Review: Shattered Veil by Tracy Banghart

Genre: Young Adult, Science-fiction, Romance

Publisher: Self-published

Publication:  February 28th 2014

Pages: 377 (Paperback)
             295 (eBook)
             372 (Kindle Edition)
Formats:: Kindle Edition, Paperback, eBook

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Rating:

    

Synopsis:


When everything that defines you is stripped away, who do you become?
War has invaded Atalanta’s quiet villages and lush woodlands, igniting whispered worries in its glittering capitol. Far from the front lines, 18-year-old Aris Haan, a talented wingjet flyer, has little cause for concern. Until her beloved Calix is thrust into the fray, and a stranger makes her an impossible offer: the chance to join a secret army of women embedded within the all-male military.

Aris’s choice to follow Calix to war will do more than put her in physical danger; it will make her question everything she believes about herself. When she and her enigmatic commander uncover a deadly conspiracy, her expert flying may be the only hope for her dominion’s survival…and her own.

It’s Mulan meets Battlestar Galactica, with a heroine who is strong enough to save a nation…but only if she’s willing to sacrifice everything, even the one promise she swore she’d never break.

I received the copy from the author via Mark My Word Publicity in exchange of an honest review. Thank you for the copy!

War has been taking place among the five dominions for years. Atalanta, one of the dominions, is particularly interests Safara, another dominion that is in need of natural resources. Here lives Aris Haan, an eighteen year-old talented wingjet flyer who cares little about the war. She runs a peaceful life, she wouldn't be capable of anything difficultlt on her own anyway. And of course, she has Calix after all, and a promise of a nice future together. What else would she need? That is, until Calix is chosen for Military and their dreams of Promise and then marriage are shattered for who knows how long. But Calix is everything to her, her whole life is about him. So catching on an offer she had earlier gotten, she decides to join Military and follow Calix into into war. Except women don't fight, or do they?

Honestly, Shattered Veil was amazing. Everything about it was peculiar and different and special, not to mention beautiful and perfect. The atmosphere, the story, the descriptions, the emotions, the writing, everything. What amazed me the most though, was the writing style. It resembled to Laini Taylor's writing a bit and it was truly very gorgeous. I'm absolutely a writing style snob, but this was so perfect, I could read it all day even if the text was about a piece of pasture. I just loved it!

Another thing I completely adored was how real everything was. Often, there are over-or underdone, unreal, unbelievable - choose which you like - emotions, situations, feelings, etc., however, in Shattered Veil, there was none of this. There wasn't a word I considered fake. I'm not sure whether it depicted well what I meant, but I hope so. The descriptions were also incredible. A little poetric, but having the right balance, it was so very much gorgeous.

Aris was a likable character. Everybody around her considered her weak, feeble, incapable of even living on her own. She believed tit, too. But getting into the military brought a big change into her life and thus into her personality. She flourished into a mentally as well as physically strong and capable woman who believed in herself and believed she could, wanted to do more than just sitting around and whine about the unfairness of life. As for Calix, I liked him first, but in the end he turned out to be a less empathic than I had thought and was a prime jerk in fact. There were other characters of course, all very well built, and likable.

And for the last, but not least, world building is not to be missed out. It was exceptional. The dominions, habits, names, reasons, and so on was worked out excellently. I could imagine it as if I was there.

Cover: 4/5

Characters: 5/5
World Building: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Pacing: 4/5

Romance: 4/5

Style/Writing: 5/5

Tracy Banghart is a cheesy movie–loving, fantasy football–playing (go Ravens!), globe-trotting Army wife who began “practicing” her craft at the age of five, when she wrote her first story. She grew up in rural Maryland, with a cornfield in her backyard and flying squirrels in her bedroom walls, and spent her summers on a remote island in northern Ontario. All that isolation and pretty scenery led to a reading addiction, writing obsession, and several serious book boyfriends. 

After high school, Tracy escaped to North Carolina, where she got her BA in English from Davidson College. After college, she sampled city life in Canada and D.C. before jetting off to England, to pursue a master’s degree in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. When she returned stateside, Tracy dabbled in various publishing jobs but didn’t give up on her dream of being a published author. Her husband convinced her that writing full time made perfect sense given the unpredictability of his job, thus affirming her conviction that he was better than any book boyfriend. 

Tracy now lives with her husband, young son, and sundry pets in North Carolina, but it won’t be long until the Army sends them off on new adventures.

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