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Magic has long been banished in the land of Syhl Shallow. Now it’s returned in the form of the magesmith who married their queen, and the people are not happy.
Magic only leads to danger. No one knows this better than best friends Jax and Callyn. Callyn’s own parents were murdered by magic, leaving her alone to raise her younger sister. Now the tax collector threatens to take both their homes if they cannot pay what they owe.
When a stranger rides into town offering Jax and Callyn silver in exchange for holding secret messages for an anti-magic faction, the choice seems obvious. If the silver will save their homes, the risk is worth it — even if it means aiding in a plot to destroy their new king. But then, another stranger arrives.
Lord Tycho, the King’s Courtier, has been tasked with discovering who is conspiring against the throne. He’ll stop at nothing to uncover the identities of those behind the plot against his king.
Suddenly, Jax and Callyn find themselves trapped in a world of unsteady allies, dangerous flirtations, and the very magic they’ve always feared. Siding with the rebels once seemed like the right path. But Lord Tycho is kind and the stories he tells of King Grey do not match what these friends had been raised to believe. It leaves them to question if they are on the right side of the coming fight.
Forging Silver into Stars is a young adult fantasy book that may struggle to find its readership. On one hand, readers who enjoyed Kemmerer’s Cursebreakers trilogy may love this continuation of the lives of familiar characters. At the same time, newcomers may be confused by the frequent hinting at characters’ back stories.
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original trilogy, I enjoyed it enough to give this book a try. While still full of Kemmerer’s usual well-written prose, something felt lacking to me.
I was also put off by the amount of sexual content. Timed to hit readers with a double punch are back-to-back chapters featuring bedroom scenes between two separate point-of-view characters. Several similar scenes follow throughout the rest of the story, with plenty of suggestiveness to let readers know what’s happening. In the end, I was left extremely uncomfortable, making this one of the few books I’ve read that I regret taking the time to finish.
Rated: High. Profanity includes one use of moderate language and 22 uses of mild language (used frequently in a fantasy curse). Violence includes blood, countless deaths, several gory injuries (of both human and animal), and a brief mention of torture. A mob turned violent vaguely describes people being trampled, stabbed, and murdered by magic. A young girl is viciously stabbed. A character suffers continual physical abuse by his father. A pregnant woman miscarries and the couple grieves the loss. Sexual content includes several sex scenes (one between a girl and boy, the others between a same-sex couple) that feature fervent kissing, roaming hands, undressing, and at least two vague moments hinting at oral sex. While these scenes are not outright described, there is plenty of insinuation that leaves little to the imagination. A character mentions a past event when he was sexually abused by soldiers and his mother raped. Several sexual innuendos are made throughout the story.
