Of Pens and Swords

A beautiful story about resilience, growing up and fighting for your dreams. It is appealing to adults too, with a lot of lessons to learn. A thumb up for the cover and the ellegant chapter heads illustrations

A very enjoyable read. Well written. Good strong characters who I could relate with.

*I received digital copy from publisher through Netgalley, in exchange of honest review*

My emotions are everywhere right now, at that unexpected turn of events towards the end. I did not see that coming, how could I? But I was hoping that at end it would all turn out, but of course that wasn’t the case. Just when I started to love character too. When I came across OF PENS & SWORDS it looked pretty interesting but I had no idea how much I would love it, and the characters, especially the characters. Out of everyone Cyra and later on Christine were my favorites, there were so much fun to read about, especially Cyra. I loved fact that this was about a girl with one hand that wants to go fencing in Olympics, it’s different from what I usually read when it comes to Olympics and I loved Cyra from start, how she wouldn’t stop no matter what the challenge was, she still wasn’t about to give up her dream. That takes a lot, especially considering her challenges and even when it felt like her dream was about to fall apart, she kept on going. She was tough and only having one arm didn’t stop her. Not everyone can do what she did, especially after what she went through at young age. I love how supportive her mom is, it reminds me a lot of my mom when it comes to my writing. All through the novel I was rooting for Cyra to let her dream come true and I wanted to see if it would.

Christine was type of character that you disliked at first, but as the book progressed your view of her changed. The bond that Christine and Cyra ended up having was unexpected; even I didn’t see that coming. Considering what Christine made her do, knowing well how she felt about Rochan, having her write all those letters. I do believe that writing all those letters, and Cyra helping Christine while she was practicing her ballet, that’s what bonded them at them end. I saw them becoming friends even before they did. I knew that Christine cared about Cyra, when she came to Christine’s house after she was sure that her dreams of going into Olympics was crushed and she was there to comfort her. I got admit I did cry when she told her story about what happened to her arm, I have been wondering about that from the start. I was actually smiling when Christine told Cyra to tell Rohan the truth, that she couldn’t go through anymore because she could tell how much she loved him. If that’s not true friendship, I don’t know what is. Of course what happened after was a complete disaster. Poor Christine. Poor Cyra. I found myself crying along with Cyra.

I saw how much Cyra cared about Rohan from the start. Those letters, even thought she wrote them for Christine, she wrote those from her heart. I wondered how long it would take Rohan to figure out that it wasn’t Christine that wrote them. Once he confessed to her about it, I wondered if he knew since the bathroom scene and if he did, why wasn’t he the one to tell her? I wondered if he didn’t tell because of Christine or because he wanted for her to come to him. I wondered about the title OF PENS AND SWORDS from the start, well the swords made sense but Pens, but as I read the book, it made sense, the letters that Cyra wrote to Rohan. Of course I love the cover, it’s beautiful and pretty much tells Cyra’s journey. OF PENS & SWORDS is beautifully written story about love, friendship and reaching for your dreams. I couldn’t get enough of it, and even after reaching the end, I kept thinking about it.

A masterpiece.

*thank you Curiosity Quills and Netgalley*

As with most books from Curiosity Quills, Of Pens and Swords is an original look at the coming of age story. Cyra wants to go to the Olympics, she wants to win a gold medal for fencing, she also wants Rochan to notice her, and all of this needs to happen soon. Cyra only has one hand, but she has mastered the art of the foil and would love the coveted spot on the Olympics team, She also wants the boy of her dreams to notice she exists,

There are a few issues in this books. Most of the reviewers have pointed them out so besides the fact, I wish Cyra would have grown a little from her adventure, I really did enjoy the story, The fencing was accurate and well written, though I found myself wishing for more. Cyra felt a little one dimensional and I found a couple places where she could have been developed more.

Still, over all, the books had merit and I would read more from this author.

This was a very interesting book and the characters were so amazing!

This is an excellent book for teens and even younger readers.

Cyra feels out of place. She's on the outside looking at her school.

But that's ok. Because she has a dream. Her passion is fencing and she's determined to rise in the ranks and one day represent the US at the Olympics.

And she's got the natural skill to work with.

Unfortunately as with any sport, cost of gear and lessons is not cheap and Cyra and her mother do their best to find a way.

Oh by the way, Cyra has no right hand.

What makes this an excellent book is how Cyra's identity isn't wrapped up in her missing hand. In fact, it's just something that is for her. She's long since adapted and transcended the physical limitations. To the point where she has an European car which means the gear shift is on the left!

