Synopsis via Goodreads
Monsters come in many forms, and not everyone knows a monster when they see one. After three hundred years of monstrous, feral elves plaguing the island nation of Selkirk, everyone believes they know what a monster is. Humans have learned to live with their savage neighbors, enacting a Clearing every four years to push the elves back from their borders. The system has worked for centuries, until after one such purge, a babe was found in the forest.
As Tallis grows, she discovers she isn’t like everyone else. There is something a little different that makes people leery in her presence, and she only ever makes a handful of friends. But when the elves gather their forces and emerge from the forests literally hissing Tallis’s name like a battle mantra, making friends is the least of her troubles. Tallis and her companions find themselves on an unwilling journey to not only clear her name, but to stop the elves from ravaging her homeland.
I found the world C.E. Clayton created for this book really fascinating. The descriptions are vivid, and I didn’t have any trouble imagining the settings and backdrops for the characters. The timeline for the book begins when the main characeter, Tallis, is a child. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. I feel like it helped in understanding why she feels the way she does later on in the book, and it also gives insight to other great characters that she grows up with that stay relevant throughout the book. Tallis herself is a strong, willful female lead. She is equal parts confident and innocent, which we see develop along the way. Donovan is every bit the protective older cousin, and his bickering with the carefree Rosslyn I thought was realistic considering how different they are. Tomas is such a lovable character and I found myself really rooting for him, his ingenuity and his sweet personality made him a favorite of mine! I’m a big fan of character development, and C.E. Clayton made sure that each character had their own growth within the first book, and it makes me really excited for the second!
The story itself I really enjoyed. The idea of feral elves and humans coexisting is exciting itself, so with the added questions around Tallis’s history and why it’s making the elves change made it a book I couldn’t put down! I highly recommend The Monster of Selkirk, and get ready for the sequel The Monster of Selkirk: Heart of the Forest coming soon!
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Buy it here on amazon: http://preview.tinyurl.com/y7v3ehgn
accioallthebooks 