Book Review - 'Breath of Air (Dryad Quartet #1)' by Katie Jennings ~ 5 Stars!
I couldn’t wait to read ‘Breath of Air’ after reading all the amazing reviews for it, so after throwing down my dissertation in annoyance I allowed myself to pick up my Kindle, hoping to lose myself in a different world for an hour before getting back to work.
Needless to say, I was hooked and that hour soon turned into four hours, and I was so engrossed with the beautiful storytelling that I didn’t even realise what the time was until my Mum came into my room to tell me she was going to bed.
Whoops. Not much of my dissertation got done that night.
Reading Capri’s story was such a wonderful journey for me. I can’t express how much I loved this book, the characters and the brilliant storyline. The imagery that Katie Jennings used to describe Euphora was purely magical, and I felt almost as though I was there, sleeping in one of the comfy beds, in a beautiful castle that was light, open and peaceful.
I also loved how Capri really grew into a strong and more confident woman throughout the story, after being very shy and timid when she first returns home to Euphora. I also loved her relationship with Blythe and Liam, and how she desperately wanted to help fix the relationship between Blythe and Rhiannon. Her relationship with her father was also beautifully written, and the scenes between these two were so beautifully written that you could feel the emotion coming off the page with Clynn’s relief that his daughter had been returned to him safely and Capri finally feeling that she belongs.
The mystery storyline was brilliant and the writing was so clever that I was second guessing all the different characters that we had seen, feeling as though no one could be trusted blindly, just like Capri was starting to feel. I loved how the reactions to Capri’s return from the different groups within Euphora had us suspicious about certain individuals from the start, but who ended up being perfectly innocent.
But most of all, my favourite part of this book was Capri and her relationship with Rian. I was only about 20% into the book, and we had only seen briefly seen Rian twice, when I found myself longing to know more about him and rooting for him. I spent a few of the early chapters in the book worrying that Capri was going to be with Liam and I was getting a little too overinvested in Rian’s character, so I was so happy when I saw Capri’s relationship with Rian develop, slowly but beautifully. The story of Capri giving Rian a flower when she was a baby, and her upset when he refused it, had me ‘awwwing’ in my mind. For me, it seemed that Capri would be the perfect person for Rian, her openness and loving nature a perfect match for Rian’s fiercely loyal but independent manner. Their story was so beautiful, that I had tears in my eyes seeing how Rian began to open up to her and how Capri began to feel as though she’d finally found the family and love that she had been searching for in all her years on earth.
A brilliant start to the Dryad Quartet. It's difficult to believe that this was Katie Jennings debut novel, as it is such a wonderful piece of art! An absolute pleasure to read. 5 Stars and a definite recommended read. Go buy it NOW!
