Review: Orenda by Ruth Silver

What: Orenda (Orenda #1) by Ruth Silver

Who: Patchwork Press

When: April 13th 2014

Where: Amazon – Barnes & Noble – Signed Copy

How: A copy of this novel was provided by the author as part of a book tour.

Join forces with a parallel universe.

Dark forces, magical creatures, and the world Lil thought she knew collide when a dream transports her to the strange world of Orenda. Stunned and terrified, Lil comes face to face with her doppelganger, Willow, who possesses the ability to travel between the two worlds. Everything Lil knows logically says that Orenda can’t exist, but a small clue may be proof that it was more than an ordinary dream. With the threat of her younger sister in danger, Lil crosses dimensions but it may cost her even more than she bargained for.

A sword wielding girl, the eternal suit, and a parallel universe come together in this action-packed Young Adult fantasy adventure that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages. Orenda is the first novel in the Orenda series.

Orenda is such a unique book, and Ruth Silver is one of my go-to indie authors for an action-packed young adult novel. I love the premise of parallel universes, and have not previously come across a YA novel that focuses on them so I was more than excited to discover that the plot of Orenda was based around them. Plus one, Ruth!

I loved the range of characters, but would have also loved to get to know them each a little better so that I could truly invest myself in their outcomes. For instance, I would have liked to have gotten to know Lil between when she experienced what she thought was a dream (but was actually the parallel universe) and when she entered Orenda. There were very slight differences between the Earth version of Lil and the Orenda Willow, and I think that if we as readers had been privy to more of Lil’s life prior to the immersion of the story into the parallel world, the distinction between the two could have been somewhat clearer.

Orenda is an incredibly fast paced novel, and even though every scene was integral to understanding what was going on, I think the book could have been a little longer – just to let me really wrap my head around the importance of each scene, and what they meant to the characters that were involved.

The concept of the parallel universe was explained excellently. I was not confused at all, and the explanations were given in a way that was not hard to understand, but that was also not an info-dump. I love lack of info-dumps and confusion when it comes to fantasy novels.

I would absolutely recommend Orenda to a reader who was thinking of entering the Ya reading realm, because this novel is a sweet gateway into the wonderful world of YA fantasy.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

Meet the Author

Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of ABERRANT, a young adult dystopian adventure series published by Patchwork Press and Lazy Day Publishing, in 2013. Silver attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communication in the spring of 2005. While in college, she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required, because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. Her love of writing led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading, photography, traveling and most of all writing. She loves dystopian and fantasy young adult stories. Ruth has been actively writing since she was a teenager. Upcoming works include Royal Reaper, a young adult series about grim reapers, due for release June 3rd, 2014. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois.

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