Reviews for Hawksong (The Kiesha'ra Series #1)

The average rating for Hawksong (The Kiesha'ra Series #1) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-12-09 00:00:00 Robert Senecal Although Atwater-Rhodes has garnered much-deserved attention from critics and received several awards for her young adult stories, here on GR and on several other book-reviewing websites, her positive feedback has been moderate at best. I believe this is partially because of the age of most of her stories/series: most of them began before the Twilight era swept the world, and thus don't have the swooning heroines and brooding heroes that everyone has become accustomed to in more recent years. (They must feel as if there's something missing!) The relationships are wholesome and intriguing, sexy and provocative, but not overblown like most today. Hawksong's premise is simple: Danica Shardae, last living heir to the avian throne, and Zane Cobriana, last living heir to the serpiente throne, must marry despite their deferences --- the former being a hawk shapeshifter and the later being a cobra --- in order to put an end to the age-old war between their species that has dwindled their numbers drastically and caused much heartache among them. It is this little plot that drew me to it years ago and that has brought me back for a second time. Let me just say this: I, despite having read over 300 books since late 2008 (I wasn't big on reading before then), can count on one hand how many books I've taken the time to read more than once. This isn't because I'm exaggerating when I say I love a book, but because I simply don't see any reason to read something twice unless it spoke to me on a certain level the first time around. Very few have done this, but Hawksong, regardless of the years that have passed since I last turned its pages, stuck in my mind enough to make me want to read it again. And, I can honestly say that it stood the test of time; I think I even enjoyed it more now than when I read it so long ago. Danica is the kind of heroine I wish YA authors created more these days: she's independent and strong enough to sit by the dying, holding their hand as they draw their last breaths; she's resilient and self-sacrificing, even in a case where she must commit herself to a life-long marriage with someone whom she's been raised from birth to fear, all just to try and make peace and save the lives of her people. Zane has a hard exterior with a soft heart underneath, and is just as determined to heal the damage caused by the war as Danica is. They go together very well, they just don't realize it until it's almost too late. When I first read Hawksong, years back, I, for some reason that escapes me now, didn't take the time to continue with the series and follow it up with Snakecharm. Why, I'll never know; but in a way I'm glad I didn't, because now I get to follow these characters into their next chapter, for the first time.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-20 00:00:00 Mitchrrr Foster All right, what do we have here? A conundrum, of course. My mind kept oscillating between 3.5 or 4 stars and I'm choosing neither. This book is actually very difficult to rate! The reasons? 1) It has a splendid story line. Who doesn't love shape - shifters with a history? I simply love history and ancient stories and this book had quite a lot of them. But I was so disappointed because the execution of this splendid story line sucked. A lot. This story is about two warring sides who try their best to stop the never - ending war. Correction - the leaders of these two sides try their best to stop the war. Not the people. So, I was cool with the plot. It sounded interesting and it was interesting until everything dropped somewhere in between. 2) Existence of an awesome male lead made this book even more difficult to rate. You're wondering who? It's Zane Cobriana! Okay, I simply loved him. Just because he sounded badass even though he has red eyes. But, like I mentioned he was awesome before everything dropped somewhere in between. 3) This book was addicting Even though everything dropped somewhere in between, I couldn't put this book down. I was just drawn to this book or Zane to be exact but one character isn't enough for me to fall for this book. So, what the hell happened somewhere in between? If you really want to read this book, I would advise you to skip this part because it does contain one teeny tiny spoiler. But if you really want to know what you're getting yourself into, then I would advise you to read this part. Okay. Remember two warring sides? Remember the leaders want to end this never - ending war? Okay, so how do they try to end it? Of course, the only conclusion they can come up with is marriage. Alight, I was okay with that. Maybe, something interesting would happen. But no. NO! What does happen is... Zane isn't happy with Danica (By the way, she's the main character and I would say she was quite boring) Zane is making out with someone else because he's lonely Zane is trying to love Danica Zane finally in the end, has fallen for Danica That's all that happened. I was crushed beyond words. I mean, why couldn't Zane remain badass till the end? Was it so hard to remain badass, Zane? Was it all a ruse to pull readers in and then, kick them so hard in the end making them realize how just not badass you are? I thought they'd be a lot of kidnapping involved in this book. I don't know why. I thought Zane would kidnap Danica and threaten her side and stuff like that but alas all that is left up to my imagination :( Also, I don't think I'd read the next installment. My poor heart can take only so much.