Book Review: The Silversmith

Title: The Silversmith
Author: L.J Claren
Genre: Romantasy, Romance, Fiction, Fantasy

Some links on this blog are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only link books I’ve actually read.

What It’s About:

Aryella goes to a nearby town to buy some food and necessities as her mother had left her to fend for herself after the gruesome death of her father and brother, blaming her daughter for their deaths. Ary attempts to buy some bread but doesn’t have enough gold coins, and one of the men at the market makes a suggestive comment to her, but she doesn’t take him up on it, and instead returns home. She feeds her remaining two chickens, but supplies are dwindling and she won’t have much more food to feed them with, and then she returns to her home to eat what little food she has. The next day, she is greeted by a knock to her door from Gemma Tremaine, an old friend who had stayed with her family some time ago, but left after a disagreement with Ary’s mother. Ary doesn’t recall much of her life before the accident resulting from a fall into a cellar when she was 17, but she remembers the year with her brother, father and mother, as well as Gemma. The two of them spend the night together, and Gemma tells her that she’s really unhappy that Ary’s mother had left her to fend for herself, forcing her to come earlier than planned to get Ary. But Gemma also assures Ary that it’s not her fault that her brother, Oliver, and her father, Phillip are dead. Gemma also reveals that Ary was never Phillip’s biological daughter, and now Ary realizes why Phillip had treated her differently, as a sign of his wife’s infidelity.

The next morning, Ary goes out to check on the chicken, only to find out that the barn door has been opened and both of the chickens were killed by a wolf. She gets attacked and tries to fend for herself, though she realizes that she has no chance against the wolf, after it bites her arms. Suddenly, the wolf goes away with a yelp and a man grabs Ary, telling her “I’ve found you.” He takes her home, where he bandages her arm and introduces himself as Smyth. He indicates that he is here on the order of Simeon, her real father. Ary also meets Caz Sinclair, Finn Sinclair, and Ezra Hart, the last of which is her cousin. The group reveals to her that Simeon and Molochai had gotten power in Nyrida and overthrew the former ruling family, but decided to put Simeon’s sister in charge as the queen. The sister, Christabel, was ten years younger and while Molochai was in love with her, she never returned his feelings, choosing to marry a different man and carry his child. Molochai was so jealous that he couldn’t have her that he killed the baby girl by piercing her through the heart, and Christabel also died from his evil machinations, but before she did, she had a premonition where a girl in the future will bring down Molochai and his evil ways. Simeon ended up having a daughter 400 years later, who is none other than Ary, making her the queen of Nyrida who will have to defeat Molochai and his forces. Ary is shocked that Simeon is still alive, but they explain that it’s actually the magic of the Selvaren—the 12 gods—that keep him alive for this long. The group also reveal to her that she is betrothed Elias Winterton, who Gemma explains is the Prince of the People from the prophecy. By marrying Elias, she will get an army with which she can defeat Molochai, but that is why they are here to escort her to Simeon and the Winterton Caves. But first they will be going to Brinnea to meet with Simeon, as these are the latest orders that Smyth brought from Simeon.

Smyth realizes very quickly that Ary has been losing weight because she doesn’t have any food, and sends out all the men to buy goods or hunt for them to eat something. He also is very attentive of what she likes, giving her a mug of tea exactly the way that Ary loves. Smyth tells her that he knows everything about her as he should of his Queen. Smyth makes sure that Ary eats, and then tells her that they will start training so that she may not feel weakened if she comes across some danger. They begin that, and quickly sparks fly between them, though Ary is confused about what to think of Elias. Once she has recovered enough, they begin to travel across Nyrida to Tovick. They camp, they stay in some inns and slowly Ary begins to become stronger. She learns that Smyth’s true name is Gavin, and that he had a wife who is lost to him. She can’t reconcile the longing in his eyes for her, and the depth of love and sadness he has for the loss of his wife. Ary also has some night terrors—in one she is in a glass like coffin with something moving against her chest, and when she calls out to someone beyond the glass, they do nothing to help her, so she starts to suffocate. In another, she has splintered images of a previous life and pain in her lower abdomen where she has a scar, as well as against her back. She ultimately ends up getting her period and is escorted by Gemma back into the bedroom. Smyth and Ary spend a lot of time together, and he begins to call her Ella.