BUT.... people can't look past it. And they keep trying to define her as a disabled person. Instead of a person with a disability. This book really drives home the difference between the two.

I especially enjoyed this book because I was born deaf. Fortunately it's an invisible disability and I was raised to be oral deaf. That plus endless upon endless hours of speech therapy, led me to transcend it enough that I pass as hearing not that I try to. I simply forget as does everyone in my life.

One of my favorite memories to share is the horrified expressions on more than one of my high school teachers. At the end of the year, they'd look at me, and I could see it in their face: "OH NO!! She's DEAF! I forgot! DID I mess up and do her any disservice?" Even now I get a chuckle thinking about it. Of course I always reassured them that they did just fine. Because it's an automatic thing with me to speak up if I'm missing something or need an accommodation. I do it without even thinking.

So I can really relate to Cyra's frustrations. She has it worse because it's a very visible thing. Good social manners alone makes sure no one misses it. How do you shake her hand when she has no right hand to shake with??

A solid read all the way around for everyone. It might be a little too "young adult" for some adults but the underlying moral to this story is good enough not to miss.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

And an even bigger thank you to Rena Rocford for having written this book.

I really liked the detail the author went into to see Cyra's passion. She doesn't let her one handless arm get her down and doesn't do the woe is me act. The ballerina, Christine is a very fun character and Crya and her compliment each other very well. Rochan is also a good character who is passionate about his art. I really liked the way that Crya and Christine made Rochan fall in love. The title to this book was a brilliant match and I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When I read the first few pages of the book, I already started liking Cyra. Despite the loss of one hand and not having enough money, she stayed strong and worked hard to achieve her dreams.

I also developed an instant dislike towards Sara. I knew I shouldn't judge so early in the book, but I couldn't help myself. At least, in the end, her attitude didn't change, and was still as horrible as before.

Then, comes in Christine, the ballerina mentioned in the summary. Here, I made a mistake with Christine. When she first moved to Cyra's school, and treated Cyra just like how Sara treated Cyra, I judged her based on stereotype. Additionally, the summary didn't really paint Christine in a good light. I thought I won't be able to like her, because she seemed like a spoiled, rich kid.

I knew it was a bad idea when Cyra helped Christine get Rochan by writing these letters and make Christine pass it as her own. Romantic relationships that started on lies tend to backfire. However, I like that through this, Cyra and Christine started to develop a great friendship. Like Cyra, my views on Christine change after reading about how dedicated she was to ballet, and how determined she was to get into the ballet company with her own talent and hard-work. I even find it hard t o not like her because she is very sweet and likeable, despite how she acted at first.

At one point of the story, Cyra started to annoy me slightly. I think Christine genuinely thinks of Cyra as a friend, and so does Cyra, but at times, she was jealous of Christine. Because it was her words that Christine used to get Rochan. Yes, I'm annoyed at this because, hey, she agreed to do it. I can't remember if she was the one who came up with the idea, but hey, there's no use getting jealous now. I get even more annoyed with Cyra when Christine wanted to come clean but Cyra told her not to do that. But I guess that's what makes the characters humans. Humans are flawed.

One of the things that kept me hooked (pun not intended) to the story is Cyra. Or specifically, how Cyra loses her hand. As the story progress, I felt like it was one of the things that won't be explained in the book. But I was glad that it was explained, and my curiousity satisfied, even if it happened nearing the end of the book.

I was kind of expecting a bit more heartache and feeling of betrayal when Christine found out that Cyra is really in love with Rochan too, but that didn't happen. Instead, she accepted it with good grace, was the one who pushed Cyra to tell Rochan the truth about the letters, saying that Rochan is not in love with her but the poet. The heartache did come, but not in the way I imagined. That was a real plot twist right there. I cried after that, and still cried after I finished reading the book.

The only thing I didn't quite like about this book was the final chapter, the one before the epilogue. I think it would be better without the kiss between Rochan and Cyra. Or perhaps, instead of them kissing each other on the lips, Rochan kissing Cyra on the cheek would've been sweeter. I think. I mean, it hadn't been long that long since the tragedy, so it didn't seem appropriate to me.

In conclusion, reading this book was a journey. In this book, I was reminded yet again to not judge someone based on how they were painted in the summary of the book or by their wealth or stereotype. I find that the thing I love most in this book is the friendship between Cyra and Christine. It started out with Cyra being just a tutor, but ended up with them liking each other as a friend. A good friend even. Cyra ended up telling Christine about her past, about how she lost her hand, and Christine helped Cyra when she felt like she was about to give up on her dreams of going to the Olympics.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it to everyone, especially those who wants to read about a good book with friendship that can make you cry.