Review: Queen of Song and Souls by C.L. Wilson

Queen of Song and Souls by C.L. Wilson
Book 4, Tairen Soul series
Genres: Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Year: 2009 (October 27, 2009)
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
ISBN-10: 08439-6060-4 (Leisure Books)
Reason for Reading: ARC submitted for review

From the back cover:

Only together could their souls be complete.

Only together could they survive.

Only together could they unlock the secrets of the past and unleash their greatest magic.

As war rages all around them, and the evil mages of Eld stand on the brink of triumph, Rain and Ellysetta must learn to trust completely in their love and in themselves, and embrace a forbidden power that will either destroy their world or save it.

My Ramblings:

Queen of Song and Souls is the exciting fourth book in the Tairen Souls series by C.L. Wilson. In my opinion, due to complex world created by C.L. Wilson, this series needs to be read in order starting with Lord of the Fading Lands, thus experiencing this series to it's fullest.

C.L. Wilson elegantly throws us back in the world of Fey in the prologue where the King of Sword and Sky ended. From there we follow Ellysetta and Rain as they travel across the lands trying to create alliances with the Celierians, Elves and Danae, to help fight the war against the evil Mages of Eld. They have come to realize that Vadim Maur and the Mages have been preparing for this war far longer than they suspected. They know the only way they can win this war is to combine the Fey forces with all of the other races against the dark magic of the Eld. But these alliances are tenuous at best, due to the intrigues of politics between the different races. Unfortunately, during this dark time of war, they can’t afford any weaknesses or doubts.

As Ellysetta and Rain travel, self discoveries are made about themselves, questions are answered and new mysteries are revealed. Ellysetta is also plagued by horrible nightmares and the anxiety of baring four mage marks made by evil High Mage Vadim Maur. And Rain tries to hide from Ellysetta that the bonding madness has started and that it is advancing fast because of the fighting on the bloody battlefields. In addition to the tremendous worry of the war, they are both distress from the inability to complete their truemate bond; completing the bond will keep Rain from descending into madness and save Ellysetta and her powers from being controlled by the evil Vadim Maur.

Queen of Song and Souls contains all the elements that makes a perfect and terrific read for me: a complex and creative fantasy world, edged with darkness; a romantically, poignant love story; edge of your seat suspense; and truly evil and vile bad guys. C.L. Wilson combines all of these elements elegantly with her beautiful prose. I honestly don’t have one complaint about this book. Not one. As this series has progressed, each book just keeps getting better than the last.

I experienced such a wide range of emotions reading this book that by the time I was finished with it, I was emotional exhausted, in a good way. While I was reading my emotions ranged from being anxious, angry, happy, a deep sadness, surprised, thoughtful, and worried. In the end, I was left with a strong sense of forbidding. I’m happy to say we get some long awaited answers but new questions take the place of the old ones. All in all, Queen of Song and Souls is going down as my favorite read for this year, hands down.

Queen of Song and Souls is not to be missed, it sets the stage for the next and final book in this series. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the conclusion to Ellysetta and Rain’s story in Tairen Soul this coming year.

My Rating: Perfect!

Read an excerpt of Queen of Song and Souls

Where you can find C.L. Wilson: Web Site | Blog | Twitter

The Tairen Soul Series:

  1. Lord of the Fading Lands
  2. Lady of Light and Shadows
  3. King of Sword and Sky
  4. Queen of Song and Souls
  5. Tairen Soul – TBD

Other Reviews:




9 comments:

Leontine said...

Oh yes...lovin me this review. I actually received my copy last saturday but had some ARC reading to be done first. I can't wait to start QUEEN this week and dive back in to the Tairen world.

DorchesterPub twittered links to their upcoming releases of 2010 but Tairen Soul is not up in the first few months of 2010 :S

Mandi said...

She does know how to exhaust you with emotional distress! - but like you said, it is always in a good way. Really can't wait to see how it all wraps up!

Mishel (P.S. I Love Books) said...

I'll be starting this series soon. I have the first 2 yay! I've heard nothing but fantastic things about the author and the books =) Glad you enjoyed this one!

Donna said...

Leontine - I hunted everywhere for more information on Tairen Soul but I can't hardly find anything. Kinda worries me that it will be awhile.

Mandi - I love the way C.L. Wilson's writing pulls on my emotions. Anything that can illicit that much feeling from me with such a wide range, is good with me.

Mishel - I hope you like this series, like I said in the review, each book just gets better and better.

Donna said...

Mandi - type alert *illicit* should be *elicit*! LOL!

Anonymous said...

That cover is so beautiful that I've tracked down Lord of the Fading Lands and placed it on my wishlist. :)

VampFanGirl said...

I'm in love with this series. Although it's been a while since I read the first two installments. I think I need some re-read action to catch up.

Emotionally draining, huh? Those are the best kind, imo.

Great review, girl!

;) VFG

Donna said...

VFG - Any book that came make me feel as deeply as this one did plus make me think on it long after I've finish reading it, is a good one. So yeah, I agree with you. :)

Unknown said...

Hi Donna!

I definitely need to find more reading time, this series looks like a must read!

Thanks for another great review!

Dottie :)

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