3 out of 4 stars
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Hidden: Tales of Ryca, Book 1 by Shereen Vedam is a fantasy story set in the world of Ryca. From the very beginning, readers learn that the land is ruled by a king that fears magic, or Light, as it is called in this tale. The king's prohibition against magic sent the heroine of the story, Gilly, 33 year old goat herder, into hiding more than twenty years prior to the start of the story. As a girl, Gilly had been forced to flee from the King's Horsemen, who hunt magic users, with her baby sister, eventually leaving her sister on a temple's steps to be adopted. Gilly then moves into the same town and becomes the town madwoman, living on the outskirts, so that she can secretly keep an eye on her sister, Anna, and eventually Anna's family.
When one of Anna's children becomes endangered, Gilly must to use her magic to save the child, which starts the entire adventure chronicled in the novel. Once again, Gilly must flee, this time with Anna's entire family and the town drunk, Tom. As they journey, secrets reveal themselves. Friendships are created, and love even blooms as they head toward the final destination to confront the evil that destroyed Gilly's family in the beginning.
I really enjoyed the adventure in this tale. It is not often that the heroine of a story is older, and Gilly certainly handles herself with the confidence that tends to come from knowing one's trade through experience. While she has very little experience with romantic entanglements, she seems to handle the love interest with maturity, quickly coming to terms with her own feelings and what she observes from her love interest. I liked that she acknowledged her feelings without all of the angst that often accompanies romance in many novels.
While Gilly felt well developed as a character, I found myself wishing the other characters in the book were better developed. Gilly's sister, Anna, had the most character development, and I felt like I knew and understood her by the end of the story, though not as well as I might have liked. Gilly's other friends and even her love interest seemed to be little more than sketches. Vedam definitely explained Gilly's thoughts about her love interest, but there seemed to be so few interactions between them that it was hard to really feel like I knew or cared about him or the relationship. In many ways, he was simply there to help with the final battle and to throw a dash of love into the mix for some extra spice.
From a technical standpoint, the book was well edited and cleanly written. I did not care for the line breaks between paragraphs. I generally prefer to avoid the blank space and have the paragraphs indented, but this is a minor point. There is very little that the average reader would find objectionable. Even the minimal violence in the book was handled delicately. While many books that refer to magic in terms of “Light” have a religious element to them, there is no such element in this book. Light in this case is simply the unifying force that can be used by those who have the ability to do so.
Overall, I would give Hidden: Tales of Ryca, Book 1 3 out of 4 stars. Vedam's world building and story telling were quite good and certainly kept me turning the pages. I enjoyed how she told the story from Gilly's perspective and how Gilly came to terms with who she was and allowing the truth to become free so that she could truly have relationships again. Had there been additional character development in the other characters, I would have easily given this novel 4 stars.
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Hidden, Tales of Ryca, Book 1
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