The Hierophant (Arcana #1) by Madeline Claire Franklin

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 20 Oct 2015, 23:33

The Hierophant is the first book of the Arcana series, written by indie author Madeline Claire Franklin. I discovered this book by accident when I was browsing some best-sellers list on Amazon, and this one happened to be in the midst of a free promotion. I downloaded it and several other books without much thought except, "Whoo hoo! Free books!" This book ended up sitting on my Kindle, unread, for months and months. I just kept putting off reading it, mostly because, to be honest, I had no idea what a Hierophant is.

Eventually, I read all of the other books I had downloaded, and the Hierophant was my last available book. As it turns out, I was saving the best for last. From the moment I opened this book, I was hooked. I never should have had any doubts about this novel. It's a bit of a dark, paranormal YA fantasy with lots of romance and action thrown into the mix.

The main character is Ana, a tall redhead who is a bit of an outcast at her high school, despite the efforts of her very friendly, popular best friend to involve her in more social activities. Ana doesn't mind not fitting in though, and she prefers to stick to her own interest of tarot card reading and the basic magic taught to her by her deceased mother. But things have just turned weird; Ana can see things. Dark creatures lurking around her. Demons. Then a new boy in town, Trebor, shows up to uncover some secrets and open up Ana to a whole new type of world, filled with magic and evil and even more secrets.

My description above does no justice at all to the book. There is a whole handful of fun and interesting characters, and the plot is well-planned and engaging, at minimum. There isn't really anything negative to say about this book. Can I give this book 10 out of 4 stars? No? Okay, fine. 5 out of 5, or 4 out of 4. Whatever. It's max points, no doubt.

After I finished reading this book, you can imagine my disappointment when I learned that the sequel was not available yet! I couldn't wait! I immediately downloaded every other book written by Madeline Claire Franklin and devoured them. I was not disappointed with any of those either, so you may find some of my reviews about those books floating around here as well. But then, finally... after months of torture from the anticipation (and an awesome Heirophant read-along on Twitter, in which I totally fangirled to the extreme AND won print copies of two of Madeline's books!), the sequel was released.

The Tower is book 2 in the series, but I'm not going to talk about it here. I can't without giving away any spoilers! But let's just say that you don't often come across a sequel that is even better than the original. The second book is amazing! I was actually in tears during parts and gasping in shock at the plot twists. I have goosebumps right now just thinking about it. I'm not even kidding.

Do yourself a favor and read these books. If you read them and don't like them, then we pretty much can't be friends anymore.

PashaRu · Post by **PashaRu** » 22 Oct 2015, 13:55

Pasha (whispering to his friend): "I think she liked it."

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 25 Oct 2015, 04:41

PashaRu wrote:Pasha (whispering to his friend): "I think she liked it."

Whatever would give you that idea???

gali · Post by **gali** » 25 Oct 2015, 23:35

Sounds good, thank you.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 30 Oct 2015, 04:03

I don't think I can recommend this book enough! And the more I think about it, the more I think that The Tower (book 2) is even better than the first, which is a hard thing to make happen!

Topcho · Post by **Topcho** » 31 Oct 2015, 11:33

I came here to read your review promptly after reading the interview with the author (which was awesome by the way, and you were such a great interviewer). To be honest, presented like this, the story didn't tempt me much. But I guess you are keeping the real good bits due to spoiler alert. And I just loved, loved your enthousiasm about the book! When I read review written with passion, they really fire me up and make me want to check the book myself. So I indeed will be saving place on my bookshelf for The Hierophant!
(This is rather a metaphore still, since I plan on going with the e-book

)

PashaRu · Post by **PashaRu** » 31 Oct 2015, 15:09

It's kind of cute when you go all fangirl.

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 31 Oct 2015, 21:28

Aw, thanks, y'all!

tularula789 · Post by **tularula789** » 09 Nov 2015, 17:48

Ooh! This sounds so interesting! By the way you described and praised it, I most certainly need to read it...

ALynnPowers · Post by **ALynnPowers** » 12 Nov 2015, 09:32

tularula789 wrote:Ooh! This sounds so interesting! By the way you described and praised it, I most certainly need to read it...

I hope you read it and then tell me all about how much you loved it! Actually, any book by this author is amazing. (I did an interview with her in the Author Interviews section as well, you should check out!)