Rating: 3✨
Autumn Dawn and her series, The Convergence, starting with Bramble Burn, was a top recommendation on a fantasy list so I picked it up based on similar themes and recommendations.
What I found both delighted and disappointed me in terms of character development and plot design.
Let’s start with the positive aspects of this story. Which are primarily related to the design and detail of Bramble Burn Park itself.
The premise is that at some point in time our world and that of the Fae Underhill world merged, violently. From the geological landscape to actual buildings, there was an explosion of activity as physical changes, actual melding or melting of structures, happened, leaving our world forever changed.
One mage leaves her family and farm to go buy a cheap abandoned city park from the mayor and officials, the Bramble Burn Park. A park so dangerous, so overrun, and inhabited by unknown creatures that evolved from the merge that no one enters in. One she intends to remake and make her own.
That gorgeous, mystical cover is the tree home that tree mage, Juniper, first makes in the forest. And mysterious, eerie, Bramble Burn, with all its distinctive features, wilding areas, and imaginative creatures, is a highlight of the story.
Too bad the author leaves it behind and tosses it away for another storyline altogether. Anyway, the park and Juniper’s resolve to make it her own, is the best part of the story.
This includes her magic and the obstacles that come as she slowly builds up the frame around the park. And her living structures made from trees.
The author really does an excellent job in making this park as intriguing, horrifying, and beautifully alive right from the beginning. And Juniper as well. From her perspective, she’s revealed to be increasingly powerful, someone who chooses to be alone in her woods, territorial and masterful in her pursuit of her goals.
That’s where the author had me. Until she didn’t.
The not so great aspects of the story.
The romantic aspects of the book and the relationships.
Bring on the dragons and werewolves.
Spoilers ahead.
The plot turns from Juniper needing to make Bramble Burn hers within a time frame to dragon father, dragon sister, bratty brother who might be dangerous, and a human, enabling suffocating mother full of flags.
It gets so much worse.
Author Autumn Dawn reveals that Juniper is a “fertile female “ half dragon, therefore she is a catch or highly regarded female for both werewolves and dragons for her abilities to breed.
Her werewolf, blink and he’s in love with her and asserting his mate bond over her, to a newly arrived dragon, both thrilled with Juniper’s fertility.
At this point I’m wondering what happened to the character I was reading at the beginning of the story. That strong woman is reduced to a breeder, complaining about a brother who is attacking her ( mom is excusing him) and complies with accepting the werewolf because he’s nice.
There’s a strange new plot that introduces a bunch of characters that has nothing to do with the original story. Takes them away from the park. The author decides to immediately wrap up what was originally a complex issue, leaving huge threads unexplained or just left out.
Juniper, the powerful tree mage who wanted to just work with her Forrest now ends up mated, marriages, with twins.
What?
So once again, I’m floored that an author went totally south with her character, world and plot development.
It was if she decided halfway to change everything but without any notice, explanation , or foundation.
So I’m not proceeding with either author or the series.
Cool cover though.
COVER DESIGN: Autumn Dawn
The Convergence:
Bramble Burn #1
And a bunch more books each with a different character apparently.
Buy link
Blurb
It’s been thirty years since the Convergence, when the dimensions aligned and combined Earth and the world of Gwyllon, known in human mythology as “Underhill”. Elven castles and ancient ruins sprouted on vacant lots and merged with existing buildings, twisting into new structures. Roads and rail systems reformed, and after the rioting, starvation and death, agriculture sorted itself and food began to flow. A new government formed of elves and men arose, a society of human tech and elven magic. Cell phones and frost giants, race cars and elven steeds, dungeons and dragons…
And everywhere, monsters.
Tree mage Juniper was twenty-three, a child of the new generation. When she found a source of magic buried in an abandoned park, she made a deal with the city. If she can stabilize the park’s wild magic, she’ll own it…if she can survive. Now she has to clear out magic spawned monsters, deal with a werewolf suitor and survive her bloodthirsty dragon uncle. She’s going to have to dig deep to subdue Bramble Burn Park.
Hot but sweet romance. Does not contain explicit sex scenes.
[Amazon notes it’s similar to the Kate Daniels series. No. Absolutely not. Amazon needs to stop making comparisons. ]
- Publication date: April 30, 2015
- Language: English
- Print length: 299 pages
- Book 1 of 7: Convergence
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 