Elske

I put in some work while I was on vacation from my grown up 40-50 hour a week job, ha-ha.

This one is different for me because it is more of a fantasy book and that is a genre I have yet to explore. Elske is about a girl named Elske, because figures, who is given the opportunity to run away from a ruthless tribe through the sacrifice of her grandmother. As she is traveling, she comes across a father and his two sons, offering to take her under their protection to their home city. As the story goes on, Elske continually gains favor with the people she encounters and works for because of her honesty, fearlessness, and willingness to work.

I enjoyed the story from get-go; I liked how the language was simple yet had this classical style to it. It was engaging, making it worthwhile to see someone born into a role that is meant for rape and death rise up into a role of someone with strong presence like a man, but the civility of a woman meant to lead multitudes for worthy causes, which could actually be on a level of inspiration.

The way that Elske praises Beriel and how that servant-to-royalty relationship is described escalates as well, like the more heat that is added to the fire that is Beriel’s journey to the throne, the greater the flame that Elske becomes in her devotion.

I would also like to add that while I was reading, I kept picturing this as just another show where the setting takes place in a European country where it basically is like Game of Thrones, but not as lewd.

I would recommend this as a good read, one that you could probably get through in a day, or so, depending on how much you get into it. I guess this is a part of a series, although I really did not read a whole lot of information on what other books Cynthia Voigt has written, except that she has several books based around this world. If you are interested in reading Elske, you can find it here.

10/10