Customer Reviews

White Star (Epic of Palins, Book 2)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent book!


White Star by USA Today Bestselling author Elizabeth Vaughan is an excellent book. I was hooked from the very beginning and finished reading it at 4:18 AM. Ouch! The writing is fantastic the Vaughan got her hooks into me right away with tense scenes and snappy dialogue. She has so many great opening lines, and closing lines of chapters, which really impressed me.

Most importantly, the main characters: Lord Orrin and Lady Evelyn are very well done. Orrin is one of those bad guys who the girls fall for. He's dark, handsome, brooding and someone you do not want to make angry. Lady Evelyn, a High Priestess and a Mage, has serious power. She can throw down with the best of them and burn people to a crisp if need be. She's one of those really cool characters that you love to read about.

The secondary characters are great too. Lord Orrin's men are very entertaining, especially Archer, who can't use his real name because of the things he's done. I especially liked the fact that he had certain proclivities . . . no spoiler here.

The plot of the book involves the fall of Lord Orrin's barony, and the repercussions of what the Baroness did--which involves undead zombie-like creatures--which Vaughan calls odium. Lady Evelyn, "Evie" is right in the middle of it all and Orrin can't help but fall for the beautiful woman with white hair and piercing blue eyes.

The world was well thought out and I really liked the magic, especially the portals, which allow people to travel far and wide. It all fits together in a realistic way that I truly appreciated, as I can always tell when writers don't do a thorough job on world-building.

This book is sort of a sequel to Dagger Star, but you don't need to have read Dagger Star to get White Star, which should be considered a stand-alone novel. There are quite a few characters who appeared in Dagger Star though, so readers of that book will enjoy seeing some of their favorite characters return.

The ending of White Star was satisfying, and another storyline was opened, involving different characters. I look forward to the next installment and I'm definitely hooked on Vaughan's writing. I loved her Warlands trilogy, War Prize is the first book.

Happy reading,

[...]

Elizabeth Vaughan's romantic characters don't sit around watching the windswept moors and pining for one another. Instead, they are in the thick of the action, fomenting revolution, charging into battle, delving into foul dungeons, and saving farmers and villagers from the ravaging odium (animated dead). The passions of the characters are just as intense as their actions, resulting in a book that has plenty of suspense, plot twists, political intrigue, sexual tension, and heated action (in every sense). Moreover, there is true depth and emotion here--the souls of the characters being far from the black and white that their clothing might suggest.

Once again, Elizabeth Vaughan has created a vivid portrait of strong, believable men and women living and struggling for power and justice in a strange and complex fantasy world. White Star is especially for readers that want a balance of heart-pounding action adventure and heated passion, loss, lust, and romance, with plenty of unexpected turns along the way. Highly recommended!

Donald J. Bingle, author of GREENSWORD

As a middle aged male I am not sure I would have picked this up had I not read and enjoyed the previous book Red Gloves. Yep there is a slight romantic element but this is also a well written fantasy. It does follow on from Red Gloves and I recommend you read that first to put this more fully into context. Have to say that if the UK book that I bought had had this US cover - I wouldn't have touched it - this cover is almost guaranteed to put off potential male readers!

In this we have Lady High Priestess Evelyn getting a message from above to save captured Orrin Blackheart from execution. It seems that Blackheart can earn a pardon by riding the kingdom of the undead army that roams free. Of course Evelyn also gets mixed up in the battle and finds herself drawing closer and closer to Blackheart. Looking back at what I have just written gives this a soft and slushy edge, but actually Beth Vaughan writes very well, with wit and good characterisation and she knows how to tweak a plot.

It's a shame this is painted as romantic fantasy because I am not sure it is, and I think the author would excel at mainstream fantasy.

This is the following story behind Dagger-Star. It begins with the tale of Evie's capture by Blackhart and when Bethral comes to her rescue and takes off from there. They're growing yet apprehensive love grows as he fights with guilt, remorse and disgust with the things he's done and the people he has killed. And Evelyn trying to decide between her oath to the Church and Her Goddess and her fighting feeling for Blackhart. The intricate and adventurous story between them build and come to a great ending. Vaughan lost me a little with Dagger-Star but brought me right back in with White-Star. Now I'm just waiting for the next book to come in the mail! Can't wait to open it!

"White Star" is the second book in a new fantasy series set in the same Universe as the author's "War Prize" trilogy, but with most of the action taking place hundreds of miles away in a Kingdom torn by civil war and known as the Land of Palins.