As they carry on towards Tovick, Ary also experiences a town that has been impacted by Insidions—Molochai’s creatures. She asks the men to cut down the man who has been hung and hurt and bury him, chastising them that they would want their loved ones to be buried too if someone happened upon them. She attempts to help a girl by handing over her gloves and hat, only for the group to be chased out of the town and told they’re not welcome there. As a result, they make it to Tovick, but Smyth’s friend is not in town so they are not able to use the Tavern. Instead, they are at a store while Smyth is asking for information—after getting Aryella to agree that she will not be leaving his side if they go into town—and Aryella and Ezra slip out to go into the Cathedral to the Selvaren. There, they are attacked by thieves, asking for them to hand over the money and goods. Smyth shows up and throws a dagger extremely close to Aryella, killing her captor. He then tells Ezra and Ary to get out, and then proceeds to kill everyone in the cathedral. When Smyth finds them in the Tavern, he yells at Ezra for doing that and putting Aryella in danger. Aryella comes to Ezra’s defense, and later tells him to apologize. For her birthday, Smyth takes her on a horse ride and she finds it natural, while all of her other friends had gotten her different gifts including a book on the Royal family. Eventually, Aryella gets bored of reading that book, and wants more, so the Tavern’s owner, Damond, about the library. Damond is Smyth’s cousin, and is surprised at seeing Ary, but quickly recovers. She overhears the two of them talking later, and Smyth admits that he hasn’t done anything with her but it’s hard for him. She continues to go to the library, where she tries to find more information about the Selvaren in order to figure out what her power is. Damond tells her that the Library was created by Gavin and that he has a home in it too, which he had given to Gemma and Finn for privacy as the two of them have been smitten with each other for a long time while growing up in the Winterton Caves, but never actually having a chance to come together until now.

They stay in Tovick a while, and the group starts to complain about it, wondering when they will be leaving, but Smyth refuses to say anything. Ary realizes that he reads her so well that he knows she is struggling with the idea of making her way to Brinnea and then onto the Winterton caves, so he has been trying to delay it to give her more time to come to terms and make a decision one way or another. Unfortunately, while they are both reading at the library, there is an explosion and the cathedral gets blown up. They investigate and Ary comes across a mother crying that her child is hurt, only for her to discover that the child isn’t alive. Suddenly, Ary is dropped into a room where there is a circle of 12 symbols spinning around her. She recognizes the one for life and healing, focuses on it, and saves the child’s life. They then return to the Tavern because Ary is woozy, only to realize that the tavern is half blown apart by the blast. There, they learn that Caz has been harmed, and he is profusely bleeding, nearly losing his leg. Ary tries to heal him but isn’t able to do it, and the group devolves into a squabble because Ary wants to send Caz, Gemma, Finn and Ezra back to the Winterton Caves to help get a healer for Caz. But Gemma and Ezra do not want her to go with Smyth to Brinnea because they don’t trust him. It leads to a huge fight between Gemma and Smyth, and afterwards Ary asks him to please make up with Gemma so that she can trust him because Gemma is important to her. He comes by their room that night and Gemma and Smyth disappear for an hour to his room where they talk. When Gemma returns, she looks at Ary differently.

The next morning, they pack up Caz, and Gemma tells Ary that she knows that Smyth will take care of her and look out after her, but she refuses to tell Ary anything more. Ezra, however, digs in and refuses to let Ary go with Smyth, but after some more conversation, he leaves with the group back go the Winterton caves. Ary and Smyth begin their own trek on horseback to Brinnea, though Smyth refuses to tell Ary anything that he told Gemma, despite Ary asking him multiple times about it. Instead, he takes her to a hot bath in the mountainside and lets her float/swim. They do end up kissing, though Ary pushes away from him because of his feelings for his wife, and the fact that she is betrothed to Elias, which she feels guilty about but she has complete doubts about feeling anything for Elias and whether she really has to marry him to get the army to defeat Molochai. Smyth and Ary make their way to a town, and Smyth sees some Insidions in the area, so he goes out to fight them. Ary realizes that he’s toying with them, but when the monster hurts him, she ends up using her water magic to drown the monster. Later, they get approached by a group of Insidions, humans who have turned to Molochai’s side, and Ary realizes that Smyth is on a first name basis with some of them. They want her, but Smyth tells her to run, and she does, but then stops to watch as he fluidly kills them all.

Ary is hurt though, so they spend some time in a cabin owned by Damond not too far from the area that they had been attacked. Smyth leaves her alone for a day, recovering from her wound, and when he returns, he finds Ary completely drunk. She had felt like she was being abandoned and got bored. The next day, the two of them make their way to Brinnea, but without a horse, it’s several hours of walking. Towards the end of it, Smyth picks Ary up and takes her to the ruins of the castle at Brinnea. She looks out, fascinated by the library, and he tells her that he modeled his own library in Tovick after her. Once she’s done exploring, they head to the tavern, and Ary asks him to sleep next to her again, as she finds his presence comforting, though she also feels how much she wants him. This later leads her to asking him to have sex with her, and being her first, but Smyth tells her no, and manages to keep his word despite the fact that she tries to seduce him. She realizes that as much as Smyth wants her, he is still very much in love with her. Nevertheless, at Brinnea, Smyth invites Ary to dinner for the Solstice celebration. She goes shopping with him in tow, and chooses a green dress because she knows that green is his favorite color. He pays for the items, and Ary tells him that when she gets to the Caves, she will find a way to repay him, but he tells her that he doesn’t want her to repay him as he wants to spend the money on her.

At the dinner, they have a pleasant time, and Smyth invites her to dance, which surprises Ary as she didn’t think he would dance. He tells her that he will only for her, and while they dance, he admits to her that he lied to her. Simeon is not in Brinnea, which has Ary scrambling and she leaves the space to walk along the sand. Smyth follows and they get into an argument, where he reveals that he wanted to give her time to adjust; that he is selfish and wanted her. She believes that he should have told her the truth anyway and she would have made a choice. Ary sends him away because she needs time to think, but ultimately comes to the realization that even though Smyth lied to her, he had the right idea as she really needed time to come to terms with Simeon and that she is a queen. She returns to their shared room in the tavern, and they have another discussion about the whole thing, but she asks that Smyth leave her for the night. He does, standing outside of the door, and later she overhears a man come to him to tell him that Molochai has Smyth’s wife, all he has to do is turn Simeon’s daughter over and Molochai will give her back to him. Smyth tells him that they need to talk further, and takes the man to the woods, where he proceeds to kill the man, as he knows that he had betrayed Smyth. After all, his wife is with him. In the meantime, Ary has overheard this and decides to leave the tavern to go to Molochai’s camp to turn herself in, in exchange for Smyth’s wife so he can have the person he loves back, as she feels like this is the least she can do for her people. Smyth returns to the tavern and realizes what she has done, as Ary had left a note. Unfortunately, he has to run to the camp because Ary took the only horse, but he needs to do it.

Ary makes her way to the camp, and speaks to the leaders, asking to speak with Molochai. She gets knocked out and then when she wakes up again, she is strung up against the tree, naked. Molochai comes to talk to her asking for information on Smyth and Smyth’s wife, as well as telling her that he will kill her. He cuts her, leaving behind black sludge in her veins, but it doesn’t do what he expects it to do. Ary passes out. Smyth shows up and cuts her down, and she notices that she doesn’t have the black sludge anymore. She apologizes to him, telling him that Molochai doesn’t have his wife, to which Smyth responds that yes he does. Molochai turns up and Ary learns that Smyth is Molochai’s son, but Molochai quickly realizes that Ary is Smyth’s wife. He holds back Smyth with his shadows and starts slowly killing her, ultimately ripping out Ary’s heart again. Molochai tells her that he had killed her already when she was three days old, but it seems like she stayed alive. Smyth screams at her to use her powers to fight back, but Ary is unable to do that, and instead, Molochai throws her body off the side of the cliff.

Ary wakes up in a field surrounding her house but it looks nothing like the house she spent with her family in Warrich. There, she sees Oliver, who tells her that she was brought to their home and he was told to pretend that he was her brother, but he thinks that she already knew who she was. He also tells her that she can’t go to the house because she needs to go back, and that the man with the scar who killed him was very nice to them. This stays with her, as she wakes up back in her world and hears Damond speaking to Smyth to tell him that she’s waking up. Damond is there when she fully wakes up and talks to her for a bit, but Smyth barges in because he cannot stay away from her as he worried that she’s okay. He tells her that she needs to stay in bed and heal because her magic only did so much. She demands to know the truth, and he reveals that he is indeed the Butcher of Nyrida, and he killed Oliver and Phillip, but he did not do it because of her. He did it because he got into a blood oath with Molochai so that he could live forever, and as a requirement of the blood oath is that he kills whoever Molochai asks him to kill, as long as he gives Smyth the name. He has no choice but to kill these people, even though he doesn’t want to hurt innocents, and he has a soft spot for the children. He assures her that it’s not her fault. Smyth also tells her that they were married years ago, but she was kidnapped by Simeon and forced into a suspended sleep while he figured out how to train her in her magic because he was afraid of her magic. He also wiped all of her memories so that he could use her as a blank slate for what he wants to do in order to defeat Molochai, and he was the one who created that prophecy as if it had come from Christabel’s lips. Christabel had died and she did indeed have the power to make prophecies but it’s not a true prophecy, rather a manipulation so that he can get what he needed to help defeat Molochai. Smyth also admits that he had gone to Simeon and made it conditional that he sees her, which is why Simeon had sent him to meet with their group in Warrich, where he found Ary. Ary sends Smyth out because she is angry with him and she cannot remember anything about their lives. He leaves her a letter and leaves for good.

She continues to recover with Damond’s help, and they get a cat-like creature that Smyth had found during his travels three months prior to finding Ary, and had it nursed back to health. The creature is an umbros, which is extremely rare to find, and when Ary frees it to go roam, it decides to stay and make its home with them. Eventually, as Ary sleeps better with the cat near her, and heals, she softens against Smyth and his actions. She asks Damond about it, and he reveals everything about Smyth and her relationship, including the fact that Molochai took out his frustrations for Christabel’s lack of attention by raping servants, including Lucia, who was Smyth’s mother. She had died in childbirth because something went wrong, and Lucia’s family didn’t want to take in a bastard, so the lady who helped her in childbirth took Smyth in and he grew up in a blacksmith family. Damond also tells her that she had grown up in the palace under Simeon’s and Christabel’s watchful eye, as she had already died and they wanted Molochai to be unaware of Ary’s existence, but she was so stifled that she escaped and went to Smyth’s blacksmith to get help from him to learn how to fight. Damond explains that they fell in love and she wanted to marry Smyth, but that Simeon did not give his blessing, so she ran away and they eloped. It took Simeon’s men ten days to find them, and they kidnapped her while Smyth had been gathering firewood for them at camp in the morning. She had left behind a note, which Smyth included in his letter, and Aryella recognizes the handwriting as hers, telling him that Simeon had stolen her and to not follow him. Damond tells her that Elowen and Philip are distant cousins of their family and she was placed with them because of the trust that Simeon had for them, but that Molochai only knew her as Ary Gold and he really didn’t know her real name, which he needs in order to order Smyth to kill her. He assures Ary that Smyth won’t kill her because Molochai wants to kill her himself. Damond reveals that Smyth went to Molochai ten years after her kidnapping to get his life extended, freezing his age at thirty one. Ary asks Damond if he can forgive Smyth for everything that he’s done—the murdering—and Damond tells her that he already had because Smyth was forced to kill Damond’s parents, who were his friends and cousins, but saved him and placed him with a family that would look after him, then later bought him his tavern in Tovick.

