Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Night Letter, Meghan Nuttall Sayres

Arash my yar,
Our caravan is only days away from Marv. Soon I'll become your wife. Still, I wanted to write. The fierce winds on the plains reflect my mood tonight. 

Night Letter is the sequel to Anahita's Woven Riddle and is scheduled to come out in November 2012 from Nortia Press. I received an ARC from the author herself. Thank you!

In Night Letter, Anahita is abducted on her way to her wedding with Arash, by two strange men. You know, I was kind of hoping that Anahita would get to live "happily ever after" (or at least, as close as you can get to that), but...this book was also very good. It definitely had a very similar fairy-tale/fable writing style to it, like Anahita's Woven Riddle. Anahita's future is unsure: will she be ransomed, sold into slavery, become one of the Emir of Bukhara's wives? Or will Arash rescue her? There was a lot more suspense in this one because it was basically a life and death matter. I really got hooked to see where Anahita ended up and whether Arash could find her in time. Night Letter also uses riddles as a very key element (a riddle helps Anahita escape), and it also incorporates other elements of Persian culture, such as a mysterious Sufi brotherhood. Night Letter was just as good, if not better (it was more exciting) than Anahita's Woven Riddle. Plus, I knew all of the various characters already, and could just concentrate on the new characters and the plot.

Now, to the design of the book. I just loved the cover so much. The art is by Rashin Kheirieh, who was born in Iranian. The art was very beautiful, and it was a nice touch to have an Iranian do the cover art. I don't claim to know anything about Persian art, but it looked authentic to me. Nortia Press is also doing a reissue of Anahita's Woven Riddle with cover art by Rashin Kheirieh, so I'll include a photo of that too. Anyway, Night Letter was a great sequel.

Read Night Letter:
  • if you liked Anahita's Woven Riddle
  • if you like books with strong female protagonists
  • if you are interested in Persian culture and history
304 pages.
 
Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!

No comments:

Post a Comment