Viper's Creed Tour - Review - Sora's Quest - T.L. Shreffler

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Sora's Quest (Cat's Eye, #1)Title: Sora's Quest
Author: T.L. Shreffler
Genre: Young Adult
Publication: April 18 2012, Runaway Pen
Pages: 250 pages, ebook
A noblewoman, an assassin, and a soul-stealing necklace....Sora planned on running away from her wedding, but she never expected to be kidnapped! Dumped into a world of magical races, arcane jewelry and forgotten lore, she finds herself at the mercy of a dangerous assassin, haunted by an even darker past. She yearns for freedom, but he won’t let her go—not when her Cat’s Eye necklace is the only thing that can save his life.
But the necklace itself presents a problem. It is an ancient device from the long forgotten War of the Races, and its magic has the ability to steal souls. Can Sora learn to wield its power—or will the power wield her? 
Sora's Quest is one of the very few books I've read where my thoughts on it changed dramatically throughout the book. The beginning hooked me and had promise but as the book continued it lost me a bit. At one part it reminded me a bit of The Day of First Sun, a novel that I really didn't enjoy, however, I'm really happy I didn't give up on Sora's Quest as in the end I really enjoyed it.

What I liked about Sora's Quest as that I was immediately catapulted into the action. The first couple of chapters are of Sora getting ready to be married to a man that she has never met before, to whom her cold, distant father had arranged for her. She then plans on running away but as her father is about to make a toast and begin the wedding, a dagger whizzes out of no where, embedding itself in his throat. With her father murdered, Sora tried to make an escape but in the process she is kidnapped by the assassin and whisked away. The first couple of chapters the pace moved quite fast and it was a guessing game, as it was in third person (you know I don't like books written in third person? Well the author really made it work!) I didn't know if the assassin would kill her, what they wanted with her and where they were going. There were hundreds of questions flitting through my head and I was hungry for answers. As I kept on reading the questions were easily answered and I was quite satisfied.

I liked the characters in the book. They all seemed to have depth to me and reasons for their actions. I wasn't actually too crazy about Sora when I was first introduced to her. When she saw her father murdered she didn't mourn at all and even though they barely communicated surely you would have some emotional reaction to seeing your father die in front of you? As I kept reading about her my liking grew for her. She really went through a change throughout the story, maturing. She was a brave, admirable heroine and she went from a spoilt brat to an adventurous warrior in a short space of time. It couldn't have been easy going from such a rich, luxurious life style to being a traveller and sleeping on the ground and hunting for your own food, I really think she adjusted well.

My favourite character had to be all three of the original travellers though. Sora's relationship with Dorian, Burn and Crash was unique. I felt the bond she held with Dorian and Burn and I loved watching them interact with her and that she was melting their hearts one by one. I loved watching the spark that was beginning to ignite between Crash and Sora. There wasn't really romance in Sora's Quest which was a bit surprising seeing as its a YA book, but I have a feeling that Crash and Sora are going fall in love in the second instalment, Viper's Creed.
Dorian, Burn and Crash were great characters. I really got to know the two Wolfies and I was extremely upset about what happened near the end. I like Crash but I hope to see more of his sensitive side in the second book, I think I'll like him even more in the next book. The couple of moments he showed sensitivity and human-like emotions to Sora really made my heart swell and I just felt a surge of love towards him.

I only had a couple of issues with Sora's Quest. One of things is a couple of plot holes. There wasn't a clear reason for why Crash kidnapped Sora and that other major plot quirk that irked me a bit was their uneccessary journey through the swamp. The scenes that happened in the swamp were really detailed and jammed pack of action but there was no main reason for them to travel through the swamp. The other thing is that Sora's Quest didn't always hold my attention, there were times where I was finding myself not really interested in reading the book, so I hope in Viepr's Creed the author will write more jam-packed scenes.

Overall, Sora's Quest was an interesting, entertaining novel. I loved watching Sora mature throughout the book and how her and the other characters relationships developed. There were quite a few twists in the tale that I hadn't expected at all! If you're a fan of magical books with beautiful description, then Sora's Quest will be right up your street. I think the author is very talented and I eagerly await Sora's second adventure.


I give it: 3/5 CUPCAKES