Ary realizes that everything Damond tells her matches up with everything that Smyth had told her about his wife throughout their travels. She goes outside to read the letter, and ends up crying about it, as Smyth asks her to fight for herself and to choose what she wants instead of becoming someone else’s puppet. He tells her to go to the caves when and if she is ready, after training with Damond and the books that he had left her since he couldn’t teach her more than the basics. And he asks her to leave as soon as they can because he cannot know where she is until he breaks Molochai’s blood oath. She learns that she only lived 20 years, but they’re both over 420 years old. He also reveals in his letter that the tattoos on his body are markings for each year that he has been without her—402 of them in total. And she realizes that it was a lonely existence that he has lived all those years.

Back in the Winterton Caves, Elias Winterton wakes up in his bed with a body next to him—a woman he had brought back to his bed last night, breaking the promise to wait for Aryella before having sex again. He had been working towards this his whole life and is frustrated that she did not return with Caz, who lost his leg and was discharged with honor, Finn, Gemma and Ezra. It feels like things are slipping through his fingers, as he had planned. His best friend shows up, Val, and tells him that their sources had seen Aryella in both Tovick and Brinnea, which lines up with what Ezra had told him, but he doesn’t understand why Simeon would have sent her there. And it bothers him that a man named Smyth seemed to hover around Aryella, based on what Ezra had said. Val tells him that they believe this man is also the Butcher of Nyrida, but they cannot fully confirm despite the source of information on how skilled his is with weapons. He doesn’t like this and the fact that someone has taken what was rightfully his, but he’s also suspicious about Gemma’s silence, as the woman is usually talkative. Val tells him that their sources placed Aryella in Molochai’s camp and that she had been killed, thrown off a cliff, and that Smyth had disappeared with her body afterwards. He wants answers, and demands for people to find Simeon, but she points out that they had been waiting for months to hear from Simeon and there has been nothing. Val tells him that they need to approach things as if Aryella is dead, because that’s all the information they have. So Elias tells her to bring in Gemma Tremaine instead—he believes that she knows more than she is letting on, and wants to question her.

My Thoughts:

What a heartwrenching and refreshing story. I really loved the fact that the author wove amnesia into this story as well as kept Aryella and Smyth relatively the same age in the book. I feel like a lot of romantasy stores are with a 19 year old girl and a centuries old man, which feels very much like we’re back in the middle ages, so it’s refreshing to see a book that is different from that. I love the tension between Aryella and Smyth in the time that they spend together, but I think what’s a bit more heart wrenching is that she wants to do right by him because she knows he loves his wife so much that he feels guilty about being with someone else, and she has been his wife all along. Smyth loves her to the ends of the earth himself, but he wants her to choose him for him rather than do it because she is confused about what she is obligated to do as the queen of Nyrida. I cannot wait to see where their love story goes once the next book gets released in a couple of weeks!

Questions that I’m having: How will they return to each other? What will Aryella do? Will she get her memories back or are they good as gone? And what was that weight on her chest inside the glass coffin?

I suspect that the weight on her chest is their baby, and that the scar on the abdomen is from her c-section. But I can’t think of who the baby could be, and what they would look like now. Were they also placed into a dreamless sleep by Simeon when they were old enough? Aryella doesn’t remember the baby, but I suspect that the memories will come flowing through, and once Smyth learns that they have a child together, he will be gutted but also will go to the ends of the earth to get his family back together, and that might be a motivator for him to figure out how to break the Blood Oath.

Can’t wait for the second book to come out! If you are interested in reading both books, you can find them here: The Silversmith and The Incendiary.