Central
Daughters of Saraqael, Book #2
Raine Thomas
Review brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell
Synopsis:
For avid student Olivia Murdoch, life on the Estilorian plane is filled with wondrous adventure. Every lesson about her new existence is both exciting and challenging. Along with her sisters, she embraces this non-human half of herself.
Helping with her lessons is her Gloresti, James. Teacher, scholar and distractingly attractive, James takes on his roles of Olivia’s guide and protector with equal dedication. As he learns the human emotions that Estilorians no longer experience, he starts to see Olivia as much more than just an assigned pairing.
The physically weakest of her sisters, Olivia trains hard to learn things that no typical human classroom can impart. When they travel to “Central,” the Estilorian base, she comes to understand why she must become strong enough to defend herself. She and her sisters are targets.
Not all Estilorians welcome them. In fact, more than one would see them dead.
Review:
In the second book to Thomas’s Daughters of Saraqael Trilogy, Central the story is more focused on the second sister, Olivia. It was a nice change to be able to still maintain the connection with the same characters from the first book as well as the same world, but be able to explore a different sister more intimately. The author did a good job of keeping the Estilorian world as vivid and descriptive as the first one as well as the romance between various characters.
Central starts off where the first book left off. Amber and Gabriel have returned from their honeymoon and the girls are thrown into learning more about the Estilorian plane and their powers. Much of the book deals with Olivia and James, her guardian or Gloresti.
Olivia is the more logical and inquisitive ones of the three sisters. She is quiet in manner and not as physically powerful as Amber but when push comes to shove she will stand her ground. I liked Olivia. I thought she was very sweet and very wise. She likes to think things through and take her time to make decisions. There is a quiet strength about Olivia and I felt connected to her because of that. James is kind, as avid a learner as Olivia, and unyielding loyal.
I liked the way James and Olivia’s relationship developed. They took their time, getting to know each other and developing trust. James was always seeking ways to understand Olivia on a more personal and intimate level while Olivia patiently explained the human plane to him and found security in James willingness to learn and appreciate her. I also loved that this time around it was the guy who felt unworthy of the girl. James doesn’t feel he can be with Olivia because he is not worthy of her. It was such a sweet gesture.
But there were a few things I had a problem with. The biggest problem is that the plot from Central seems to closely follow the plot from the first one in many ways. Their always seems to be a way for the sisters to magically save the day. They always just happen to have the answer or the cure come right at the exact moment when they needed it even though they neither had the answer or the power in the first place. There were just moments I couldn’t help but sigh because everything was too convenient. Also, the pacing of the book was choppy due to the fact that the scenes were dragged out by too much detail of information that wasn’t needed to advance the story. At times the book, like the first one, felt too weighed down by details that were of no real consequence to understanding the characters or story.
I did enjoy reading Central for the most part. I liked the scene where the sisters are trained to learn how to fly. What Ini-herit did to get Amber to fly was just so crazy and at the same time funny. The big news with Amber and Gabriel was beautiful and I liked the scene where Dacian gets caught by Gabriel making fun of Amber. That scene made me laugh along with James and Caleb. The characters were also better developed.
Overall, Central turned out to be better than the first book and a fairly good read.
