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Borderlands Saga #2
Blackbriar Cove
In a single night of madness, Amie won the battle, and lost the two people she loved most. As she struggles to be the queen her people need, her family band together against the hidden threat at their borders.
Haunted by the ghosts of her past, Amie strikes a pact with an ancient being called The Storyteller. In order to see Emrys again, they must put aside their blood feud, and cross the veil to a place of spirits and monsters.
Blackbriar Cove is a land where superstition and chaos reign, and spirits plague dreams. A dark curse has twisted the Unseelie who once lived in the home the Blackbriar twins vowed never to return. But death is not the end in Silver Hollow, and the war for the Borderlands has only begun.
COMING 2020
THE BORDERLANDS SAGA
Silver Hollow
Blackbriar Cove
Haunted by the ghosts of her past, Amie strikes a pact with an ancient being called The Storyteller. In order to see Emrys again, they must put aside their blood feud, and cross the veil to a place of spirits and monsters.
Blackbriar Cove is a land where superstition and chaos reign, and spirits plague dreams. A dark curse has twisted the Unseelie who once lived in the home the Blackbriar twins vowed never to return. But death is not the end in Silver Hollow, and the war for the Borderlands has only begun.
COMING 2020
THE BORDERLANDS SAGA
Silver Hollow
Blackbriar Cove
ebook
First published May 12, 2022
3 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Silverwood
27 books596 followersJennifer Silverwood lives in the middle of an enchanted forest surrounded by cursed books, nosy spirits, and mischievous goblins she calls her children. After beginning several nonsensical degrees, she found her calling helping other authors bring their books to life. Jennifer is the author of two fairy tale fantasy series: the Borderlands Saga and Wylder Tales. Because she wasn't satisfied writing in one genre, she also invites you to explore uncharted space with the Heaven’s Edge Novellas—and dare to fall in love again with the standalone romance titles Stay and She Walks in Moonlight.
Discover more at - http://jennifersilverwood.com
Discover more at - http://jennifersilverwood.com
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 16, 2023
A year after the events of Book 1, Amie, now Queen of Silver Hollow, has been taking lessons in magic from Grim - known as the Storyteller and the brother of her enemy - in secret. Emrys’s spirit has stayed with her, and she hides that she talks to him from her friends. She’s also trying to protect Silver Hollow from its enemies. When Grim promises that he can bring Emrys back to her, she agrees to take the fight to Blackbriar Cove, where Grim’s sister has her forces stationed. The Cove also happens to be the homeland of her friends, twins Faye and Jo. Unlike Amie who is half-Seelie/half-human, the twins are half-Unseelie/half-“other.”
Like the previous book, there is a lot going on in this book. Chapters jump between points of view of Amie, each of the twins, and Emrys. There are also flashbacks to when the twins still lived in Blackbriar Cove with Nanny, the Weaver, and how they met Amie and her adoptive father/uncle Drustan. Amie doesn’t remember this part of her past, and the twins have kept it from her. There is also something wrong with the Cove, something that is effecting all of the inhabitants.
I liked learning more about the pasts of some of the characters, especially the twins. It was also good to see things from the perspectives of the different characters, to help understand a bit of what was going on. The story is intriguing, but it’s still confusing. Amie believes she can trust Grim; no one else does. I’m not sure I do either. There’s a past with him from her first incarnation as Nimue that is hinted, a bargain of some kind was made, but that still wasn’t revealed by the end of the book. They’re all in the Cove, something is wrong with it and there’s something wrong with many of the characters. They allude to plans that have been made, and then the book ends, with nothing being resolved. This series has really been an enigma for me - it has such an interesting premise, with fantasy mainstays (Seelie & Unseelie), magic, characters from legend (Arthur & Merlin), love that transcends time… but much of the time, I’m confused about what’s going on. I accepted it in the last book, because the whole story was from Amie’s POV, and she didn’t understand a lot of what was happening to her, but this time we readers have additional POVs to help us along. I was disappointed with the cliffhanger ending. The story from this book just wasn’t finished.
This is such an interesting world, and I do enjoy the story. I just think some things need to be tightened up. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered and histories to be explained. I’m hoping that the conclusion to the Borderlands Saga will do just that.
Like the previous book, there is a lot going on in this book. Chapters jump between points of view of Amie, each of the twins, and Emrys. There are also flashbacks to when the twins still lived in Blackbriar Cove with Nanny, the Weaver, and how they met Amie and her adoptive father/uncle Drustan. Amie doesn’t remember this part of her past, and the twins have kept it from her. There is also something wrong with the Cove, something that is effecting all of the inhabitants.
I liked learning more about the pasts of some of the characters, especially the twins. It was also good to see things from the perspectives of the different characters, to help understand a bit of what was going on. The story is intriguing, but it’s still confusing. Amie believes she can trust Grim; no one else does. I’m not sure I do either. There’s a past with him from her first incarnation as Nimue that is hinted, a bargain of some kind was made, but that still wasn’t revealed by the end of the book. They’re all in the Cove, something is wrong with it and there’s something wrong with many of the characters. They allude to plans that have been made, and then the book ends, with nothing being resolved. This series has really been an enigma for me - it has such an interesting premise, with fantasy mainstays (Seelie & Unseelie), magic, characters from legend (Arthur & Merlin), love that transcends time… but much of the time, I’m confused about what’s going on. I accepted it in the last book, because the whole story was from Amie’s POV, and she didn’t understand a lot of what was happening to her, but this time we readers have additional POVs to help us along. I was disappointed with the cliffhanger ending. The story from this book just wasn’t finished.