These stories should if at all possible be read in the right order: all three published to date have surprise endings, and if you read a later book first it will give away the endings of the earlier ones.

The first three books in this series are

1) Dagger-Star (Star Series, Book 1), also published as "Red Gloves"
2) This book, "White Star"
3) Destiny's Star

I strongly suspect from the ending of book three that there will be at least one more.

You do not have to have read the "War Prize" trilogy to understand or enjoy this series. That story has no direct overlap with "Dagger Star" or "White Star" although in one of the last scenes of this book, one of the minor characters turns out to be a Warrior-Priest from the Plains.

In the third book two of the characters in this story do visit the Plains, which is how we know that the events of this series are happening on the same world and at about the same time. If you are interested in reading the War Prize trilogy it consists of

1) Warprize
2) Warsworn
3) Warlord


The title of this book is a reference to the White Star which is visible in the ring worn by the heroine of the story, High Priestess Evelyn, who serves the Goddess of Laughter and is a healer. Despite her gentle disposition, Evelyn was so horrified by the tyranny of the Regent and High Baroness Elanore that she could not stand aside. She went from rescuing children who the Regent would have murdered as a threat to his regime, to building an organisation to protect them, which eventually led to the full-sale insurrection which she persuaded the warrior known as "Red Gloves" to lead in the previous book.

Each of the books in this series has a section towards the end which sets up the following book. Towards the end of "Dagger Star" Evelyn was betrayed to High Baroness Elanore, captured, and fell into the hands of Elanore's Lord Marshall, Orrin Blackhart, known as the "Scourge of Palins."

Having fallen into the hands of one of the most notorious figures in the Regent's regime, Evelyn fully expected to be raped, tortured, and executed. The last thing she expected was to be treated with respect ...

Orrin Blackheart has risen through the ranks in the service of his High Baroness, to whom he had originally pledged loyalty in the belief that he was protecting the people of the Black Hills. By the time he realised that she has become a monster, his hands are red with innocent blood. Sick and tired of killing and atrocities, he continues to serve only to protect his own people and to temper High Baroness Elanore's crimes as best he can.

Soon the tables are reversed, and it is Orrin who is the prisoner awaiting execution. The last thing he expected was to be given a chance to redeem himself by undoing some of the harm he has helped to create ...


A charming, easy to read fantasy of magic, love, and honour. Quite funny in places - the banter between Blackhart and his men, who are surprisingly golden-hearted rascals, had me snorting with amusement more than once. At other stages the story can be tender and quite moving.

I can recommend this series.

I've so enjoyed this story that I'm waiting impatiently for the next one !I always like stories where the Good and the Evil battle and of course, where the Good wins! This story is about redemption and love, enjoy it !

Loved this one even more than the first in the series - Dagger Star. I love her writing. It is not rushed at all.
If you haven't read the Warlord trilogy by this author, I highly recommend it. It is even better than this series.

I have read all of Elizabeth Vaughan's novels, and I think this is the best one yet. The action is well-paced and the dialog is terrific. The heroine is terrific, but my favorite things are the undead . . . and the scene in the medieval bathroom. Great reading.

White Star by Elizabeth Vaughan, is about a high priestess named Evelyn and Orrin Blackhart, an evil man who was the war leader to a sorceress who had created an undead army. With their evil sorceress missing in action, Orrin was in charge of her people and the foul undead. Evelyn was captured and held prisoner by Orrin. While she was captive she began to realize that Orrin was not as evil as everyone believed and Orrin felt a strange attraction to the woman he held prisoner. But was there room for romance in the middle of a war?

White Star was not much of a romance, instead it was more of a fantasy. There was too much background information that slowed it down and some things that should have been explained were not. In the beginning they were using a strange word and at first I thought it was a new word that I would have to look up in the dictionary, but practically twenty pages later after the same word was used multiple times I finally found out that they were talking about these undead creatures. So some things were not explained very well, or not explained soon enough. Personally I did not like this story, it was too much of a fantasy story, and it was too slowly paced. Not only that but, for half the book, Orrin and Evelyn are separated. Sure they occasionally think about each other, but that's not much of a romantic plot. So for over half the book there is no romance at all.

I think I liked this book even more than Dagger Star because many of the characters were already developed; although, I wouldn't suggest reading this without having read the first book. Overall, the story was a quick, fun read and exactly what I was looking for. It was the kind of book that made me sad when I was done because now I have to wait for the next one!