Author: Hayden Thorne
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 242 Pages
Category: Historical, Fantasy, New Adult
At a Glance: Hayden Thorne is synonymous with awesome historical fantasy.
Reviewed By: Jennifer
Blurb: Iulian Dalca is a twenty-one-year-old musical prodigy with big dreams. He’s also blessed with a hint of light magic in his blood, a gift that’s apparently unique to prodigies and whose purpose appears to be the developing of an extremely strong connection between artist and audience during a performance. Unknown to most, the gift of light magic also allows him a powerful and inexplicable psychic link to someone who remains invisible, a person he’s never met in the real world. It’s a connection that strengthens over time, a symbiotic bond whose purpose remains a closely guarded secret among the goddesses believed to have created it.
Cosmin Vasile is an eighteen-year-old young man living in obscurity and poverty in a rural village in the Wallachian countryside. Gifted in song, he spends his time adding to his parents’ meager income by weaving and gathering wool for sale, singing rustic songs he knows by heart as he works. He’s also plagued by mysteriously restless sleep lasting a week and occurring once a year since he turned eleven, though he remembers nothing of the dreams or nightmares that may have caused the disturbance.
Then out of the blue on two separate occasions, a once-in-a-lifetime chance at fulfilling their dearest dreams suddenly comes along, and youthful hope takes flight…
Only to tumble headlong down a nightmarish pit of old magic twisted for a darker purpose, where lines separating reality and decades-long madness blur. Haunting portraits of long gone students, a cursed mirror hiding a terrifying world of corruption and death, a monstrous satyr lurking in the shadows of the mirror’s world – time and hope for escape disappear as Iulian and Cosmin suddenly discover the awful price of being marked as the Muses’ rare, favored children.
Review: Hayden Thorne and historical fantasy are a winning combination. When you factor in new adult, it’s even better because it has a darker element added. Children of Hyacinth is another winner from Thorne; I absolutely loved the world building and the characters.
If you have read Guardian Angel, some of the magic may seem familiar. I loved that Thorne brought back some similar elements and employed them in this book. It made a new book feel a little familiar, and I didn’t have to think about the plausibility of it.
In this book, magic is a part of the everyday world. Some people possess a form of innate light magic, and one of those people is Iulian. He uses it when he plays his violin to bring his music to life for listeners. Focusing on music and magic, this book brings together Iulian and Cosmin, a musical prodigy, who plays the violin and is a singer. Though the two do not immediately meet, they have a connection that strengthens over time. The man between them, Domnul Petran, is their music master. However, there is something different about him, and it doesn’t seem to be a good thing.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but this book involves a sort of mirror world. It’s a dark and horrifying place. As usual, Hayden Thorne does a great job writing horrifying characters. I’m always chilled when I read about them, and the satyr is no exception.
The focus is on Iulian and Cosmin, though. I enjoyed their interactions as they became aware of each other and learned more about their connection. Like readers, they do not discover everything about why they are connected, and I enjoyed that. To me, it made the book more realistic because sometimes we don’t know our purpose or why things happen. They just do, and so we accept it and move on.
With regards to the writing and world building, Hayden Thorne has crafted a masterpiece. She is either well versed in music, or she has done impeccable research, because I was pulled into Iulian’s playing. The descriptions were beautifully done, and I sometimes put on some violin music while I read the book. No, I’m not kidding. I love the violin to begin with. Okay, so maybe I listened to Lindsey Stirling and not classical, but still.
If you are a fan of Hayden Thorne, this is not a book to miss. If you like historical fantasy, again, not a book to miss. I highly recommend it and look forward to the next Hayden Thorne adventure.
You can buy Children of Hyacinth here:
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