Friday, April 26, 2013

Curse of the Ice Dragon by Tara West

He was born with a hunter's mark on his face and that set his fate...

The author and Goddess Blog Fish Tour gave me a copy of the ebook to read for review and to be part of this tour (thank you).  You can pick up a copy of this book at any place selling ebooks now.  It's written for young adults, but I really enjoyed it.  I won't tell if an adult happens to buy a copy for themselves and I know the author won't either.

Markus is the great hunter and has no problem killing his prey with little effort.  His father is determined he will not be emotional or compassionate.  He will be a formidable warrior, but no more.  Markus has an older brother, Alec, who is weak and has trouble breathing and he is the scapegoat for punishment in the family.  Even if it was Marcus who was at fault, Alec gets punished.

The first big problem in Markus' life is that he cannot stand up to his bullying father.  He stays away from him as much as he can and tries to ignore most of what he says.  That makes him feel like a coward.  And when one of the women in the village exposes how the father treats Alec and shames him even more, that problem turns into a monster.

The prophet says if he continues overkilling and hurting the animals, the ice dragon will rise.  Not only that, each time he kills something one of his family will die.  Markus finds that when he mistreated a rabbit, his mother dies in the same way.  And then the ice dragon shows up.  And he thought he had problems before...

This is a big adventure for Markus.  He leaves the village to escape the dragon and keep it after him instead of killing everyone in the village.  While defending himself against the dragon, he falls and finds himself in a new world under the ice.  He falls in love there, but he has to save his village and his love from the witch who wants only power.  It sounds like an impossible quest and how it turns out is amazing.

This is just the first book in this series.  It can be read as a standalone, but I bet it'll hook you enough to see how the tale proceeds in this book. 

Why not hang out with Markus and see if you can tame a dragon and help him with a plan to kill the witch?

Tara will be awarding an e-book in her YA paranormal Whispers series, Visions of the Witch to a randomly drawn commenter at every stop during the tour, and a $25 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

Happy reading.

13 comments:

Tara said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed Curse of the Ice Dragon, Jo Ann. TY so much for the review. ;) Tara

Unknown said...

Best book ever

Karen H said...

Well, it's the last day of the tour and I want to say I've enjoyed following you around, learning more about you and your books. So, thanks for a good time!

kareninnc@gmail.com

Goddess Fish Promotions said...

Thank you for hosting

Rita Wray said...

I have enjoyed the tour. The book sounds great.

Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

MomJane said...

Wow, this book sounds absolutely awesome. What a great series this will be.

Alexia Purdy said...

This book sounds amazing and it's on my short to read list! Thanks for the giveaway! <3<3

Catherine Lee said...

Jo Ann...How is the online book selling business these days? I'll have to check out your website. What kind of books do you sell? As a librarian, I'm often looking for book sale sites--whether for my library or for my library patrons to buy books.

Journey of a Bookseller said...

It's slow, Catherine. I have a variety of books but specialize in children's books, craft books/booklets, and western americana.

I'm trying to encourage sales by offering free US shipping on my website.

I'd love to have you take a look. I have some brand new children's books and some gems from the past. Lots of treasures!

Chelsea B. said...

Hi, Tara! *Waves* I've enjoyed tagging along on your blog tour! All my best!
Chelsea.

justforswag(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

bn100 said...

Very nice review

bn100candg at hotmail dot com

Andra Lyn said...

I love dragons! They are my favorite part of fantasy novels!

andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

Tara said...

Thanks, everyone for commenting. Jo Ann thanks again for hosting. Andra won the gift card. I am not at my computer right now, and it's really hard to type. Ugh. Again, I totally enjoyed this book tour.
Goddess Fish rocks!

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