Review: A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was bored the other day, scrolling through Apple Books, when I found A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross. I read the description and decided to give it a try.
I’ve always loved fantasy stories. My entire life, I’ve been intrigued by the limitless possibilities the genre presents. Knowing this, I wanted to see what Rebecca Ross would reveal within the narrative.
Before I go any further into my thoughts, however, let’s look at what the story is about.
Summary
The story opens with music student Jack Tamerlaine being summoned to his childhood home isle of Cadence after years away at college. Once he arrives on the isle, however, he discovers that the summons was written by his old childhood rival Adaira. Adaira needs his help to summon the elemental spirits of the isle to locate missing children.
As Jack and Adaira begin the search, Jack notices even stranger things occurring on the isle, as he begins to suspect that the mystery may run deeper than the missing children.
Thoughts
I’m kind of at a loss for how to explain myself. From the very first chapter, I realized that I loved the mood of the story! There is something about it – and Cadence as a whole – that I find absolutely lovely! The fantasy elements are interesting while the tense narrative left me on the edge of my seat, always wondering what would happen next.
Speaking of which, I love how all the different arcs come together in this story! Not a single element feels wasted and it’s easy to see how they all work together in the narrative. In part this is thanks to the beautiful, but still tight, writing. I’ll discuss the writing further in its respective section.
Now that I’ve discussed those general thoughts, let’s talk about some of the characters!
Characters
Jack Tamerlaine
Jack is a highly compelling character in my opinion! Seeing his courage and care for his family despite his rough past is amazing! I love how a good portion of his character arc is him figuring out what he really wants in life and wrestling with the consequences of his decisions. Seeing him come back to Cadence and learn more about himself and the people around him is incredibly intriguing!
One of the things I find most interesting about him is his relationship with his past. He comes to Cadence with a lot of his feelings about his upbringing unresolved and seeing him try to tackle these ideas made him sympathetic. Seeing him strive to find the answers along with how far he will go to protect the people he cares about made his story gripping to follow!
I think that’s all I have on Jack. Let’s discuss Adaira next!
Adaira Tamerlaine
Going into this, I didn’t expect to like Adaira. Her introduction had me worried that she wouldn’t have positive characteristics. I was so wrong! I love how she is caring, responsible, and has a sense of duty to her clan and her subjects. Her obvious love for her family and those around her is evident in every move she makes, and her clear inner conflict concerning what is best to do is captivating!
How she handles herself when it comes to her political position is great to see as well. Her professionalism combined with how she presents herself is awesome to see. What I like about this is – despite that professional front – she discloses her inner thoughts to those closest to her, showing her more vulnerable side.
That said, I think that’s all I have on the characters. Let’s move on to the structure next!
Structure
The structure of this story is interesting to me. The narrative is split into three parts and is told from several different crucial perspectives that give insights into different characters and where the story is heading. All the different elements introduced are easy to follow and the way the narrative is organized helps build the tension by ending chapters with important bits of information. This worked to keep me hooked on whatever was occurring!
The thing that amazes me about all this is how every piece of information feels crucial. Even the smallest details are important. This story fleshes out the characters and the plot in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Seeing this narrative built up from even the smallest ideas worked wonders to help me follow what was happening and it made me question every possible answer as I continued the story.
Well, I think that’s all I have on the structure. Let’s move on to the writing.
Writing
I think I fell in love with the mood and tone of this story. There is something so beautiful yet suspenseful about the way this narrative is written. The prose has a snap to it that left me wanting more as the story continued. I found as the story went on that the writing kept drawing my attention to every detail, helping me remember even the smallest things. The flow of the prose worked to make the narrative easy to follow despite all the details built within it.
Setup and payoff work wonders here, too. Because every setup has its place, the payoffs left me wanting more! They’re all executed in such a way that they’re never obvious, but still make perfect sense once an entire scenario is revealed for what it is. I absolutely loved this aspect of the writing, because it allowed everything to come together in a succinct way.
With all that said, I think that’s everything I wanted to talk about. Let’s move on to the closing thoughts.
Conclusion
I did not expect to like this as much as I did. The world in the story is fascinating, the characters are wonderful, and the plot is gripping! I really cannot overstate how much I love how it all came together to create this beautiful, captivating story. I look forward to visiting Cadence again very soon!
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