Before the Broken Star

Long ago, the seven worlds were forged by the Creator, Eiocha, who picked a star from the sky and cut the heavens into pieces making the land of Avelyn. The star made into a sword is a thing of legend, sought by many but only made for one. After the creation of the realms but before this story, Princess Amadara wandered into the Land of Youth (one of the seven worlds) where she met Father Time and fell in love with a prince there. However, the prince was seeking the heartwood that lived there – a substance that holds creation power and can do amazing things – and, in his greed, he almost destroyed the world. Amadara sacrificed herself for him and the world, stopping time in the Land of Youth and preserving it until a group of adventurers disturb it ages after.

Three hundred years later, after witnessing her entire family’s murder when she was just seven-years-old, Everly Donovan has sworn revenge on Governor Killian Markham, the man who stabbed her through the chest as a girl. Now seventeen, Everly, (who survived thanks to her uncle’s ingenuity and Father Time’s help in making a clock heart) finally has a chance to kill Markham. However to do this, she must confess to a crime she never committed and sail to a penal colony on an island her father had said was cursed. She and the people she reluctantly calls friends - Vevina, Laverick and Claret - are condemned to seven years on Dagger Island where Markham has been named Governor. On her journey there, Everly is picked as a wife for Lieutenant Jamison Callahan, who has his own reasons for wanting to stay on the cursed island. She and Jamison get closer throughout their journey to the island, and, though Everly tries to deny it, she grows fond of him and a younger girl, Quinn, who was also sentenced to a seven year punishment.

Upon her arrival on Dagger Island, Everly finds that Markham is immortal - the long lost prince who married Princess Amadara, and he needs Everly's help to get back to Amadara in the Land of Youth which lies beyond a portal on Dagger Island. Everly reluctantly agrees to help him, but she has not forgotten her vow to avenge her family. She, Jamison, Laverick, Claret and Harlow – another convict who knows Markham and plotted the raid that had the other women arrested – set out with Markham to find the Land of Youth and Princess Amadara. Everly must use her sword, which is the ancient sword of Avelyn, to find the way there, while trying to ignore her growing feelings for Jamison, keep her friends safe, keep her clock heart a secret, and figure out Markham and Harlow's scheme before it kills them all.

Before the Broken Star, Emily R. King's opening novel in “The Evermore Chronicles”, starts on a high note. Readers are introduced to the fantastical world of Avelyn, complete with its own lore, political tensions and religious factions. Everly's home, the realm of Wyeth, has its own history, with an omnipotent queen whose quest is to expand her kingdom through colonization; and the same queen has created a divide between religions, hunting down those who worship Madrona, a supposed false god, instead of the creator, Eiocha. Before the Broken Star is subject to heavy exposition due to the excellently crafted world, but, while other novels may be dragged down by this, King explains her world through storytelling. Readers are introduced to Avelyn's history through Everly, who tells the other characters the stories and myths of the seven world's creation and the destruction of the Land of Youth (both of which are crucial to the plot of the novel), seamlessly weaving exposition into the narrative without detracting from it.

In addition to masterful world building, King's characters are rounded and dynamic, each with their own goals and ambitions. Readers learn about Jamison's past, and how that affects his desire to go to Dagger Island with Everly, and even the minor characters, like Vevina, Laverick and Claret, are given their own drives and are left with room to expand and grow in the novels to come. King's complex cast of characters is headed by Everly whose motivations are clear – revenge for her family in killing Markham. Everly's anger is raw and compelling, but it is also something she struggles with. King uses Everly's deep-seated need for revenge to explore how far she is willing to go for it. There are questions of morality and humanity that use Everly as a vehicle to come out. Everly's clock heart is also used to explore these questions as well as adding a time constraint to the novel; she has to get her revenge before her heart runs out of time.

Before the Broken Star is an exhilarating novel filled with high seas adventuring, exciting new worlds, and realistic characters. King's novel may be fantastical, but it is firmly grounded with excellent world building, complex and compelling characters and rich backstories for both. With an opening novel like Before the Broken Star, the “Evermore Chronicles” are sure to be an impressive series.