. An excellent blend of magic, epic battles, swooney romance, and solid christian beliefs, THE RAVENWOOD SAGA is a must read for fantasy and christian readers alike.
This series was a great read and one that I stayed up late reading with a headlamp on our family camping trip. I hope you love it too if you choose to pick it up.
***Please Note***
Today’s review is going to be a little different than past posts. Instead of reviewing a single book, you’ll find reviews for the entire series on one post. Just be warned you will run into light spoilers as you read about books 2 and 3. I do my best not to give away anything crucial, but some details were necessary for the reviews.
Before we dive in to the review on the book, here is a reminder of how I rate what I read (these will be on a scale of 1-10, 1 being low, 10 being high):
- Plot Structure: How well the story was put together.
- Character Development: Level of growth a character achieves and how well the author makes them feel “real.”
- Language: Level of swearing, innuendos, verbal abuse, and other triggers.
- Violence: Level of fight scenes and gore.
- Sexual Content: Level of physical intimacy.
Disclaimer: The more I write, the more I critique books harder on plot structure and how the various elements work together. Thus my reviews reflect this. However, if you see a book appear on the blog, it’s because I enjoyed reading and thought you, as a fellow bookie, would enjoy it as well. As always, reading is subjective and what resonates with me may not resonate with you. And that’s OK! We’re in this to discover new books that are family appropriate and worth taking the time to read.
Let’s see how this book shakes out on my scorcard!
Book Descriptions:
Lady Selene is the heir to the Great House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking. As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person’s dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.
As she discovers her family’s dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family’s legacy–a legacy that supports her people–or seeking the true reason behind her family’s gift.
Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also bring about the downfall of her own house.
One path holds glory and power, and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood. The other path holds shame and execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?
Selene Ravenwood, once the heir to House Ravenwood, is now an exile. On the run and free of her family’s destiny, Selene hopes to find the real reason her family was given the gift of dreamwalking. But first she must adapt to her new life as wife to Lord Damien Maris, the man she was originally assigned to kill.
While adjusting to her marriage and her home in the north, her power over dreams begins to grow. As the strongest dreamwalker to exist in ages, her expanding power attracts not only nightmares but the attention of the Dark Lady herself.
With a war looming on the horizon and a wicked being after her gift, Selene is faced with a choice: embrace the Dark Lady’s offer, or search out the one who gave her the gift of dreamwalking. One path offers power, the other offers freedom. But time is running out, and soon her choice will be made for her.
Lady Selene Ravenwood has come into her full power as a dreamwalker just as the war with the Dominia Empire begins. Working with the other Great Houses, Selene and Damien use their gifts to secure the borders and save those devastated by the war. But conflict, betrayal, and hatred begin to spread between the Great Houses, destroying their unity as the empire burns a path across their lands. At the same time, Damien Maris starts to lose his ability to raise the waters, leaving the lands vulnerable to the empire’s attacks.
The only one who can unite the houses and restore her husband’s power is Selene Ravenwood. But it will require that she open her heart to those who have hurt her and let go of her past, despite the one who hunts her and will do anything to stop her power.
Will Selene survive? Or is she destined to fall like the dreamwalkers before her?
My Reviews:
Mark of the Raven:
Secrets are all Selene Ravenwood knows and the weight of them eats at her the entire book. I love the journey we go on with her as her gift of dreamwalking manifests. It is seen as the least valuable of all the great gifts of the ruling houses, but the houses couldn’t be more wrong.
The gift of dreamwalking has been used to horrible ends for generations and Selene wars within herself on whether to use her gift as she’s been taught or if another path exists. When she’s assigned to murder Damien Maris, her heart is put to the test.
I LOVED the inner turmoil that Selene exhibits. It builds her character and when she faces the choice to become a killer or find a new use for her gift, the payoff is well earned.
The fact that Damien is used as a foil character to Selene in this book adds to the dynamic of the story. His confidence of who he is, why he has his abilities, and the light he follows makes a great comparison to Selene and the Ravenwood family.
Flight of the Raven:
Selene and Damien are now married through chance, and life couldn’t be more complicated. They must learn how two vastly different people can become one and still work toward uniting the great houses before the Domina Empire conquers them.
The awkwardness of being a newly married couple is made even worse when Selene and Damien don’t communicate well and perceive that the other doesn’t really want to be together.
This book, while still having a great storyline, was, in my opinion, not as strong as book one. It was clunky and on-the-nose in places as Selene discovers a connection to the Light. What makes up for this, though, are the themes conveyed through this story: our past doesn’t have to define us, and that the gifts we have can be used for good or ill.
The relationship Damien and Selene build throughout this book is one of respect and true love, not lust. Something that I feel is lacking in a lot of books these days. I also appreciated the fact that God, or the Light, and learning to give over who we are and our gifts to Him to use for good, was beautifully done.
Cry of the Raven:
Selene and Damien are now a unified married couple, but their struggles are only beginning. The threat of the Domina Empire is increasing and so is the struggle between House Ravenwood and Maris. Plus, the great houses are still so fractured that it looks like they will never find unity in time to stop their homes from being destroyed.
The layers in this story are fantastic. We have struggles between Selene and her mother, struggles with bringing together the great houses, and the fact that Damien almost loses his connection to his powers. The storyline in this novel was much stronger than in book two, and I loved the fact that Selene and Damien learned how to use their gifts together to build and strengthen their people.
When the ending battle hits, we see the destruction through Damien’s eyes. We’re given enough detail for the reader to understand it was bad, but not so much as to turn your stomach at the graphic nature of war. This whole series never glorifies the act of taking a life, while still portraying that it’s important for us to stand up for ourselves when what we love is threatened.
Selene’s gift, one originally thought to have no value, turns out to be the greatest one of them all. This is what gives her people the courage to get up and continue to fight for the lands, their homes, their families, and their freedoms. It was never her ability to fight. It was her ability to give hope to others through dreams that shines through.
In conclusion, I loved reading this series. I loved the themes of finding hope in dark places, becoming more with God than you could ever be alone, and finding forgiveness for yourself and for others. This is also a series I would easily recommend to my family and friends to read.
Recommended Reader Age: 11+
How I rated this series:
- Plot Structure: 8/10; Busse does a great job at building up the story with enough side adventures to keep things interesting. Characters, plot, and theme all work together to create a realistic, and holistic story.
- Character Development: 8/10; Selene and Damien, our primary POV characters, do a great job of developing their arcs and pushing themselves out of their comfort zones to become better people.
- Language: 1/10; There is mild usage of a single in-world curse.
- Violence: 3/10; There are no graphic scenes and violence is never glorified. There are several battle scenes in the novels with a large final battle near the end, but are kept to a PG level.
- Sexual Content: 3/10; Selene and Damien portray a healthy relationship where consent, respect, and TRUE love, not lust, are king. There is a scene in book two where Damien and Selene are standing outside their rooms and share what was intended to be a parting kiss, but then things escalate. HOWEVER, the door to the bedroom is never opened for us and we never read more than them kissing appropriately in front of Damien’s room (they are married at this point). After that, we cut to the next morning as they adjust to acting like a true married couple with a shared bed. Never are we privy to more than them kissing or embracing in a way that would be inappropriate in public.
I highly recommend this series if you need an uplifting and inspiring read. Well done, Ms. Busse!
