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Scavenger Girl #4
Season of Toridia
Navigating a new life she never thought possible, Una becomes restless living in luxury. When the death of someone close to her reveals the true nature of one of Ashlund’s most powerful men, she flees the protected gates of her perfect home, through the scorching heat of Toridia and into the shaded wood. There, she encounters Kash, a man more powerful than the gods themselves, leader of the criminal faction referred to as the Woodsmen. In an exchange for her trespasses, he grants her a painful covenant forever binding her to her choices. Requisite to her release, he pays an unsettled debt to Una, a favor so petrifying, it is considered a curse by any other standard. The weight of responsibility is great, but is it hers to bear alone?
481 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 26, 2019
12 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Arntson
7 books51 followersI'm a dreamer kept well grounded by my amazing husband and two ever-changing children. I have a flare for the dramatic, am adventurous with food, and constantly looking for my next adrenaline rush. When I'm not torturing the keys on my laptop with another novel in progress, you'll find me devouring life before I'm too old and my legs give up on me. Enough about me, let me introduce you to three people far more interesting than myself...
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Follow Una herself @Una_of_Ashlund
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 6, 2024
The Scavenger Girl series sucks me in deeper with each additional book, and with Season of Toridia the fear is starting to kick in. I know we’re closing in on the end of the series, and I’m not yet ready to say goodbye – and knowing there are spin-off books to come only increases certain emotions. Ashlund and the inhabitants have taken root in my heart, and I’m invested in the series in ways I cannot begin to explain.
With Season of Toridia, Jennifer Arntson provides us with a lot. We’ve been given a lot in each of the prior books, every book packs a lot into it, but they pale in comparison to Season of Toridia. Numerous things happened in this one, so many things you’ll be surprised to find it all played out in a single book. It could easily have been a series within itself with how much happened in this one, yet it was perfectly done in a single book. It was not rushed in any way, each word had power, and I could not put it down.
As we’re closing in on the end of the Scavenger Girl series, Season of Toridia starts to tie some aspects together. However, it also introduces us to plenty of knew things. There are so many things that will need to come together in the final book, and I have no doubt it will be an insanely powerful final book. With the things we found out in this one, with the details we got to see, it is clear this series is going to end in the most explosive of ways.
By the end of Season of Toridia you will love the characters in new ways, you will appreciate the world in new ways, and you’ll have new theories about how everything will come together. With things being so intricately connected in this one, it is difficult to explain the things I loved without giving spoilers. Therefore, I’m going to use the easiest get-go clause possible: don’t read my review, just go experience the beauty that is Season of Toridia.
Without a doubt, I am desperate for the final Scavenger Girl book. I need to know how Una’s story ends and will devour it the moment I get my hands on it.
With Season of Toridia, Jennifer Arntson provides us with a lot. We’ve been given a lot in each of the prior books, every book packs a lot into it, but they pale in comparison to Season of Toridia. Numerous things happened in this one, so many things you’ll be surprised to find it all played out in a single book. It could easily have been a series within itself with how much happened in this one, yet it was perfectly done in a single book. It was not rushed in any way, each word had power, and I could not put it down.
As we’re closing in on the end of the Scavenger Girl series, Season of Toridia starts to tie some aspects together. However, it also introduces us to plenty of knew things. There are so many things that will need to come together in the final book, and I have no doubt it will be an insanely powerful final book. With the things we found out in this one, with the details we got to see, it is clear this series is going to end in the most explosive of ways.
By the end of Season of Toridia you will love the characters in new ways, you will appreciate the world in new ways, and you’ll have new theories about how everything will come together. With things being so intricately connected in this one, it is difficult to explain the things I loved without giving spoilers. Therefore, I’m going to use the easiest get-go clause possible: don’t read my review, just go experience the beauty that is Season of Toridia.
Without a doubt, I am desperate for the final Scavenger Girl book. I need to know how Una’s story ends and will devour it the moment I get my hands on it.
February 16, 2019
The journey of one's life touches so many.
While every step of the way strife seeks to hold her. Still she persists. Striving for what is right. Not what is told to her. Not the "rules." Not traditional boundaries. The path of a truly righteous heart. Excited to read the next!
While every step of the way strife seeks to hold her. Still she persists. Striving for what is right. Not what is told to her. Not the "rules." Not traditional boundaries. The path of a truly righteous heart. Excited to read the next!
February 3, 2019
Couldn’t put this book down.
February 3, 2019
The Dry Season
Full disclosure – I was provided a copy of this book by the author; however, I have voluntarily chosen to write a review. All opinions are my own.
Season of Toridia continues the story of Una of Ashlund. With the rains of Hytalia behind her, Una finds herself probably in her most challenging role to date. As the wife of the Junior Lord of Authority, Una is suddenly in a position of status and power and she does not like it. As the Citizenry attempts to recover from the landslide that devastated most of Ashlund, Una is sequestered behind gated walls, Lady of a home that is not hers. For her Scavenger heart, this is probably the most difficult thing. All around her people are suffering, but the Authority types in the stolen neighborhood do not give it a second thought.
When Una resolves to help the Citizenry in any way possible, she is met with resistance on many fronts, but she intends to press on. It is only when she and Marsh encounter a new adversary more brutal than the Authority ever has been, Una’s world is turned upside down yet again. Now having another title and heavier responsibilities bestowed on her, Una tries to build a life for herself and her growing family outside the Authority’s walls. But the battle for Ashlund is in full swing, and she finds herself caught right in the middle. With ties to all warring factions, Una may never be able to live securely again.
The action in Season of Toridia is as hot as the dry heat of Ashlund as Jennifer Arntson delivers with another great installment in the Scavenger Girl series. Still recovering from Hytalia and the landslide that laid waste to most of Ashlund, people are grasping at anything to survive. In the blink of an eye, the privileged have nothing and are no better than the reclaimers they once shunned. Una, as the wife of the newly minted Junior Lord of the Authority, finds herself uncomfortably on the other side of that coin. After a lifetime of lack, she now has everything that she could ever want, including people to wait on her hand and foot, and she hates it. Una really proves that for all the bad that a person can endure, the truly kind still maintain their humanity. This is best displayed in the violent scene with the Woodsmen and the orphaned children. Throughout this series, I have often imagined myself as the character of Una and to be honest, I seriously had a hard time with that scene as I would imagine many readers did!
The addition of the Woodsmen, the mysterious rulers of the shade in the hottest season on Ashlund was a nice way to advance the story and also introduce a new player in the growing battle for Ashlund’s future. While not quite as brutal as the Authority, the Woodsmen have cultivated their own flavor of violence that would be just as bad if not worse than the Authority if applied to the citizenry. The Resistance also is still playing a role in covert ways and it is apparent that there is a real power struggle going in with Una right at the heart of it.
For me, as far as a story progression goes, I think that Season of Toridia has unseated Season of Talium as my favorite book in the series thus far. Many questions were answered with this book, but with their closure, new questions have arisen. Staying true to the series thus far, at the close of Toridia Arntson has wrapped up the main story plots to where if another book were not on the horizon, I would feel a sense of satisfaction with the story thus far.
With all the action that has built up through the previous four seasons, and the threads still not tied up the final chapter in Una’s story, Season of Zoetica promises to be the most explosive yet in the series. I am eagerly anticipating being witness to the final battle for Ashlund and I know it will not disappoint.
Full disclosure – I was provided a copy of this book by the author; however, I have voluntarily chosen to write a review. All opinions are my own.
Season of Toridia continues the story of Una of Ashlund. With the rains of Hytalia behind her, Una finds herself probably in her most challenging role to date. As the wife of the Junior Lord of Authority, Una is suddenly in a position of status and power and she does not like it. As the Citizenry attempts to recover from the landslide that devastated most of Ashlund, Una is sequestered behind gated walls, Lady of a home that is not hers. For her Scavenger heart, this is probably the most difficult thing. All around her people are suffering, but the Authority types in the stolen neighborhood do not give it a second thought.
When Una resolves to help the Citizenry in any way possible, she is met with resistance on many fronts, but she intends to press on. It is only when she and Marsh encounter a new adversary more brutal than the Authority ever has been, Una’s world is turned upside down yet again. Now having another title and heavier responsibilities bestowed on her, Una tries to build a life for herself and her growing family outside the Authority’s walls. But the battle for Ashlund is in full swing, and she finds herself caught right in the middle. With ties to all warring factions, Una may never be able to live securely again.
The action in Season of Toridia is as hot as the dry heat of Ashlund as Jennifer Arntson delivers with another great installment in the Scavenger Girl series. Still recovering from Hytalia and the landslide that laid waste to most of Ashlund, people are grasping at anything to survive. In the blink of an eye, the privileged have nothing and are no better than the reclaimers they once shunned. Una, as the wife of the newly minted Junior Lord of the Authority, finds herself uncomfortably on the other side of that coin. After a lifetime of lack, she now has everything that she could ever want, including people to wait on her hand and foot, and she hates it. Una really proves that for all the bad that a person can endure, the truly kind still maintain their humanity. This is best displayed in the violent scene with the Woodsmen and the orphaned children. Throughout this series, I have often imagined myself as the character of Una and to be honest, I seriously had a hard time with that scene as I would imagine many readers did!
The addition of the Woodsmen, the mysterious rulers of the shade in the hottest season on Ashlund was a nice way to advance the story and also introduce a new player in the growing battle for Ashlund’s future. While not quite as brutal as the Authority, the Woodsmen have cultivated their own flavor of violence that would be just as bad if not worse than the Authority if applied to the citizenry. The Resistance also is still playing a role in covert ways and it is apparent that there is a real power struggle going in with Una right at the heart of it.
For me, as far as a story progression goes, I think that Season of Toridia has unseated Season of Talium as my favorite book in the series thus far. Many questions were answered with this book, but with their closure, new questions have arisen. Staying true to the series thus far, at the close of Toridia Arntson has wrapped up the main story plots to where if another book were not on the horizon, I would feel a sense of satisfaction with the story thus far.
With all the action that has built up through the previous four seasons, and the threads still not tied up the final chapter in Una’s story, Season of Zoetica promises to be the most explosive yet in the series. I am eagerly anticipating being witness to the final battle for Ashlund and I know it will not disappoint.
March 1, 2019
I don't know HOW you keep doing it Jennifer Arntson, but each book in this series is better than the one before it!
Ashlund is falling apart and the Authority's desperate attempts to hold it together aren't working. Enter Una - sort of.
In this fourth installment, the stakes are once again ramped up for Una and her family - a "family" that is growing by leaps and bounds, due to the remarkable circumstances in which our beleaguered heroine once again finds herself. There are new villains, old villains, and villains you never expected to be villains. But as with each previous book, who falls into each category - and when and why - is a constant card-shuffle of secrets, lies, promises, and expectations (met, ignored, and selectively considered) that make life for Una even more difficult - and the reading even better.
Arntson has a remarkable ability to write dark evil deeds with a deft touch that keeps you furiously flipping pages with one hand while half-covering your eyes with the other. If there was a way to half-cover my brain while I read, I'd try it - there are gruesome and horrifying realities in Una's world and they're tough to read (and stomach) at times. But Arntson handles them so brilliantly, weaving them into the narrative with lyrical language that guts you and cuddles you close at the same time.
I will admit that as much as I love these stories, I can't read them in one sitting - they're heavy, weighty, solid books with a lot of pain and suffering, and they are written so well that you can't help but feel the agony right along with the characters. The pages bleed with suffering, but none of it ever feels gratuitous or obligatory. It feels like reality. Una's reality. Which I would hate to live but can't get enough of vicariously...
This was my favorite of the books so far, I think. But don't try to jump into the series here - you'd miss a TON of backstory and plot and things wouldn't make any sense. This is a series to be read from the beginning - as much for the enjoyment of watching it unfold as for the necessity of doing so to comprehend the vast complexity of this world and the brilliance of the way it is being told. There's one more book and I cannot even imagine where things will go next - there are more secrets in Ashlund than anything else, and trying to guess whose they are and when and where they will be revealed (to maximum damage, of course) would be a fool's errand. Start at the beginning, take your time, and watch it all unravel... It's a hell of a ride!
My review copy was provided by the author.
Ashlund is falling apart and the Authority's desperate attempts to hold it together aren't working. Enter Una - sort of.
In this fourth installment, the stakes are once again ramped up for Una and her family - a "family" that is growing by leaps and bounds, due to the remarkable circumstances in which our beleaguered heroine once again finds herself. There are new villains, old villains, and villains you never expected to be villains. But as with each previous book, who falls into each category - and when and why - is a constant card-shuffle of secrets, lies, promises, and expectations (met, ignored, and selectively considered) that make life for Una even more difficult - and the reading even better.
Arntson has a remarkable ability to write dark evil deeds with a deft touch that keeps you furiously flipping pages with one hand while half-covering your eyes with the other. If there was a way to half-cover my brain while I read, I'd try it - there are gruesome and horrifying realities in Una's world and they're tough to read (and stomach) at times. But Arntson handles them so brilliantly, weaving them into the narrative with lyrical language that guts you and cuddles you close at the same time.
I will admit that as much as I love these stories, I can't read them in one sitting - they're heavy, weighty, solid books with a lot of pain and suffering, and they are written so well that you can't help but feel the agony right along with the characters. The pages bleed with suffering, but none of it ever feels gratuitous or obligatory. It feels like reality. Una's reality. Which I would hate to live but can't get enough of vicariously...
This was my favorite of the books so far, I think. But don't try to jump into the series here - you'd miss a TON of backstory and plot and things wouldn't make any sense. This is a series to be read from the beginning - as much for the enjoyment of watching it unfold as for the necessity of doing so to comprehend the vast complexity of this world and the brilliance of the way it is being told. There's one more book and I cannot even imagine where things will go next - there are more secrets in Ashlund than anything else, and trying to guess whose they are and when and where they will be revealed (to maximum damage, of course) would be a fool's errand. Start at the beginning, take your time, and watch it all unravel... It's a hell of a ride!
My review copy was provided by the author.
March 11, 2019
More reviews at: https://noemptyshelveshere.blogspot.com/
Fourth book in the Scavenger Girl Book series and what can I say – I love it even more.
The rain has stopped, the sun is out and the country is in deep trouble. Unrest is rising and Una is once more caught right in the middle of it. With the woodsmen threatening the authority’s power and people of Ashlund losing their faith, Una feels responsible for the people’s safety and survival.
Through more pain and beliefs of better life, Una ends up adopting a group of children whilst carrying her own and whilst trying to work out the best way to help the people that have been left homeless and starving following the devastation of the flood or last season. Of course, saving the children has consequences for Una and everyone else around her, that she could not predict even with her great gift.
It seems that every decision she takes brings her more pain and struggle and takes her away from her husband Calish. She must decide where her loyalties lie and whether she wants to follow her love, or follow her beliefs.
So much happens in this book and as much as I loved all the other books, this is so far my absolute favourite. Probably because I feel that Una had to grow up and embrace her role as a powerful woman that earns respect and people’s love through actions rather then words. I cannot wait to see if she finds happiness, but I have a feeling that the author has much more to tell before Una gets a rest. And that’s a good thing because I don’t want this journey to end just yet.
Fabulous writing, excellent characters, clever setting and politics that somehow echo what is happening in the world right now. Again, I applaud you Jennifer and please keep writing!
Massive thanks to the author for keeping me in the fabulous world of Ashlund – please don’t stop.