This is such an interesting world, and I do enjoy the story. I just think some things need to be tightened up. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered and histories to be explained. I’m hoping that the conclusion to the Borderlands Saga will do just that.
February 13, 2024
{2.75/5}
Read as part of the Borderlands Saga omnibus via BookSirens.
CW: mild spice, death, violence, some others
While vastly improved from book 1, the second installment of the Borderlands Saga has still left me disappointed.
It’s been a year since Amie Wenderdowne embraced the full force of her powers in Silverwood Hollow; a year since Emrys started haunting her. The strength of both powers is draining her physically, and everybody in the Hollow is keeping secrets…
Let’s start with the good things about this book. The writing quality has increased drastically between book 1 and book 2. Where book 1 was a borderline incoherent jumble of a tale, book 2 actually flows pretty well. Things are laid out way more clearly, we can follow the story as it progresses, and there were a lot fewer ‘wait when did that happen?’ moments. The general plot structure is fine and there are some really creative bits to both the magic and the creatures involved. Bonus points for a ton of Arthurian and fairytale tie-ins.
Unfortunately, that’s where my praise will have to end. Have you ever received an apology that was clearly only being given because that’s what the person was supposed to do? The words are there, they’ve done the thing, but there’s no depth or strength behind it? That’s how this book feels. There’s a story, things are happening, but it was really hard to get myself to care about any of it because it just felt…shallow. That’s not to say that every book has to be this earth shaking, ‘deeper meaning’ type of thing; what I mean is that this one kind of falls flat. Maybe it’s residual bitterness from the chaotic mess of book 1, but I just couldn’t get into book 2, despite it being less confusing.
Combine this with a ton of typos and half-finished sentences, and it was a struggle to finish the book. The fact that I found pretty much every character to be not only difficult to care about but also genuinely unlikable (an issue I didn’t have to this extent in book 1) didn’t help, and the vast majority of the story felt like ‘people are sad, literally everybody is lying to each other, the end.’ Again, these may be personal issues with the story, and not every reader may have the same outlook.
Overall, while it was a lot easier to keep up with what was happening in “Blackbriar Cove,” I still didn’t love it. Not a lot actually happened in almost 300 pages, and the things that did occur could have been shortened significantly and added to book 3 without losing much of importance. It’s a book that exists, and that’s about all I can say on the matter.
Read as part of the Borderlands Saga omnibus via BookSirens.
CW: mild spice, death, violence, some others
While vastly improved from book 1, the second installment of the Borderlands Saga has still left me disappointed.
It’s been a year since Amie Wenderdowne embraced the full force of her powers in Silverwood Hollow; a year since Emrys started haunting her. The strength of both powers is draining her physically, and everybody in the Hollow is keeping secrets…
Let’s start with the good things about this book. The writing quality has increased drastically between book 1 and book 2. Where book 1 was a borderline incoherent jumble of a tale, book 2 actually flows pretty well. Things are laid out way more clearly, we can follow the story as it progresses, and there were a lot fewer ‘wait when did that happen?’ moments. The general plot structure is fine and there are some really creative bits to both the magic and the creatures involved. Bonus points for a ton of Arthurian and fairytale tie-ins.
Unfortunately, that’s where my praise will have to end. Have you ever received an apology that was clearly only being given because that’s what the person was supposed to do? The words are there, they’ve done the thing, but there’s no depth or strength behind it? That’s how this book feels. There’s a story, things are happening, but it was really hard to get myself to care about any of it because it just felt…shallow. That’s not to say that every book has to be this earth shaking, ‘deeper meaning’ type of thing; what I mean is that this one kind of falls flat. Maybe it’s residual bitterness from the chaotic mess of book 1, but I just couldn’t get into book 2, despite it being less confusing.
Combine this with a ton of typos and half-finished sentences, and it was a struggle to finish the book. The fact that I found pretty much every character to be not only difficult to care about but also genuinely unlikable (an issue I didn’t have to this extent in book 1) didn’t help, and the vast majority of the story felt like ‘people are sad, literally everybody is lying to each other, the end.’ Again, these may be personal issues with the story, and not every reader may have the same outlook.
Overall, while it was a lot easier to keep up with what was happening in “Blackbriar Cove,” I still didn’t love it. Not a lot actually happened in almost 300 pages, and the things that did occur could have been shortened significantly and added to book 3 without losing much of importance. It’s a book that exists, and that’s about all I can say on the matter.
July 22, 2022
I have to give Blackbriar Cove five stars, not only because I wrote this but because it was a labor of love. I wrote this at a time in my life when I wasn't sure I would be able to publish again. I wasn't sure if I could make this happen. So much of my life felt bleak, but writing this long-awaited sequel to Silver Hollow gave me much-needed joy. It reminded me of the reasons I love to create, and the reason I won't stop writing and publishing. To those of you who loved Silver Hollow, I hope you enjoy discovering the world of Blackbriar Cove.
December 11, 2023
I liked how this book gave us a glimpse into the pasts and perspectives of other characters. However, it was a little bit confusing at the beginning of chapters to figure out whose perspective was taking the lead. There was a ton of world building and character development in this book. I have a lot of questions that I am hoping the third book ties up. I’m excited to continue the series.
November 16, 2024
Spirit tales
I love these books I found them by accident , the characters are well rounded and everyone has two sides the storylines are great and there is a plot within a plot I'm giving this a well deserved 5 stars
I love these books I found them by accident , the characters are well rounded and everyone has two sides the storylines are great and there is a plot within a plot I'm giving this a well deserved 5 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews