By Divine Right

<b>Series?</b> prequel novella to The DarkWater Saga<br /><b>POV:</b> First person, past tense, one narrator.<br /><b>Cliffhanger?</b> It solves the immediate mystery, but it leads right into the series….<br /><b>My Rating:</b> 5 of 5 stars<br /><br /><br />Honestly, I did not read the description before reading this novella. I have had many people tell me how amazing The Staff and the Sword trilogy is. Then I saw this free novella by the same author and decided to read it. It is short and ebooks work best for me since school started. I can just pull up the app anywhere and read a few pages instead of carrying another book around.<br /><br />I was amazed by this book from the very beginning! The writing drew me and and painted scenes well without being overly descriptive. I loved the medieval fantasy feel of the story, though that might just be because this is my favorite genre at the moment.<br /><br />The characters are vividly drawn, even the minor characters. There was one little boy who was only in the story for one scene, yet his personality was clearly portrayed. This said, some of the characters, including our protagonist had quite a bit of mystery surrounding them. It definitely kept me reading to learn more about the characters. There was one character in the king’s court that I did not like too much. This had nothing to do with her being poorly written, but rather I found her very manipulative. I was frustrated that the protagonist was drawn to her. It will be interesting to see how this relationship plays out in this series.<br /><br />This novella was wonderful overall. It is definitely one of the best books I have read this year. I cannot wait until The Shock of Night comes out! I will definitely be watching for more books from this author and I am even more interested in The Staff and Sword trilogy!!

Decided to try this free ebook novella to see if I wanted to commit to the series... yep, I think it's safe to say this is one series I want to read. It sounds like it's going to be a mystery series but set in a fantasy world- looking forward to getting my hands on the first book!

I'd heard good things about Patrick W Carr's fantasy and thought I'd dip into this free prequel novella to try him for myself. I found it a competent, tautly-woven tale, but not something I could get enthusiastic about. Carr's writing style flows decently well, but seemed incoherent somehow--I kept having to go back and re-read stuff to try to figure out what was actually happening. <br /><br />I'm not ruling out the possibility of reading further into this series, though, and I'll tell you why: it's a fairly standard Christian secondary-world fantasy, true, but had a little more grit than most, and was told from the perspective of an upwardly-mobile commoner in the city watch. The protagonist has a fairish bit in common with Pratchett's Sam Vimes, and while Carr's fantasy city lacks all the character and colour of Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork, and his Lady Gael cannot hold a candle (much less a bad-tempered dragon) to Lady Sibyl Ramekin, Carr's version has a chance of leaving you with a less bitterly cynical taste in your mouth.

This was an epic read!! I can't explain how much this has helped me understand book one, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/25252994.The_Shock_of_Night__The_Darkwater_Saga___1_" title="The Shock of Night (The Darkwater Saga, #1) by Patrick W. Carr" rel="noopener">The Shock of Night</a>, so much more. The beginning of Willet Dura and how he became Lord Dura. The beginning of his romance with Gael, the secrets of the urchins, the drama with the Lords and why they dislike him. I loved it all. It even gave me an explanation of the faith that confused me in book one. I adored it and I'm even more excited to continue on with the trilogy now.<br /><br />Highly recommend this novella!!

A great start to a new series. I love genre-mixes and this one sets a detective into a secondary world fantasy. What starts off with a simple murder, becomes a hunt for a serial killer with terrible implications for the entire kingdom.<br /><br />This story has a cool magic system - based on the Christian concept of spiritual gifts, but taken up a notch. Patrick Carr certainly has a knack for developing systems of magic that work well in Christian fiction - two concepts that, for some, might not seem to sit well together.<br /><br />The book serves as a worthy prologue into Mr. Carr's new series. I look forward to continuing the ride.

An excellent introduction to Carr's new series!

Twas an excellent prequel with fascinating characters and an even more fascinating world. (Who am I kidding, the hero of this tale is awesome). It was an excellent introduction to the world, even if I did need to push past the first few pages to finally get into the flow, but my consensus is that I can't wait to start the actual Saga.<br /><br />Book is standalone and so cool...<br /><br />Content: Not much except for murdery ones. No gore, however, but there are fight scenes and some talk about the trauma of war

"By Divine Right," the prequel to a longer series, starts out with a wonderful little mystery about the main character, Willet, then segues into a detailed description of the town — a little *too* detailed for my tastes, but hang in there, the story picks up after that in an entirely readable fantasy detective fashion. The real mystery is soon revealed as Willet follows his insatiable curiosity (and apprehension) in an attempt to discover who is stealing magical gifts.<br /><br />The culture is fascinating and richly multi-layered. The characters are expertly drawn: Jed the chief reeve (evidently comparable to a sheriff), Rory the urchin, Duke Orlan, and the plucky Lady Gael. There are no nondescript characters, but this doesn't require pages of description for each, either. A scar here, a phobia there… Told from a first person point of view, Willet doesn't spend a lot of time dwelling on details of his past. He is preoccupied with the war that robbed him of his chance to become a priest and gave him a dark secret even he doesn't understand.<br /><br />As a plot to draw the reader into the series, this works well. There are questions presented here that are not fully answered. I didn't find that a bad thing, as the story is complete in itself and so delightfully done.

This is a novella that introduces readers to the world of the <i>Darkwater Saga</i>.<br /><br />It is short and describes events mentioned in <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/25252994.The_Shock_of_Night__The_Darkwater_Saga___1_" title="The Shock of Night (The Darkwater Saga, #1) by Patrick W. Carr" rel="noopener">The Shock of Night</a>. It was interesting to read, but I have read the two books that followed this and knew the outcome. It was fun for me to read and understand the characters and events a little better. <br /><br />This novella is well written. I'm glad that I read it.<br /><br />

This was a good fantasy novella, with a smattering of world building, time to introduce a typical array of characters but no time for character development, and reasonably common mystery/suspense plot with a clever twist. Of more interest: the novella was followed by the prologue and first two chapters of the book this novella precedes in the series. Now that was a hook :-D<br /><br />Currently available for free on Amazon, I highly recommend lovers of high/epic fantasy novels check it out.