The Dragon's Library

Between Two Worlds

Between Two Worlds is the debut book by Cheyenne van Langevelde, also known as CelticWarriorQueen17 on Wattpad.  

Enid hates the Romans who enslaved her. Broken-hearted over the life she lost in Britain, she vows to bury her name and her past where the Redcrests can never reach it. As years of servitude pass, bitter resignation replaces her longing to return home.

Then an unlikely friendship with a fellow outcast raises Enid out of her isolation, bringing both hope for the future and questions about the confusing God of the Christiani. Yet memories of her childhood haunt her, urging her to cling to her old identity, while the barriers of Roman society remain in the way of her deepest dreams. The peace she thought she made with the past is crumbling.

But time is running out for Enid and those she loves. Danger threatens the household she serves as persecution stalks her few friends. She must decide if risking it all for the one she loves is worth giving up the world she knows.

Even if it is a choice between life and death.

Short Review: Two and a half stars rounded up. Enjoyable historical tale of forgiveness and love, but the distance of the voice made it hard for me to be fully immersed in the story.

Full Review:

Between Two Worlds follows Enid, a young Briton of the tribe Iceni, once ruled by the great queen Boudica. Enid is captured by the Redcrests (Romans) at a young age and made into a slave for Aurelis household. While there, she meets the grandson of Boudica, a half-Roman, half-Briton soldier for Rome. With the help of him and others, she may just learn how to find where she belongs.

I'll start this review off by admitting I'm not the biggest Historical Fiction reader. I honestly probably would not have picked this up if it was not by a good friend of mine, though I must admit, I'm happy I'm not completely surrounded by those who only write Fantasy (even if it is best genre VwV). But with that in mind, I'm probably not the best person to look to when trying to figure out specifically if this book is a good Historical one to pick up.

Just from a Historical fiction standpoint, though, I'm thinking it does very well. It shows that a lot of research was put into things, and it definitely felt like it was portraying Roman and Briton cultures well.

I will admit, though the Boudicca having a second daughter who bore a son story line was interesting, it didn't feel like enough was done with it to really make the alternative history needed? Not saying I don't see the bits it added, like having Lucius and Enid share similar bonds to the same tribe, but it didn't have enough weight to me? Like, it could have been any other Iceni taken captive and cared for by Lucius's father?

This may also though be in part because of my second point: I went into this story completely expecting the wrong thing. For some reason, when I picked this book up, I thought it was going tbe dual PoV. Don't ask me what got that into my head, but it was there, so I was admittedly expecting more from Lucius's side overall.

But Enid's journey was still enjoyable. She faced a lot of struggles, many of which came from within as the story progressed. She was shown as lost mentally/emotionally very well. There was just something nice getting to see realistically how mental/emotional struggles affect our physical health and mood. I think that's one thing that was nailed very well. Enid had many instances of mental tension, and the effects of those situations showed the many different way mental/emotional tension just messes with us as people, from being really moody to physically sick.

Seeing Christianity's introduction to Rome was also very intriguing. It wasn't such a central focus that those reading this who aren't Christians would have hated it, but it was put in with enough love and care that those reading it who are Christians would have felt truly uplifted and reminded of God's peace through it. Also, the most brutal scene was caused by the Christani aspect of the book, and that scene was my favorite, mostly because of the pure gall to go through with it. So yeah, fun times.

The characters were all dimensional in the sense that they had their personalities and their flaws. Some of the flaws made me want to wring their necks, like Aurelie's complete lack of understanding for Enid's struggle as a kidnapped slave, but they were flaws that were fitting in the end given upbringing and times. So her neck shall be saved this time.

So the plot was nice despite not being at all what I expected. Characters were nice. So why the 2 ½ stars?

Well, quite simply... I struggled heavily to get invested, and it wasn't just because of it being a genre out of my usual bubble. The writing itself was just very... distant? There were a lot of little things that pricked at me, and I think all of them come back to how distant the narrative felt. The emotions never hit as hard as they felt like they were meant to, and I never felt quite as connected to the characters as I wanted to. I found myself frustrated with Enid at times with how passive she was with her feelings of servitude, not because the feelings weren't potentially how her feelings would have gone, but because experiencing the feelings was so distant that it felt two dimensional.

Considering how much this novel is meant to follow Enid and her mental/emotional journey at discovering who she is when she feels pulled apart between these two worlds, the struggle with distance definitely made it harder to invest in this book. So overall, it did make it harder to judge the book and how it was doing because its central base of Enid's character was shakey due to the writing style.

However, I could be wrong. That could just be something of older writing styles that has stuck with historical fiction, because I used to have this exact same problem with a lot of older forms of fiction. So perhaps there is just that friction between older writing styles and my more modern preferences. I did preface this with me not really being the target audience.

So if you're wanting a better recommendation for this book, I suggest looking at the other reviews done that may be from people more knowledgeable about this genre. Sound like a good idea? Good xD

Love ya, Chey, and really, congrats on the book. We both just knew this wouldn't fully be my kind of thing U^.^