Format Read: Ebook
Length: 169 Pages
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: 22 December 2010
Publisher: Misque Press
Formats Available: eBook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository

Blurb:

The initiation ceremony is the gateway to ultimate power…or death.

A DETERMINED GIRL Dindi can’t do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi’s clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan…

AN EXILED WARRIOR Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn’t commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don’t kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father’s wars and his mother’s curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her… assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.

My Thoughts:
Initiate had a slow start, but after the first couple of chapters, I couldn’t put it down.

All of Dindi’s dreams are surrounded by her love to dance. She wants to become a Tavedi, one of a group of highly respected dancers in her tribe. There is only one problem, Dindi is very clumsy if she knows people are watching her, so the only people who know how well she can dance are the faeries. Which brings her to the second problem, Dindi should not be anywhere near the faeries, because dancing with faeries can quickly lead you into the dance of death.

Dindi was an interesting character, she was flawed but there is obvious room for growth and the way Maya laid the story down we can easily see where that growth will occur. I loved Dindi because she is a dreamer, she frequently forgets her chores in favour of dancing with faeries and when she lets the faeries help her out, it usually has disastrous results.

Initiate started out slowly, as with any fantasy the world needs to be set up. The first few pages is what stopped me from getting into this story for a long time, I kept putting Initiate down because of all the new terminology. But after slugging through those first two chapters I got lost in Dindi’s world.

Maya’s writing style is one that I will need to get used to, it was a little jerky and with her terminology had me rereading certain paragraphs a few times to make sure I understood what I was reading, the story however was what kept me going.

Maya seamlessly weaves two other plots into the story behind Dindi, Kavio the disgraced Tavedi, who has been banished from his tribe and the story of Vessia, the Corn Maiden. Once again, Kavio’s first chapters were ones of mounting confusion, the terminology, figuring out why he was in disgrace and the familiar frustration of realising that a characters family has turned on them.

The Corn Maiden’s story however was so well started and written that for a few chapters I was only reading to get to the next part of her story rather than Dindi’s.

I did experience mild disappointment however after Initiate got the ball rolling. After such a big promise of faeries in this story, there were hardly any. Dindi dances with them a couple of times and they mess up her chores for her once but after that they hardly make an appearance unless they are elemental (such as water fae trying to drown the humans)

Initiate while having a slow start, finished strongly (not to mention the cliff-hanger) and although it was quite short it is a magnificent start to what promises to be a fantastic series. I cannot wait to get my hands on the next in this series, Taboo.

I give Initiate 4 Stars

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

About Amanda

Amanda-Lee is a proudly addicted reader and writer from Sydney. She lives with her wonderful husband and their more like a baby than a kitten Hamish. Amanda-Lee has been blogging for 4 years now and is a lover of all genres, though she does have a tendancy to stray towards the weird and wonderful concotions in the paranormal and fantasy genres. In addition to being the Winged Lover on BLI she also runs the book blog StoryWings.

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