Fourth book in the Scavenger Girl Book series and what can I say – I love it even more.
The rain has stopped, the sun is out and the country is in deep trouble. Unrest is rising and Una is once more caught right in the middle of it. With the woodsmen threatening the authority’s power and people of Ashlund losing their faith, Una feels responsible for the people’s safety and survival.
Through more pain and beliefs of better life, Una ends up adopting a group of children whilst carrying her own and whilst trying to work out the best way to help the people that have been left homeless and starving following the devastation of the flood or last season. Of course, saving the children has consequences for Una and everyone else around her, that she could not predict even with her great gift.
It seems that every decision she takes brings her more pain and struggle and takes her away from her husband Calish. She must decide where her loyalties lie and whether she wants to follow her love, or follow her beliefs.
So much happens in this book and as much as I loved all the other books, this is so far my absolute favourite. Probably because I feel that Una had to grow up and embrace her role as a powerful woman that earns respect and people’s love through actions rather then words. I cannot wait to see if she finds happiness, but I have a feeling that the author has much more to tell before Una gets a rest. And that’s a good thing because I don’t want this journey to end just yet.
Fabulous writing, excellent characters, clever setting and politics that somehow echo what is happening in the world right now. Again, I applaud you Jennifer and please keep writing!
Massive thanks to the author for keeping me in the fabulous world of Ashlund – please don’t stop.
February 3, 2019
I chose to read this e-book after receiving a free e-copy from the author. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.
The Scavenger Girl series is one of my favorites. I can't get enough of it. Although these books are difficult to put down, I actually had to put this one down a couple times because I was overwhelmed with emotion and had to give myself time to think about all I'd just read.
This is the Season of Toridia which is known for its heat. Una is living in a neighborhood with other members of the Authority and it's eventually obvious that the family needs to relocate, so they move to the land that is owned by her family. They do their best to help the Citizens who have lost their homes and are starving. Eventually, it's even too dangerous for them to stay there and they must move on again.
There are three factions vying for power: the Authority, the Woodsmen, and the Resistance. Will Una and her growing family be able to survive the war that is obviously on the horizon? I can't wait to find out in the next book.
I didn't think Jennifer Arntson could outdo herself after reading the last book, but I was wrong. What a fantastic read! This is a series I'm going to have to read again once the final book is out, although I truly don't want the series to end.
The Scavenger Girl series is one of my favorites. I can't get enough of it. Although these books are difficult to put down, I actually had to put this one down a couple times because I was overwhelmed with emotion and had to give myself time to think about all I'd just read.
This is the Season of Toridia which is known for its heat. Una is living in a neighborhood with other members of the Authority and it's eventually obvious that the family needs to relocate, so they move to the land that is owned by her family. They do their best to help the Citizens who have lost their homes and are starving. Eventually, it's even too dangerous for them to stay there and they must move on again.
There are three factions vying for power: the Authority, the Woodsmen, and the Resistance. Will Una and her growing family be able to survive the war that is obviously on the horizon? I can't wait to find out in the next book.
I didn't think Jennifer Arntson could outdo herself after reading the last book, but I was wrong. What a fantastic read! This is a series I'm going to have to read again once the final book is out, although I truly don't want the series to end.
February 1, 2019
Sensational, extremely well done sci-fi fantasy thriller! At book four, I am running out of unique praises for this masterful work of literature. I would warn YA readers that there are a handful of graphically explicit moments (which are not typically my preference), but other than that, this book is a strong continuation of a chilling series. Hungrily awaiting for the conclusion!
February 4, 2019
I don’t know how each book can be better than the last but it is!! Season of Toridia keeps you reading until you can’t read anymore, and then you read more because honestly you couldn’t stop! I find myself holding my breath in suspense as Una and Calish fight for what’s right and for each other. Well done, Jennifer Arnston!
June 20, 2019
Jennifer has done it again! I think this might be my favorite book so far! Una has really come into her own. I can't wait to read more!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews