Just very obvious its an Indie Book. Try harder. The writing was just abysmal. Hard to read a book when you have no sympathy with any of the characters.

AToL reads like something I’ve already read in many ways. Though the storyline is new I still felt as though I’ve already read it.

The were too many storylines going on that seemed to not be coming together.

I got through 54% and had to stop reading. I’m sure others will enjoy this story and the pending series. For me it fell flat.

This is an incredible fantasy book.

The story centres around three people:. Adrian, a prince and chosen leader of the army of his people; Lynn, a Sentinel (paladin warrior, chosen by the religious leaders to defend the faith), and Nasha, a hunter and "clansman" from the villages outside the Domain walls.

All three, distinct, separate characters are facing a Madness, turning this story from a standard high fantasy to a high fantasy zombie tale.

Its a well written tale, that drops the reader straight into the story, and the world building is developed as the rake itself unfolds. While it was initially slow to start the pace quickly ramps up.


Im looking forward to Book 2, when all the pieces come together!

~Many thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~

A promising story with interesting characters and good world building. It promises to be an epic fantasy series. The story was slow to start and it took me quite some time to become invested. One of those books told from several characters points of view; I was disappointed they never crossed paths. However, the second book has a great deal of promise as the characters come together and the story builds.

Meh, I didn’t really like this one. This is a big, epic fantasy that honestly just tries too hard. There are 3 different story lines that are completely disparate (2 main characters almost cross, but they don’t). Each is so different that it is hard to keep engaged in each when switching. Plus the characters are unappealing. All of them are kind of whiny and just uninspiring. As I looked at a few other reviews on this book, one mentioned that nothing was explained and that is very true. While I don’t like books explaining everything to me, you got to give me something to work from. I don’t plan on continuing this series.

A refreshing and novel concept for a story. It was a bit difficult to start, as certain aspects of the world are to explained right away, but it’s worth it.

This was a book full of chances to reexamine how we see politics, religion, and magic. What are each of them? How do they work together? How do they fight one another? There is much to be learned here. I eagerly await the next lesson.

I liked this book a lot more than I expected I would. I'm not sure what gave me the low expectations, maybe that the marketing for it seemed a bit slick, it is a debut novel from an unknown author, and the jacket blurb is pretty generic and vague. However, Thiago Abdalla is a very good writer, despite writing in English with that not seeming to be his native language. The story had good pacing, great character development, a solid plot, and decent worldbuilding. The story follows three likable protagonists, only two of whom have their stories intersect towards the end. The third, Nasha, my favorite character, has a seemingly disconnected adventure skirting the borders of the other two. Processing emotions is a strong theme. Nasha is sensitive to other's emotions, and struggles to not be overwhelmed. She is a fierce, thoughtful, completely bad-ass heroine. Adrian lives in a culture where emotional display is deeply taboo, particularly grief upon death of a loved one, and struggles to hide his grief over his wife's death. This leads to him being singularly focused on preserving her dead body, which felt obsessive and not that admirable. Lynn, a warrior/priest, is caught in a self punishing internal struggle. When she is forced out of her self imposed stasis, she emerges as a very strong and admirable leader. The story doesn't quite tie up the loose ends, and has the feeling of the first in a planned long series. The ultimate "bad guy" was a bit predictable, and the difference in technological advancements of various cultures very pronounced, but these didn't detract from my enjoyment in the storytelling. This is a promising start to a potentially long series, and I'll be watching for the next one!

PS - NetGalley is "Unable to find book with ISBN "9781957237008" on Goodreads."

Book Review: A Touch Of Light: The Ashes Of Avarin: Book One
Sue Cook

“Truth is never popular. People are always asking for it, but it’s never what they want. Not really.” Lynn, the Sentinel

A Touch Of Light by Thiago Abdalla explores this quote as you traverse an entire land, rich in lore and belief.

The continent of Immeria is divided into different areas, but all are part of The Domain. The Domain is governed by the belief and laws of the Seraph. Death was not to be spoken of, and only few were chosen to be worthy of the Promised Dawn. The rest are reduced to ashes.

The book begins with Prince Jovu’s death. Judged unworthy, his body was cremated. Prince Adrian was not pleased that he had to act as though his brother had never existed. The dead were not to be spoken of or mourned outwardly. When Prince Adrian was chosen to assume Prince Jovu’s duties, his new status did not sit well with either he or the King; but blood always holds the strongest ties. Belief in the Seraph is truth.

At the same time, a blood-borne pathogen is sweeping through The Domain, causing a madness of sorts. If tainted blood touches you, you are infected — the virus must be avoided at all costs.

I absolutely loved this book. The words and descriptions were like poetry, giving the characters a sense of gentleness and civility. However something might appear to the outside world, looks can be deceiving;that is the premise of the book. Look deeper than the surface. Find the truth. Beauty may be deadly.

A Touch of Light was exciting, moving, and never seemed to drag in its intensity. This epic fantasy artfully handled various topical subjects such as a virus, faith, and truth, and handled them in such a way that your emotions vacillated between sadness, anger and jubilation.

As I was reading this book, a stanza from Jesus Christ, Superstar, played in the back of my head. “What is truth? It is a changing law. We both have truths, are mine the same as yours?” This theme runs throughout the book as well, where each character must deal with their own ideas of truth.

The characters, even the ancillary players, came alive on the pages. It was beautiful, horrible, deadly, life affirming, and didn’t shy away from asking the tough questions. That is the kind of epic fantasy I love to read. Bold. Sweeping. Hard-hitting!

Although at first the amount of characters was daunting, I became invested with each of them very quickly. I cared what happened to them to the extent of trying to flip ahead to see what the resolution was at the end of the chapter. (Thank you, Kindle, for keeping me in line.)

I can’t praise this book enough, and I highly recommend it for anyone into Lord Of The Rings-esque fantasy. My only question is, when will book two be available?

A Touch of Light is Thiago Abdalla’s debut release, a self-published epic fantasy. It’s book one in the Ashes of Avarin series, and when you consider that Avarin is the name of this fantasy world, that immediately lends a sense of intrigue to the title.

A strange plague is spreading throughout the various lands of Avarin, leading to a feral sort of madness in those it touches. In The Domain, life is worshipped and those who die are not to be mourned. The unworthy are burned while those who are considered worthy by the Seraph Faith are preserved to be resurrected in the Promised Dawn, when the Seraph is prophesised to return.

Meanwhile, in the clanlands, death is natural, it’s part of the circle of life and a return to the earth is built into their beliefs. Two of our three POV characters give us a lot of insight into these two opposing views.

Adrian is a son of the king who finds himself involved in a war against this plague that threatens to bring down the entire domain. Nasha is a hunter looking for acceptance within the Ronar clan. She has a terrible curse that could be a gift, if only she could keep it under control.

My personal favourite though, was the third POV character. Lynn is a sentinel, and the special powers linked to her role are really interesting.

Each sentinel is linked to a griffon, and although we don’t see enough of these creatures, when we do it’s pretty cool. Lynn is able to draw strength from her griffon, which makes her a bit overpowered, but certainly not invincible.

In terms of the world, we see a few different countries and you can sense a distance between the places we visit that tells us that this is quite a vast world. We also hear about places that sound like they will add a really interesting element to future instalments.

Overall, this is a good book. I liked it, but I did want more from it. I’ll happily recommend it, and I look forward to reading book two when it comes out.

I was given an eARC in an exchange for an honest review.

This is the debut novel of Thiago Abdalla. The author has been a detailed world with many different cultures and views of death. The story is told from the point of view of 3 main characters who seem to have nothing in common. The main character tends to switch from chapter to chapter which I found distracting and felt that it made the story hard to follow. I kept losing interest in the book and struggled to finish it

I was able to read "A Touch of Light" by Thiago Abdalla as a reviewer through NetGalley. This is the first in a series. It takes place in a fantasy world where the religious beliefs are controlling things in the peoples every day lives. The book focuses on three main characters and it took me a bit to start following the story line, but eventually everything started to make sense. I look forward to reading more by this author.

I received this book as an ARC and this is my review. This fantasy goes way beyond the realm of the imagination and pulled me along with it! The characters are vivid and totally flawed and the battles are realistic and deadly. I totally recommend this story to readers who enjoy an amazing journey through a fantastic land filled with strife and turmoil.

Just finished TODAY (10/01) on release day so I am typing up my review which I'll update here, and will share the link to my blog review which will be posted at FanFiAddict! I will give a quick few thoughts. I loved it! I was hooked from the very beginning. I love stories with religion and fantasy overlapping and this book will deliver that. The povs were all uniquely different. I found that I greatly enjoyed Adrian's pov the most! The way their stories were told made for an intense and enjoyable read, albeit dark at times! I was on the edge many times, waiting to see what would happen.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Did not influence my review.

A great debut novel from Thiago Abdalla. This high fantasy was full of political intrigue. the world building is excellent and the three main characters were really fleshed out. I was impressed by the cultural aspects of the world building as well. I am invested enough to read the second book as there were so many things I feel are to come.

4.5 Stars!

A really fascinating concept filled with violent, exciting combat, betrayal, intrigue, and danger. Follow Adrian, Lynn, and Nasha as they try and discover what blight is affecting the continent of Avalin. This is an outstanding debut and I can't wait to read the next one.

Full video review linked below:

I do have to say that I had quite a bit of trouble getting into this story. It felt very confusing at the start. I enjoy books with multiple points of view, but in the beginning, this one was hard to follow. I had trouble connecting the characters and where they existed in this world. That said, the farther I got into the story, the more it drew me in. I think I enjoyed reading Lynn's sections the most. I am curious to see where this fantasy world goes next.

This book had a very slow start and was hard to get into. Overall it was a good book, just not something that I loved.

This book is epic. It is high fantasy, with a fabulous world, and much magic with esoteric limits. I love it.

The three protagonists, Adrian the second son of the ruler of the Domain, Nasha, a newly received clansman, and Lynn a failing Sentinel are compelling characters. The world is ruled by power, underpinned by religion, with opposing belief systems. There are zombie like creatures, as threats, political intrigue, old and new alliances - so much to explore.

Each protagonist is based in a different belief system which is well realized and complex but believable. The three different perspectives add a lot to the story. The fight and battle scenes are visceral and detailed, but perhaps not for the faint hearted.

World building is excellent and promising. This is a series to anticipate.and I am looking forward to the next instalment of this complex, detailed and intriguing series.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #ATouchOfLight

In his debut, Thiago Abdalla spins the magnificent fantasy world of Avarin, full of political and religious strife. It is a land where the dead are seen as unclean and never to be mentioned. It is a land on the brink of war to fight the Madness that threatens to unleash evil amongst the clans and the Domain. It is a land that is facing: death.

A little slow to get into the meat of the story, it quickly picks up and you are thrown into the lives of the three main characters: Prince Adrian, Nasha, and Lynn the warrior. Their character development was fantastic. You really feel their struggles and fights against the death that is spreading. There are a whole other cast of characters, so many it is hard to wrap your mind around them, but I am hoping that with the continuing saga, they will become old hat and beloved or hated as they are intended to be.

Stay tuned...Abdalla looks to be another epic fantasy author that many will love for years to come!

Thank you to The Alterian Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.