The King’s Scrolls: Review!

If I could discover a way to advertise sincerely without sounding like every other meaningful advertisement bombarding us through modern culture, I’d use it here in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, public marketing has overused every term and phrase that speak highly of a product so many times that all meaning soon becomes lost in the jumble.

I’d like to resurrect those words just for a few moments in an attempt to infuse some true, honest, real life into them momentarily in an effort to effectively describe a book I believe is truly worth your while. Please bear with me and see past the clichéd phrases to the true meaning of the following words.

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There’s only a few books I get excited enough about to post about multiple times. But this is definitely one of the top of my list. If you’ve never read a book that you’ve seen recommended online, let this be the exception. It sounds cliché, but I’m not trying to overstate the case. I have already read this book multiple times and eagerly look forward to the next ones. If you enjoy well-written adventure but are tired of being overwhelmed with darkness, evil, and paranormal sub-realities, you just might love this book. With clean, fresh fantasy combined with deeper, tougher issues, this book is one I can’t recommend highly enough.

If you missed the introduction to The King’s Scrolls Blog Tour, please see my previous post for exciting information about the book, e-book sales, and a giveaway!

Why I Like It…And Why You Will Too

• Spiritual focus. Jaye’ characters have a depth of relationship with Elom that every one of us needs with our Creator and Keeper. There is a sweetness–a joy and a simple rest–portrayed through the character’s walk with Elom.
• The Scrolls. Not only does the fact that the Scrolls parallel the Scriptures cause them to soar in my interest and reverence, but there’s a mystery about them. There’s also an urgency: the Scrolls must be saved from the Emperor and must be saved from destruction! But there’s also the words of the Scrolls themselves–life-giving, comforting, refreshing, relaxing, quieting in the midst of hardship, darkness, and danger.
• The characters. Kyrin is back, and so are her brothers. The plot follows her family and their ups and downs for much of the story. Jaye did an excellent job creating the characters of the Altair family. Each of the brothers–Marcus, Liam, Kaden, Michael, and Ronny–has his own distinct personality, mannerisms, and issues that come across clearly with surprisingly little description and explanation. Her parents are also well-developed; it is very easy to feel like you know the entire family.
• The plot. It’s not your usual conflict-climax-resolution style. It’s far better. It’s not boring.
• The emotion. Jaye really brings out the emotion in this story. It’s not because it’s intense. It’s because it’s deep. It’s real. The characters experience such vast differences in their emotions and it comes out through the words. Books don’t EVER make me cry even the first time through. But this one has brought me right into that point through every reading. It’s not because it’s miserably sad or painful or the characters do things wrong. It’s because there’s a depth of reality that few books can touch in mere words. This book brings out these aspects better than many movies do–even with their advantage of touching music, audible dialogue and visual effects. I’ve never read anything like it.
• Timothy. He is everything that a follower of Elom should be. Come back on February 21 for an entire post devoted to Timothy.
• Marcus and Liam. I already mentioned them under characters, but they deserve a mention of their own. It’s difficult to understand how Jaye can create so many characters that stand out in this way.
• Jace’s new struggles. In Resistance, we read his struggle to believe he had a soul. In The King’s Scrolls, we get a glimpse right into his soul. Jaye makes Jace’s new struggles and challenges very real and relatable. To avoid spoilers, I will simply comment that scenes with Jace and a dragon make Jace’s entire existence more than worthwhile!
• Being introduced to crete culture. It’s fascinating.
• The hero who enters the palace library….
• The length of the book. It has substance and therefore contains that much more adventure.
• The ending. It’s very different from the ending of Resistance, but very satisfactory and hints at setting the stage for Book Three. Jaye does an excellent job wrapping up her stories to make them feel complete in and of themselves and yet still flow perfectly and intriguingly into the next book.

Advisory/What I Didn’t Like: As this is a New Adult book and not a children’s book, there are a few somewhat intense scenes along the lines of persecution/execution (similar to Resistance), but such elements are not described in much detail or at any length. It may not be suitable for young children.

That’s it. I honestly enjoyed everything about this book. The hard work Jaye put into it shines clearly forth from the pages as well as the strong Biblical principles, truths, and examples it contains.

This book is a literary masterpiece.

Don’t forget to stop back on February 21 to meet Timothy!

The King’s Scrolls:

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