Ummmm…….So I have decided to rate this as if it were just the first half of a book because that is what it seems to be. This is the first half or Part I of a much larger book in my opinion.
I love the writing style of Cinda Williams Chima, this is the eighth book by her I have read. That said this was really a departure from the prior three books of this series. It would almost be an entirely new series if it didn’t still have the same rules and some characters of the first three books. Although I was a little confused as to who mainliners were, just so you know they are all the people in all the guilds you learned about in the first three books of the series.
The Enchanter Heir is a complete departure from the initial story line of Trinity. About ten years before the Dragon Heir there was a massacre that left all the inhabitants of Thorn Hill, a sorcerer commune in Brazil, either dead or a mutant of sorts. The weirstones of all the survivors have been completely changed along with their powers. Unknown is whether it was a wizard attack on the commune or if the sorcerers accidentally poisoned themselves.
Jonah, an Enchanter, is a survivor of Thorn Hill, but it came with a high price. His skin is poisonous and thus he is forced to live a mostly untouched existence. He has become an assassin trying to find the answers of Thorn Hill hoping to save his brother as well as himself from the affects of the mutations.
Emma has had a slightly wild childhood. She was hidden away with her Grandfather and new nothing of her past. With him she became engrossed in the music world and making guitars. But when he dies of mysterious circumstances she finds the father she never knew and starts learning about a world of magic she didn’t know existed.
I liked Emma right away. She is a headstrong teenager and is a little wild yes but she is feisty and stands her ground. I love that in a female character. When she meets our hero Jonah and he is less than inviting she says
You know what? You’re damn pretty until you open up your mouth. You ought to keep it shut.”
There is also a vulnerability to Emma as she, like the other orphans of Thorn Hill are mostly alone. Jonah as an assassin you would think would be hard to like, but right away you see how reluctant he is with his natural poison gift and as an empath he fells the pains of those around him. He is desperate to be accepted and loved but pushes everyone away as he knows how deadly he really is. I couldn’t help liking the kid.
--it was such a small and simple pleasure—to talk to someone who didn’t know that the thing he was best at was killing. Leaving the pool-shark girl behind was like ripping off a scab and watching himself bleed.
As Emma and Jonah get to know each other there is a definite attraction and Emma wonders why Jonah is giving mixed signals. I like the forbidden love story, I’m a sucker for those and it didn’t really overshadow the rest of the plot.
There are cameos from all of the Trinity alums and the story involves them only a little as mainliners seem to blame the Thorn Hill victims for the sudden rash of wizards being killed. Things become heated as each side blames the other.
The reason I’m saying that this is like half a book is because there really was no resolution to any of the story lines happening. At the end it still isn’t clear what happened at Thorn Hill, I know who is killing the wizards, well probably, but I have no idea why, Lilith the leader of the shades (deceased Thorn Hill spirits that take over bodies) still hasn’t given her plan, I have no idea how Emma is tied into the whole thing and then there was a cliff hanger.
This really reads more of like a part I of II. I’m not saying that is necessarily bad it just really wasn’t expected from everything else I’ve read by CWC. This was an enjoyable read, I really just wanted more resolution to…..well anything.
So I will wait until the completion of part II also known as The Sorcerer Heir (book 5) to make my official judgment on The Enchanter Heir. As for now it is 3.5 Stars