Acquired Book By: I have been a blog tour hostess with Cedar Fort for the past two years, wherein I took a brief hiatus from hosting before resuming this August 2016. I appreciate the diversity of the stories the Indie publisher is publishing per year, not only for fiction and non-fiction but for healthy eats within their Front Table Books (cookbooks). I appreciate their dedication to writing general market, INSPY reads and LDS focused stories across the genres they publish.

I was selected to be a part of the “The Cursed Dagger” blog tour wherein I received a complimentary copy of “The Cursed Dagger” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (an imprint of Cedar Fort Inc.) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein

My connection to the author: Last year, I had a conversation with Ms Peterson whilst I was composing my thoughts on my review but it did not influence my reaction and/or change my honest opinion of the novel; something I disclosed at the top of my review for ‘Ian Quicksilver: The Warrior’s Return’. Since then, I’ve only touched based with the author off and on a few times in the interim, as we’re connected through Twitter. It’s always nice to keep in touch with an author you appreciate reading but also a renewed joy if you make a personal connection too. I am thankful my path crossed with Ms Peterson on the tour last year, and for the private conversations we’ve exchanged. 

I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Ms Peterson through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse as well as privately; I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time. Similarly this applies to all future novels I read by an author I appreciate reading due to the compelling story-lines and characters they continuously bring to their novels and/or novellas.

On returning to the world of Quicksilver:

The Warrior’s Return has a lot of undercurrent themes running into the narrative arc and giving readers a bit of an insight on how our differences are not meant to divide us but unite us. We’re different from each other because we each have something unique to contribute to the whole. It’s how we choose to focus on our strengths and embrace our faults is a mark of our character as much as it is a growth of maturity. I appreciated seeing how Peterson took two characters who were on the fringes of ‘coming-of age’ and instilled in them a grounding sense of who they could be simply by observing how someone else ‘saw them’ and understood them in a way they hadn’t felt would be possible.

Peterson gives her readers a wicked keen treat by inventing telepathic writing as a mode of communication when people are out of sight but not out of mind. I won’t say more about it because I don’t want to spoilt it for you, but let’s just say it takes telepathy to a new height of curious possibility! I also love the elements of TK (telekinesis) she’s knitted into the story inasmuch as the electrical hypersensitive paragifted capabilities of Ari’s hidden talent. This last element reminded of why I was wicked excited to read The Last Gatekeeper by Katy Haye. When it comes to manipulation of energy and sources of energy story-lines can jump into a mecca of interesting realms, because how energy can be shifted between stability and instability has the most intrigue for a reader. To gain access to a power source where energy in it’s rarest form can be harnessed and then re-distributed or altered to a level of power that is controllable to the person whose gifted with the talent is inspiring narrative. It’s also the cross-bridge uniting Fantasy with Science Fiction fusing it’s own new genre of ‘Sci-Fantasy’. (or in other words, Jorie’s newest sub-genre of interest!)

Enter the newfound reality of being a long-lost son of a King from a world known as ‘Bankhir’ whose sisterly bond to ‘Garfel’ is about to become a delicate race against time. The rulers of both decided the only way to save their worlds and to restore peace were to cast out two of their own into a world far removed from their societies intensive war, vying a hope towards re-setting the peace when the boy and girl return home. Only these are not ordinary planets like Earth or even Saturn, no these two are co-dependent on each other due to how the magic of their powers are generated and controlled.

What I appreciated about Peterson is her exclusion of strong language and opted instead to take a sociological-psychological approach to understanding Ian. She writes with a true focus on where he is right now as far as his maturity and development, but also, on the internal struggle for acceptance on self-image, self-esteem, and self-confidence. The kinds of issues most teens face but it’s how she wrote about them that endeared me to the novel’s heart because she’s approaching it with a mindfulness about how boys view the world vs how boys view themselves. This insight I know is intrinsic to the author as she’s a Mum of boys, but evenso, I think she might have understood them even if she weren’t!

-quoted from my review of Ian Quicksilver: The Warrior’s Return

The Warriors Return is like walking up to a precipice and only seeing half the world:

This was my takeaway moment of clarity at the bottom of my review last year, however, it is keenly intrinsically tied to the series as far as the scope of the world and the measurement of what is at stake. You can look at the world from one angle but until someone is able to bend that perspective and wholly refract back a different perspective, your knowledge remains limited. Thus, whilst you think you understand the world in which Quicksilver lives, it’s only through one lens of references until the fullness of his world expands and contracts to become something much larger than what is superficial seen.

The Cursed Dagger
Subtitle: Never Accept a Challenge without Knowing the Rules : from the author of Ian Quicksilver
by Alyson Peterson
Source: Direct from Publisher

Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 9781462118656

Also by this author: Ian Quicksilver: The Warrior's Return, Author Interview (The Cursed Dagger)

Series: Ian Quicksilver

Also in this series: Ian Quicksilver: The Warrior's Return

Published by Sweetwater Books

on 1st September, 2016

Format: Trade Paperback

Pages: 320

Published By: Sweetwater Books (@SweetwaterBooks),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFortBooks)

Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook

Converse via: #IanQuicksilver

About Alyson Peterson

Alyson Peterson lives in a mountainside gully –of all places– in northern Utah with her neurotic, shed-tastic dog, two ninja kids, and superhero husband. She spends her time painting, breaking bones at her Martial Arts class (mostly her own) and reading as many books as she can get her hands on.

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